Sunset and Sawdust

By: Joe R. Lansdale

Narrated by: Deborah Marlowe

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.

Critic reviews

“[Sunset and Sawdust is] filled with turns and twists, nastiness, broad humor, moments of grace. . . . Lansdale is a storyteller in the great American tradition.” –The Boston Globe

“A wonderfully nasty piece of work [that] inspires I-can’t-believe-this laughter. . . . Very entertaining.” –Newsday

The opening . . . will grab unsuspecting readers by the lapels and pull them right in. . . . Lansdale's prose--laconic and sarcastic--is so thick with slang and regional accent that it's as tasty as a well-cured piece of beef jerky." --The Denver Post

"Lansdale is an exceptional storyteller . . . readers will feel the Texas heat and hear the story in the author's unique East Texas drawl. The vivid characterization will make readers cheer for the protagonist and boo the villain." --Rocky Mountain News

“Delivers the unexpected and bizarre that his fans have come to expect. . . . The narrative is entertaining, but Lansdale’s patently unvarnished storytelling–backwoods and brash all at once–is the real reason to crack this cover.” --Texas Monthly

"Funny, bloody and bizarre. . . . Another five-star doozy of a tale from an immensely talented and original storyteller." --The Flint Journal

“Sunset Jones is the kind of woman that men who drink in East Texas bars would call a ‘pistol.’ As a tornado rips through the sawmill camp town of Rapture, in the rousing opening scene of Joe R. Lansdale’s historical barnburner Sunset and Sawdust, Sunset finally puts a stop to her husband Pete’s bloody beatings. . . . Soon Sunset has her own posse, including a wonderful dog whose abject adoration of the fiery gunslinger pretty much sums up this reader’s feelings.” --The New York Times Book Review

"A first-rate whodunnit. . . . [Lansdale] knows how to tell a story." --The Globe and Mail (Toronto)

“Sly, easy-paced and so comfortable in its setting that it becomes almost seductive. This is what good storytelling is all about.” --Arizona Republic

"Lansdale can catch that meandering East Texas twang in his writing, but just as quickly he can tighten the plot and our stomachs with a turn of phrase. . . . Lansdale gives us both atmosphere and action." --Winston-Salem Journal

"Surrealistic. . . . Unpredictable. . . . A darker kind of storytelling." --Pittsburg Tribune-Review

Good Story, Lame Reader

I would give it 5 stars if not for the reader. Her style is much better suited to children's books. Every sentece was delivered in a slow, deliberate voice as if reading to children, and when characters were conversing, each stament she read, her voice inflected up as if the statments where questions - much the way a 5 or 6 y.o. speaks when nervously telling a story. Or if you've seen American Pie "one time, at band camp..." It was exactly like that.

If you can get past the reader, the story itself is great.

Not Hap and Leonard

I'm just beginning to discover Mr. Lansdale's novels. I enjoyed the Hap-and-Leonard novels, because of their humor. "Sunset and Sawdust" emerges from a different wellspring of Mr. Lansdale's imagination -- a more serious and sober wellspring -- which doesn't provide the laughs that Hap and Leonard elicit. "Sunset and Sawdust" takes place during the Great Depression, among people enduring hard times. The story kept me wondering, "Could this have really happened, even during the Depression?" Having not lived through the Depression, and not having studied about it much, I don't know; but some of the events in "Sunset and Sawdust" strained my credibility a bit. I don't mind when a funny story strains my credibility; but when a serious story does so, it troubles me. On the other hand, the reader, Deborah Marlow, does a wonderful job narrating this audiobook ... to the extent that, in my opinion, she rescues it. She has a beautiful voice which she can command into a wide variety of characters. I would recommend this audiobook to anyone who has an interest in the Great Depression, feminism, or east Texas hardscrabble folk.

Couldn't listen anymore

Maybe I didn't give it enough time, but I just couldn't listen to any more. I'm not usually thin skinned, but this one was just too... crass... for me. I'm going to blame both the writing and the narrator. I'm giving it three stars only because I didn't finish and it doesn't seem fair to totally downgrade something I haven't see through to the end. I'll be returning this one.

Good Story and Book with Gnawing Drawling Narrator

I'm not sure why two of Lansdale's novels (non-Happ and Leonard) rated such poor narrators.

The story is pretty good. I listened to this one after all the Happ and Leonard books and it was a relief from his formulaic approach in the Happ and Leonard books.

This is the first in a two part series about "Camp Rapture", a town / settlement in East Texas. There is no need to take them in order as they are virtually unrelated.

I'm not much of a fan of female narrators because there are so few good ones, so there may be a bias here, but listen to a sample first to make sure you can stand her droning slow and irritating voice.

Overall, I recommend the story, just be cautious with the narrator.

Clunker

I think when the author realized what a pretty story he'd made, he couldn't keep his hands off it. He kept adding weird features and just sucked the life right out of it.