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    Sunset and Sawdust
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    Sunset and Sawdust
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    Sunset and Sawdust
    Audiobook (abridged)5 hours

    Sunset and Sawdust

    Published by Penguin Random House Audio

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    He has been called "hilarious . . . refreshing . . . a terrifically gifted storyteller with a sharp country-boy wit" (Washington Post Book World), and praised for his "folklorist's eye for telling detail and [his] front-porch raconteur's sense of pace" (New York Times Book Review). Now, Joe R. Landsdale gives us a fast-moving, electrifying new novel: a murder mystery set in a steamy backwater of Depression-era East Texas.
    It begins with an explosion: Sunset Jones kills her husband with a bullet to the brain. Never mind that he was raping her. Pete Jones was constable of the small sawmill town of Camp Rapture ("Camp Rupture" to the local blacks), where no woman, least of all Pete's, refuses her husband what he wants.

    So most everyone is surprised and angry when, thanks to the unexpected understanding of her mother-in-law-three-quarter owner of the mill-Sunset is named the new constable. And they're even more surprised when she dares to take the job seriously: beginning an investigation into the murder of a woman and an unborn baby whose oil-drenched bodies are discovered buried on land belonging to the only black landowner in town. Yet no one is more surprised than Sunset herself when the murders lead her-through a labyrinth of greed, corruption, and unspeakable malice-not only to the shocking conclusion of the case, but to a well of inner strength she never knew she had.

    Landsdale brings the thick backwoods and swamps of East Texas vividly to life, and he paints a powerfully evocative picture of a time when Jim Crow and the Klan ruled virtually unopposed, when the oil boom was rolling into and over Texas, when any woman who didn't know her place was considered a threat and a target. In Sunset, he gives us a woman who defies all expectations, wrestling a different place for herself with spirit and spit, cunning and courage. And in Sunset and Sawdust he gives us a wildly energetic novel-galvanizing from first to last.


    From the Hardcover edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateMar 16, 2004
    ISBN9780739311301
    Unavailable
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    Reviews for Sunset and Sawdust

    3.5/5

    116 ratings6 reviews

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      This is a dang fine read! Sunset is one heck of a woman, and her story, even the hard parts, make for a good book! I'm a Lansdale fan, but I grabbed this one after I saw it in a recent "Punisher" graphic novel that I had read (a character was reading it!). And I'm sure glad that I did! This book reads like a western, though I believe it is set in the 1930's in a mill town in Texas. There are a lot of tough men in here - Hillbilly, Clyde, Two (a total freak!!!), Bull, and Lee - but Sunset may be the toughest of them all! She kicks ass and takes names! I'd like to think that somehow she is related to Lansdale's other characters, Hap and Leonard, like maybe their momma or something. I'd also like to read another story about her. But I'm happy with what I did read, and thankful that Mr. Lansdale put it down on paper!
    • 3/5
      Pretty good depression-era crime novel, but there is some pretty strong adult language and action.
      Sunset makes a good strong woman character.
    • 4/5
      REVIEWED: Sunset and SawdustWRITTEN BY: Joe R. LansdalePUBLISHED: January, 2005This is classic Lansdale: Well-written, gripping, and at times poignantly funny. Sunset Jones kills her abusive husband in self-defense in the middle of a cyclone. It’s really quite symbolic as not only her home and husband are gone, but her entire life is torn apart. From the very beginning, it’s a story of her reconstructing everything around her, including her own world views. Through the assistance of her wealthy mother-in-law, Sunset becomes Sheriff of the town, a small logging camp in the 1930’s depression. One of her first orders of business is to solve a brutal double murder that her late-husband (the former Sheriff) buried. The book effortlessly cuts across genres of mystery and thriller, horror, western and humor. Lansdale, as common for him, deals with race and gender issues and takes a progressive stance against commonly held clichés. Great read overall. The only complaint was that Lansdale built up such a pair of clever and creepy villains, but then rarely used them. He needs to write a prologue story stat, just about McBride and his half-brother, Two!Four out of Five stars
    • 4/5
      Opening with a dramatic start; our heroine, Sunset, shoots the Sheriff (her husband) in the head as he tries to rape and beat her. Events which leave Sunset, homeless, husbandless and in need of a job. So in slightly implausible circumstances through support of her powerful mother in law (who pretty much owns the only company in the town) she gets her husband’s job.. and gets thrust into a solving some brutal murders.This is a whodunit with a lot of darkness but a lot of heart. Set in Texas during the Great Depression we get drifters, low life’s, lost souls, Ku Klux Klan, hard workers and firm friends. Once I got over the implausible premise this was a fun read, the murders are secondary really to Sunset and her daughter struggling to come up for air. The highs and lows of the peripheral characters. The story twists enough to keep you entertained and Lansdale is very good at strong female characters, satisfying endings, visually arresting fights and tense drama. It's not gratuitous by any means but the darkness ramps up the tension. You never know who is going to make it.It may not be my favourite of Lansdale’s (try Edge of Dark Water) but lovers of crime and Lansdale fans will lap this up.
    • 4/5
      It's the depression era in East Texas. The Klu Klux Klan is active and many Texas men feel that they can smack around their wives and not have to answer for it.Constable Pete Jones comes home drunk and beats his wife, Sunset. Then he begins to rape her. As this is happening, she reaches for his revolver, shoots him in the head and kills him.Since the sawmill town of Camp Rapture, Texas is now without law enforcement, at a camp meeting, with the help of Sunset's mother-in-law, who is majority owner of the sawmill, Sunset is appointed the new constable, on a trial basis. She will be assisted by Clyde Fox and a new man in town who goes by the nickname, Hillbilly.Soon after Sunset is appointed, the body of a dead baby is found on the land of the only black farmer in the town. Not long after, a woman's body is found, shot and covered with oil. To the surprise of many, Sunset takes her job seriously. She tries to learn the functions of her job and identify the dead bodies. When she identifies the woman, complications arise. As this is happening, Sunset must deal with the issues of her precocious fourteen-year-old daughter and her mother-in-law.As I read the story, I was impressed with the depiction of the action. The realistic portrayal of events made it seem as if they were occuring in front of me.I felt drawn to the difficulty of life at that time and the courageousness of Sunset.
    • 5/5
      This book would be nothing but gratuitous violence if the dialog wasn’t so dammed funny.