A review by kiwi_fruit
A Fine Dark Line by Joe R. Lansdale

2.0

I loved [b:The Bottoms|102113|The Bottoms|Joe R. Lansdale|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1348765461s/102113.jpg|2038476] by the same author, which was a coming of age and mystery story, like this one, but unfortunately, [b:A Fine Dark Line|768945|A Fine Dark Line|Joe R. Lansdale|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1298643778s/768945.jpg|98465] wasn’t at the same level.
The book started well, and I enjoyed first part, when the focus was on the mystery and race, but in the second part, too many other elements were added
Spoilerthe lesbian relationship, domestic violence, sexual awakening, feminism, violence against animals, alcoholism, attempted rape and finally serial killing
which muddled the main story line and made stereotypes out of the characters. The mystery was watered down by these other story lines and for me the suspense was lost, it seems like the author was trying to pushing too many buttons, it didn’t work for me.