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: Coming of Age in America
Review: Joe Lansdale, who started his career as a horror writer, is now best known for his hard-biting, hard-edged and very dark mystery and thrillers. The last few years has a offered a softer version of Lansdale who, although still writing mysteries, has decided to deal more with the pains and fears of growing up. A Fine Dark Line is another addition to this lot and, although it is genuine Lansdale, the whole still left me a bit disappointed. This one felt more like the outline for a greater novel than anything else.

Stanley is a thirteen year old boy who, during the summer of 1958, moves with his family to a new town. His father has bought the town's drive-in as a family business and that's where Stan will see himself live with his parents and sister. Soon enough, he uncovers a box full of old letters, which will lead him to discover a mystery that has just been waiting to be unearthed.

The mystery deals with a couple of young girls who were killed nearly thirty years ago. Their deaths are still unresolved and Stanley, with the help of his sister and the old projectionist, decides to figure things out by himself.

Since the book is set in the 50s it will, of course, deal with sexuality, with the black revolution and with movies of the era. Lansdale tries to deal with too much in too little time. There are great echoes of To Kill a Mockingbird in this one (even a Boo Radley-like character appears in A Fine Dark Line), which just shows the kind of thing Lansdale was striving to achieve. The book is barely 300 pages long and yet, it has more to deal with than most books twice its size. It really saddens me to say that this one feels more like an outline Lansdale didn't feel he had to courage to see through.

I still enjoyed reading A Fine Dark Line. The book has great characters and some very chilling situation. But the whole thing left me thirsting for more. This is the rare case where the story could have used a little more flesh on its skeleton. As it stands, A Fine Dark Line is an average book by an author capable of much better (like his great book The Bottoms, one of the best mystery to ever see print).

Rating:
Summary: Champion Joe has done it again
Review: While this book is very good and very well written, it almost feels like the family from the Bottoms picked up and moved to a drive-in. Don't get me wrong there are big differences between the families, but this is another coming of age story by Champion Joe that involves gruesome murders.

I guess you could call this a sequel in tone to the Bottoms. Once again our hero is a young lad spending his time investigating a couple of grisly murders. What sets this book apart from the Bottoms is that this family is a little more affluent, and live in a nicer town. Also aside from the basic premise of a young man solving murders the stories and characters are completely different.

I enjoyed the fact that the father in A Fine Dark Line is not a perfect man. He has a temper that can go off at any second. He has no qualms about "slapping a teenager smart," or beating on a man who abuses both Stanley's and his own family.

I liked that we actually witnessed the hero, Stanley Jr., getting smarter as the book progressed. I felt the writing style got a little better as the book went on, and since it was written in the first person from Stanley Jr.'s point-of-view, I thought the writing style reflected the protagonist getting smarter.

My one complaint is that this book lacked much of that famous Lansdale dialog. You know the kind. The dialog scenes that would have you belly laughing. Those kinds of dialog.

To be kind, there is a great dialog near the end of the book between Stanley Jr. and one of his family's tormentors. I won't say any more.

"The worm has spoken."