Book Review: The Bottoms

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

The Bottoms     Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
Joe R. Lansdale
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Noir
Mysterious, Sep 2000, $24.95, 328 pp.

Remembering back to the days of the Great Depression in East Texas, Harry Crane recalls his father Jacob was always working. To eke out a living, Jacob toiled on the family farm, at the barbershop, or as the local constable. In 1933, thirteen year old Harry accompanied by his younger sister Thomasina finds the mutilated body of a black woman. The victim, a prostitute, was tied to a tree with barbed wire.

Jacob begins making inquiries and quickly learns form the black doctor performing a quick and dirty autopsy that this is third black whore viciously killed in eighteen months. No one but Jacob seems to care until a white hooker is murdered. In spite of Jacob's efforts to stop the hostility, a mob lynches an elderly black man, but that fails to stop a fifth death.

No one does rural noirs quite like Joe R. Lansdale does. His latest tale, THE BOTTOMS, initially sounds like a historical mystery, a period piece, or even a coming of age story. None of the above is fully accurate and yet all three describe the plot. That is the charm of the unpredictable Mr. Lansdale, who fits no filing cabinet yet consistently provides a fabulously feral novel. The story line is taut, as readers can taste the racial hatred and the impact of the Depression on the charcaters. The cast is fully developed, especially the siblings passing time by wandering the nearby woods, THE BOTTOMS. Fans who don't mind a FREEZER BURN by visiting Texas heritage of BAD CHILI need to tumble into the dark rumbling world of Mr. Lansdale.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner

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