Edge of Dark Water

Starred review from January 16, 2012
Edgar-winner Lansdale (Devil Red) channels Mark Twain in this chillingly atmospheric stand-alone set in Depression-era East Texas. When 16-year-old Sue Ellen Wilson finds the body of her friend May Lynn Baxter in the Sabine River, weighed down by a sewing machine, she’s appalled that May Lynn’s father, “a known hot-head and knife fighter,” and uncle would rather ignore the crime than report it. Sue Ellen and her two best friends, Terry Thomas, whom everyone thinks is a sissy, and Jinx Smith, a feisty “colored” girl, soon hatch an elaborate plan: burn May Lynn’s body and take her ashes to California, since May Lynn dreamed of Hollywood. When the trio discover money squirreled away by May Lynn’s dead bank robber brother, they decide to take it with them on a raft down the Sabine en route to California. Soon they must contend with more than just the current. Lansdale’s perfect ear for regional dialogue and ability to create palpable suspense lift this above the pack. Agent: Danny Baror, Baror International.

Starred review from May 1, 2012
The author of the prize-winning Hap and Leonard series (Devil Red, 2011, etc.) charts a course that may remind you of a distaff Huck and Jim. Paddling a makeshift raft down the Sabine River, they flee East Texas, a New York minute ahead of their pursuers. There are four of them: tough-minded Sue Ellen Wilson, at 16, the stuff of natural leaders; Jinx, Sue Ellen's lifelong black friend who, if she knows anything at all, knows she's better than the bigotry she's endured all her life; angry, resentful Terry, not wholly reconciled to the fact that he's gay; and Sue Ellen's alcoholic mom Helen, who's quite forgotten how pretty she still is. Flagrantly ill-treated, consistently undervalued, they've been brought together by a murder. May Lynn Baxter, "the kind of girl that made men turn their heads and take a deep breath," is pulled from the river, her bizarre death clearly no accident. It's an event that provides the restless four with both a mission and a pretext. May Lynn always wanted to go to Hollywood. They will usher her ashes there, a task that provides them with a more or less credible reason for doing what they've been longing to do: run. The river, the raft, a stash of money coveted by bad guys, nonstop adventures that edify, terrify and deepen the bond between Sue Ellen and Jinx. A highly entertaining tour de force.

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February 1, 2012

Four teenage friends--May Lynn, Sue Ellen, Terry, and Jinx--have grown up in East Texas near the dark, snake-infested Sabine River during the Depression years of the 1930s. Only the beautiful May Lynn has thought much about the future, and her plans to run away to Hollywood die with her at the bottom of the Sabine River. Determined that May Lynn will achieve her dream, the three friends steal and cremate her body, nab money and a raft, and set out, with Sue Ellen's mother and May Lynn's remains, down the river to Gladewater, where they can catch a bus to Hollywood. Like Huck Finn, each time they leave the river, the friends experience tragedy. As they are pursued by the sheriff and Sue Ellen's uncle, who hope to reclaim the money for themselves, stalked by a crazy swamp man with intent to kill, and held hostage by an old woman, the incidents test the friends' courage and determination and teach them lessons about life and survival. VERDICT Lansdale (Devil Red) crafts a perfect noir mood using time, place, and culture for a novel that pits the pretty good against pure evil. This literary thriller will add to his fan base while sating the appetite of the already converted. [See Prepub Alert, 9/25/11.]--Thomas L. Kilpatrick, formerly with Southern Illinois Univ. Lib. at Carbondale

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2012
When May Lynn is discovered dead under suspicious circumstances, her teenage friends Sue Ellen, Jinx, and Terry vow to take her ashes from East Texas to Hollywood, where the dirt-poor May Lynn had dreamed of becoming a star. Only trouble is, the teens have stolen money in their possession, money that others want. And so begins a suspenseful story of flight and pursuit. To make matters worse, the teens are accompanied by Sue Ellen's mother, who is addicted to the cure, a patent medicine laced with alcohol. Suspense is no stranger to Edgar Awardwinning Lansdale, but he does an equally fine job of evoking the setting, 1930s East Texas, complete with its casual and stomach-churning racism (Jinx is black). Best of all, however, is Sue Ellen's uneducated narrative voice, filled with regionalisms and rich in often-comic similes (feelings rise to the surface like a dead carp; he was dead and dried up like a salesman's heart; etc.). Though sometimes a tad implausible, the dark, fast-paced story will hold readers' attention to the end.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)