Book review: The Bottoms

I know Lansdale as an author of horror stories and novels that are unflinchingly gruesome. This is a mystery with some horror elements. Narrated by 10-year-old Harry Crane and set in 1934 Texas, the story starts when Harry and his younger sister Tom get lost while hunting for squirrels. They begin to suspect they're being followed by the legendary Goat Man who haunts a local bridge, and then they find the body of a young black woman. As their father Jacob investigates, the single murder turns into a series. Is the Goat Man responsible for the killings? While Lansdale is certainly not afraid to draw distressing scenes -- the lynching scene is horrible and wrenching, and he pulls no punches about the racial attitudes of the time -- I didn't find the book to be very gory. In fact the initial scene where Harry and Tom think they're being followed, and then actually see the Goat Man, is superbly creepy and frightening, and as a whole the book was riveting; I read it in a day despite being sick with a stomach bug (which made reading the autopsy scene harder!).