Review: A Fine Dark Line

Dewmont, Texas, summer 1958. The jukeboxes still play rockabilly instead of the hard-driving rock 'n roll. Innocence abounds, especially in the form of 13 y.o. Stanley Mitchel, who thought that sex was a number between five and seven. He's just a happy kid, part of a close family who own and operate the town's only drive-in theater, ever since they moved there just about a year before. He hasn't made a whole bunch of friends but there is Richard, living on a farm outside town who has to do grown-up chores or else get a good whipping.

Stanley doesn't really question his life too much or satisfy his curiosity until, by accident, he stumbles across a metal box near the drive-in. Upon prying it open, he finds letters suggesting a love affair between two people, and dating back well over twenty years earlier. Soon Stanley learns they may tie into a two-decades-old tragedy where two young girls died on the same night--one, the daughter of the richest folk in town, and the other the daughter of a prostitute. How are these deaths connected? That's what Stanley soon realizes he wants to know. With the help of his headstrong sister Callie and Buster, an elderly black man who works--sometimes--at the drive-in and has a yen for mysteries, the boy learns the truth, along with many, many other things that turn him from a boy to a man.

In many ways, this is a spiritual sequel to Lansdale's Edgar winning THE BOTTOMS. Both are East Texas fables starring children who see and hear things they don't quite understand, though the reader certainly does. And both involve the children in some pretty horrific events with lots of ghost and gothic overtones. Luckily, A FINE DARK LINE doesn't pale by comparison to the earlier book, not at all. From the moment I picked up the book I could hear Stanley's East Texan drawl telling the story, and I was right into it. Although racial epithets are used somewhat often, just as often a character is feeling uncomfortable or chastising. The scene when the Mitchels attend a minstrel show and Stanley sees a black man laughing hilariously is moving and eye-opening.

In any case, I really enjoyed this book. Not only a great coming-of-age novel but a very engaging mystery as well. Look for it in a few weeks.

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Sarah - RAM

Book Review: A Fine Dark Line