This 580 page historical novel was the Third Tuesday Book Club selection for January.      I missed the meeting, but My Better Half represented our household.  He read it first, and as a result, I didn’t quite finish it until this morning. It was one of those reads that had the reader holding their breath, turning pages as fast as possible. I had read Remembering Ben Clayton, an earlier Gulf Coast Read and book club selection by the same author. Described as “a genuinely moving epic,” Gates is an imagined account of the siege and fall of the Alamo, but much, much more. The author uses the POV of both American soldiers and Mexican attackers, things he has researched by reading letters and journals from both sides. The main characters, Mary Mott, a respected innkeeper and her sixteen-year-old son, Terrell; and Mrs. Mott’s love interest, Edmund McGowan, a naturalist in 1836 Texas, live through the perilous time before the battle as the Mexican army advances; during the battle, trapped in the old mission itself; and through the aftermath of the battle embodied in the Battle of San Jacinto, where the Texians won their independence from Mexico, shouting their battle cry, “Remember the Alamo!”

It is a warm, sometimes humorous, tale with cameo appearances that successfully give the reader glimpses of Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, Travis, Sam Houston and other notables of the day. Although it is a long book, it is never boring, never without action, and never fails to make the reader care about the well-drawn characters. As the critics say about the book, it is Magnificent,” ” Fabulous,” and “Riveting.”