Bottoms, The by Joe R. Lansdale

Harry, an elderly man, tells the story of a series of events that occurred in his 11th year, when the mutilated, murdered bodies of Negro prostitutes began turning up in the county where his father was the local constable. Harry and Tom, his younger sister, find the first one. Only their father, Jacob Crane, seems to care about finding justice for the victims, who are dismissed out of hand as unimportant by the local branch of the Ku Klux Klan, which warns Jacob off any further investigations. Harry and Tom think they know who's responsible: the Goat Man, a creature who's said to lurk beneath the swinging bridge that crosses the Sabine River, where the first body was found. In fact, the Goat Man has something to do with the murders, and the secret of who he is and what he really did is the key to the unsolved slayings. But that takes second place to the artfully explicated character of Jacob and Harry's changing relationship with him in the course of the loss of his boyish innocence. This is a masterfully told story and a very good read. --Jane Adams --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.



Reader Reviews
Good Book! But thank Harper Lee too..., September 10, 2003 Reviewer: A reader from Atlanta, GA USA This was the first I have read of Joe Lansdale's books and I'd now like to read others. The plot moves very quickly (I read it in 2 nights), the characters are believable, the setting is vividly described, the dialogue some of the more realistic I have seen in books about the South. Lansdale does not gloss over any of the more disturbing aspects of race relations. At times I thought 'The Bottoms' borrowed a little too heavily from 'To Kill A Mockingbird.' If you want to see Atticus Finch fall off the wagon and lose his temper or Boo Radley in his creepiest role yet, you should check this one out. Highly recommended...I'll definitely read more by this writer.