A Fine Dark Line

Rating:
Summary: Deeply satisfying mystery yarn
Review: It is unusual for a writer to successfully cross the boundaries between literary genres, but Joe R. Lansdale does so with ease. He's written horror stories and novels, science fiction, and mysteries. What's more, the author has won awards in different genres, from six Bram Stoker Awards for horror to the Edgar Award and the American Mystery Award. Up until a month ago, I never read a Joe Lansdale book. I heard of him over the years, always meant to pick up one of his books, but just never got around to it. The recent release and the subsequent clamor of praise for "Bubba Ho-Tep," a Lansdale short story adapted for the big screen by "Phantasm" creator Don Coscarelli, finally inspired me to sit down with a Lansdale tome or two. Surprisingly, I picked two of his mystery stories, the recent "Sunset and Sawdust" and "A Fine Dark Line." I liked the former, a whodunit set in the steamy environs of East Texas during the Depression. I also, it turns out, enjoyed the former, a whodunit set in East Texas during the late 1950s. Lansdale writes about East Texas because he knows the region like the back of his hand. It's possible the writer may well do for the Lone Star state what Stephen King did for Maine and what Bentley Little is trying to do for Arizona.

"A Fine Dark Line" stars Stanley Mitchel, Jr., a man in his late fifties recalling a series of startling events that occurred in the Summer of 1958 when he was thirteen years old and living in Dewmont, Texas. The Mitchel family was well off in Dewmont since they owned the local drive-in theater. Stanley Mitchel, Sr., the patriarch of the clan, is a no nonsense type of guy who doesn't hesitate to hand out a few slaps to keep peace in the family. For instance, when daughter Callie falls under suspicion for sleeping with the local bad boy, Chester, Stanley Mitchel makes sure the lout doesn't come around anymore. With his family and employees, the father is different; a loving, caring man who believes that his children and wife should have all the decent things in life. Although he embodies many of the racial attitudes of the day, he acquiesces to his spouse's demand to take in a black woman named Rosy Mae when domestic problems with her abusive boyfriend Bubba Joe threaten to put the woman in the local morgue. Mitchel Sr. puts up with the taciturn Buster Abbot Lighthorse Smith, an alcoholic black man who runs the projection booth at the theater. In short, the family is what you would call liberal today, but radical in 1950's Texas.

The mystery begins in earnest when Stanley Mitchel Jr., with loyal dog Nub in tow, uncovers a cache of letters in the wooded area behind the drive-in. These epistles, written back during the Second World War, detail an enigmatic relationship between two people known only as 'M' and 'J'. Intrigued, Stanley investigates the origins of these love letters and in the process uncovers several nasty secrets about the town's richest residents. Soon, Stanley joins forces with the moody Buster Smith. Together the two embark on a covert operation to discover the identities of the two letter writers, an operation that rapidly uncovers more than the two unlikely sleuths thought possible. Nothing less than murder, corruption, and several other unsavory activities come to light. A seemingly unrelated subplot involving Stanley's friend Richard and the boy's hyper religious and abusive father plays a significant role in the inevitable final showdown. During the course of the story, Stanley Mitchel, Jr. moves from childhood into adulthood as he learns how the world really works. "A Fine Dark Line" is primarily a mystery story, but it is also a coming of age story as well as a tale about changing race relations in the South.

While I have only read two Lansdale books to date, I already detect a pattern in the man's writings. First, his concerns about race permeate his books. As a child of the South during the tumultuous days of the 1960s, Lansdale must have personally witnessed many of the riots, marches, and other activities associated with the Civil Rights struggle. The author is obviously no Bull Conner or George Wallace, however. Stanley Mitchel's family's attitudes about local blacks must have been similar to the opinions held by Joe Lansdale's family. Second, the author's prose strikes all the right chords. Clean, sparse, and to the point, Lansdale wastes few words describing his characters and the atmosphere of East Texas. He advances the plot effortlessly, without any needless exposition so common amongst his more verbose colleagues. Finally, Lansdale knows how to write effective scenes, perhaps best evidenced in "A Fine Dark Line" with the chase sequence in the woods where Richard, Callie, and Stanley meet up with the ominous Bubba Joe while on a quest to discover more information about the letters. It is a scary situation while at the same time revealing several important plot elements in the space of a just a few pages.

"A Fine Dark Line" is a fine dark read. The story moves at a lightening fast pace, is humorous in spots (witness Stanley's observations about the balloons), and fleshes out even minor characters effectively. The only drawback I saw was the jacket flap, which was full of errors. For example, the flap refers to Buster Abbot Lighthorse Smith as Buster LIGHTHOUSE Smith (?) and misspells Stanley Mitchel's last name. If I were Joe Lansdale, I'd have been furious over these slipshod mistakes. "A Fine Dark Line" felt like a good place to start for me, the novice Lansdale reader. Now if I can just find a few of his horror stories, I'll go a little further.

Rating:
Summary: Coming of Age at the Dew Drop
Review: Joe Lansdale proves again he can recreate with a fine eye growing up in East Texas during the '50's. Perhaps "A Fine Dark Line" is a bit too close to his prize-winning "Bottoms," but nevertheless, this is prime Lansdale reading.

Stanley Mitchel, Jr. 13 resides in Dewton, Texas. His daddy owns the Dew Drop Drive-In movie, and their home is kind of between the screen and the concession stand, which Stanley thinks is a very good thing. The whole family, Mom ("Gal"), Daddy, and older sister Callie run the theatre. It is the summer of 1958, and as Stanley says, more things happen in that summer than have happened in his entire life. He finds a hidden trove of love letters that lead in him to a burned out plantation in the woods in back of the drive-in and discovers a young girl was burned to death in the fire. On the same night another young girl was murdered on the railroad tracks, decapitated and her head never found. Rumored ghosts abound. The remnants of the house and mill are eerily entwined with vines and saplings that have grown around and through them. Stanley decides to investigate the mystery, and gets a great deal more than he bargained for---corruption in high places, blackmail, and two psychotics: father of his best friend Richard and erstwhile boyfriend Bubba, huge and terrifying, of the family's housekeeper Rosy Mae.

The characterizations are sublime. High spirited, cheerleader-cute sister Callie is wonderfully drawn. She knows she has great powers of attraction and uses them like an inexperienced marksman with an assault rifle. Friend Richard wrenches your heart with his deprived and catastrophic home life. The family employees, Buster, the projectionist, and Rosy Mae, crackle with life, earthiness, and vibrancy. Daddy, in spite of his bad temper and propensity to fight, shines with goodness, and mother Gal is secretly in charge of everyone.

"A Fine Dark Line" is witty, terrifying and occasionally mischievous. Sometimes credibility is stretched. Even in 1958, could there be one 13-year-old boy that still believed in Santa Claus? The amount of terror and mayhem that happened on one night couldn't have happened to most people in a lifetime. But believe me, you will consider every last word right and true as you race through the pages. A book not to be missed.
-sweetmolly-Amazon Reviewer

Rating:
Summary: Lansdale has a talent and landscape that know no boundaries
Review: The arrival of A FINE DARK LINE prompts a legitimate question regarding its author, Joe R. Lansdale: is there anything this guy can't do well? My first encounter with him was THE DRIVE IN, a science fiction horror novel. This was followed by THE MAGIC WAGON --- a gothic western if you will --- and COLD IN JULY, a mystery. Then came the Batman-based CAPTURED BY THE ENGINES, TARZAN'S LOST ADVENTURE, the Jonah Hex comic book story arcs, and on and on and on...and they are all great. So with A FINE DARK LINE, we have a coming of age novel set in rural Texas in the 1950s, a time both better and worse than our own and inexorably linked to it. And, like all his other works that have preceded it, A FINE DARK LINE is his finest work to date.

A FINE DARK LINE is told through the eyes of Stanley Mitchell, a thirteen year-old boy standing on the summer cusp of adolescence, the younger of two children in a family that isn't poverty-stricken but not exactly next door neighbors to Scrooge McDuck, either. No, the Mitchells are the owners and proprietors of the only drive-in theater in Dewmont, Texas. Stanley's youth and innocence are consumed in a slow-burning maelstrom sparked by his discovery of a tin box containing a collection of troubled love letters that ultimately lead him to a burned out house, the mysterious deaths of two young women and secrets that the powers that be in Dewmont would prefer to stay buried. Stanley's unlikely ally is Buster Smith, the projectionist at the theater, an elderly black man whose attempts to drown his demons in alcohol are doomed to failure but who has a depth that only Stanley is aware of. In attempting to solve the mysteries of the deaths of the two women, Stanley exposes not only himself, but also his family and friends, to danger. A FINE DARK LINE, however, is more than a mystery story. It is, ultimately, the tale of a time not so long gone but vanished completely nonetheless. Lansdale uses the mystery as a vehicle to explore the cultural landscape, race relations and sexual mores of the 1950s. What is most remarkable here is that Lansdale is able to capture so perfectly the voice of a 13 year-old boy in that era. I suspect that, to at least some extent, it is his own, some 50 years removed. If so, it resonates within him pitch-perfectly and his translation is unerring.

With A FINE DARK LINE, Lansdale continues to expand the breadth and scope of his literary vision. One could easily come to the conclusion that his talent and landscape know no boundaries. He is a writer who has exceeded the promise of his earliest work and the expectations of his readers --- and will undoubtedly continue to do so.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub