In a career filled with peaks, A Fine Dark Line may just be the high point for Joe R. Lansdale, author of the coming-of-age classic (and winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel) The Bottoms, suspense novels Cold in July, Mucho Mojo, and Captains Outrageous, and many others.

In A Fine Dark Line, follow hisownself to 1958, to a young boy who lives with his family in a drive-in movie theater they run, a humble but proud situation which will be threatened by a crime which occurred years ago.

The novel begins simply enough...

My name is Stanley Mitchell, Jr., and I'll write down what I recall.

This all happened in a place called Dewmont.

... and builds to a terrifying climax in which the past may be dead, but reaches out to the present.