A Fine Dark Line - Hardcover

Joe R. Lansdale

4.11

4,034 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1587244195 ISBN 13: 9781587244193

Publisher: Wheeler Publishing, 2003

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The time is the summer of 1958, the place is Dewmont, Texas. For blissfully ignorant thirteen-year-old Stanley Mitchell, the end of innocence comes with his discovery of an old trove of passionate yet troubled love letters that lead him to a long-ago house fire and the tragic deaths of two very different young women.

Stanley finds a guide and mentor in black, elderly Buster Lighthouse Smith, a retired Indian Reservation policeman who now runs the projector at the drive-in theater owned by Stanley's parents. Buster tutors Stanley on the finer points of Sherlock Holmes, the blues, and life's lost dreams. But not every buried thing stays dead. And in one terrifying night of rushing creek water and thundering rain, an arcane murderous force will rise from the past to threaten the boy -- and test the limits of Buster's strength and wisdom. In the end the old man teaches Stanley a lesson that will haunt him always.

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About the Author:

Joe R. Lansdale has written more than a dozen novels in the suspense, horror, and Western genres. He has also edited several anthologies. He has received the British Fantasy Award, the American Mystery Award, seven Bram Stoker Awards, and an Edgar Award. He lives in Nacogdoches, Texas, with his family.

From AudioFile:

If Mark Twain had written To Kill a Mockingbird or Summer of '42, it might sound something like Dick Hill's reading of A Fine Dark Line. Hill has the ear, the pitch, and the understanding to tell the story of 13-year-old Stanley Mitchell's all too fast coming-of-age in precisely the way author Joe Lansdale intended. In fact, Hill is the perfect match for Lansdale, who is no slouch when it comes to the oral storytelling tradition. Living in Dewmont, Texas, in 1958, where his parents own a drive-in theater, Stanley is completely ignorant of issues of sex, race, poverty, and violence. When he discovers a box of old love letters and journal entries near the ruins of a long-ago house fire, he unwittingly uncovers a forgotten scandal and several murders. S.E.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award � AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine-- Copyright � AudioFile, Portland, Maine

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