My great grandfather immigrated from Norway, joined the United States army in New Orleans, fought in the Mexican-American War, and was discharged from Fort Martin Scott, in Fredericksburg, just down the road from my house in Johnson City, Texas. And that is how I came to read Mike Blakely’s A Sinister Splendor, a fine historical novel about the Mexican-American War.

Of course, military history from that period mostly focused on the officers and this book does as well. But there are enlisted men in the book, with no mention of my relative, and the story is fast past, moves well, and is worth a second read which is one of the ways I know I liked a book. I tend to speed read or read speedily which means I miss a lot and sometimes need a second go at a book. This one will get it. It deserves it.