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The darkness of Joe R. Lansdale's "A Fine Dark Line" comes not from the manufactured horror of monsters or the supernatural. Instead, Lansdale draws a detailed picture of life in a small Texas town, mixing the mundane with the true horror: the fact that life, it its convoluted twists and turns can be just as ghastly as one of the flickering movies playing out on the Mitchell family's drive-in movie screen. The year is 1958. The town: Dewmont, Texas. A town caught out of time, still lagging behind the great false-fronted prosperity of post World War II America. Stanley Mitchell, the 13-year-old protagonist, brilliantly realized by Lansdale, will soon leave childhood behind. The unearthing of a box of old love letters triggers the boy's obsession with discovering the secrets behind the long-ago deaths of two young women. Assisted by his unlikely companion, the elderly Buster Lighthouse Smith, a retired reservation cop, Stanley's investigation reveals secrets from the past that should perhaps have been left hidden. Evocative, haunting and inspired, "A Fine Dark Line" treats readers to a true taste of Texas in the late 1950s. The kind of small town, intimate in its relationships, forever frozen in attitudes shaped by history, that will live in readers' minds long after the book is shelved. Each character, no matter how incidental, sings out, marking his or her own place in the enclosed universe created by Lansdale, contributing their own unique notes to the overall symphony of plot. As a former Texan, I could not help but yearn for the pseudo-simplicity of nights cruising the DQ, while all the time recognizing the falsehood hidden behind the bright lights and pickups. If you enjoy diving into a finely-crafted novel, then pick up a copy of "A Fine Dark Line". You will not be disappointed.
Reviewed by Maria Y. Lima, January 2003
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