Edge of Dark Water

By: Joe Lansdale

Narrated by: Angéle Masters

Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

Mark Twain meets classic Stephen King - a bold new direction for widely acclaimed Edgar Award-winner Joe R. Lansdale.

May Lynn was once a pretty girl who dreamed of becoming a Hollywood star. Now she's dead, her body dredged up from the Sabine River.

Sue Ellen, May Lynn's strong-willed teenage friend, sets out to dig up May Lynn's body, burn it to ash, and take those ashes to Hollywood to spread around. If May Lynn can't become a star, then at least her ashes will end up in the land of her dreams. Along with her friends, Terry and Jinx, and her alcoholic mother, Sue Ellen steals a raft and heads downriver to carry May Lynn's remains to Hollywood.

Only problem is, Sue Ellen has some stolen money that her enemies will do anything to get back. And what looks like a prime opportunity to escape from a worthless life will instead lead to disastrous consequences. In the end, Sue Ellen will learn a harsh lesson about just how hard growing up can be.

©2012 Joe Lansdale (P)2012 Hachette

the latest lansdale...

Any additional comments?

...is worth a listen if you don't mind a little corn with your fiction. i minded, but lansdale's writing and a superb narrator kept my attention until the very end. will keep an eye out for lansdale's next.

Excellent!

Joe Lansdale knocks it out of the park again with this very entertaining and fast moving novel. As a previous reviewer noted, it is rather like "Huckleberry Finn meets Deliverance," full of dark twists and turns. While I was not initially thrilled with the narration, I found either the narration improved considerably as time went on, or the story was so captivating it no longer bothered me.

Another great Lansdale novel

Narrator did a spectacular job. Her voice really goes with the story. Really enjoyed the Huck Finn aspects of the story. Memberable characters.

A great story with touches of Huck Finn.

Terry, Sue Ellen, and Jinx go fishing with Sue Ellen’s father and one of his friends. They think they’ve hooked a big fish, but when they pull it in, it turns out to be the corpse of their friend, May Lynn, whose body was sunk with the assistance of a sewing machine tied to her feet. The adult men think they should just push her back into the water. After all, she was known as somewhat of a tramp. But her three friends prevail. Hardly any investigation is made and her body is buried. Then Terry and Sue Ellen and Jinx decide that they will exhume May Lynn’s body, burn it to ashes in a brick kiln, and take the ashes to Hollywood to scatter, as that is where May Lynn wanted to go. But they also find out that May Lynn knows of a good deal of money which her brother helped a friend rob from a bank and it is buried. So the friends unbury the money and take it with them as well. Then Sue Ellen’s mother, who has been abused by her husband for some time, decides to go with them and leaves her husband. But May Lynn’s father knows about the buried money, and he and Sue ellen’s father, and the deputy sheriff decide to go after the kids and get the money away from them. This is sort of like a thriller with touches of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn about it. The kids and Sue Ellen’s mother go down the river to get away. The men who are chasing them enlist the aid of a crazy man known as Skunk, and Sue Ellen figures out who murdered May Lynn and her into the river with the sewing machine. This is an excellent book.

Joe Lansdale has done it again.

What an amazing author Mr.Lansdale is. I read everything he writes.
I love coming of age books and this didn’t disappoint.
Ready for another.

Another GREAT Lansdale.

Where does Edge of Dark Water rank among all the audiobooks you???ve listened to so far?

I have listened to almost 2000 just from audible alone. I cannot rank them in any order because if I like an author his or her stories cannot be compared to anyone else's story.
Lansdale writes in a way that makes me want to be a part of the story - other authors write stories that make me ever so glad I am not in the story (and not in thier heads!)
I can say this - if you don't like Lansdale's stories you would most likely be someone I found boring. And you would think that no great loss.

Lansdale Enough Said

Lansdale never disappoints and he certainly does not disappoint with EDGE OF DARK WATER. Great story, very entertaining.

Sooooo Good !

What made the experience of listening to Edge of Dark Water the most enjoyable?

This was an excellent listening experience all around. Great writing, wonderful story, excellent performance. Highly recommended !

Would you ever listen to anything by Joe Lansdale again?

Absolutely. His writing just gets better with each book. I've listened to "The Thicket", too, one of my favorites.

Have you listened to any of Angéle Masters’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

First time listening to her. I will definitely look for more with her narration.

Excellent in every way

Excellent story, compelling characters and plot, wonderfully entertaining dialogue (as ever, Mr. Lansdale). I mean, this dude can WRITE. The only thing I can say is that the narrator was so perfect for this book, so on point that I wasn’t sure what part of this audiobook I liked best, the story or the performance. Really great and so engaging. Highly, highly recommended. And I don’t like western stuff usually (not that you can really categorize this book but it is a noted genre on goodreads) but I am so hooked on this author’s ability to write. Do yourself a favor and just spend that credit. You can thank me later

Terror in east Texas

Joe Lansdale is such a fine writer, and Angéle Masters did an excellent job of bringing these characters to life.
This story is so creepy and has multiple pages that are exceedingly gross. But the way everything plays out makes it all the more frighteningly realistic and worth the "ewwwws!" I'm glad I got to know Sue Ellen, Terry and Jinx.