Lansdale lets loose like never before, in a rip-roaring adventure equal parts True Grit and Stand by Me – – the perfect introduction to an acclaimed writer whose work has been called “as funny and frightening as anything that could have been dreamed up by the Brothers Grimm - or Mark Twain” ( New York Times Book Review). In The Thicket, award-winning novelist Joe R. But as Jack’s about to find out, blood and redemption rule supreme. Oil wells spurt liquid money from the ground. In the throes of being civilized, East Texas is still a wild, feral place. But the best he can come up with is a charismatic, bounty-hunting dwarf named Shorty, a grave-digging son of an ex-slave named Eustace, and a street-smart woman-for-hire named Jimmie Sue who’s come into some very intimate knowledge about the bandits (and a few members of Jack’s extended family to boot).

With no elders left for miles, Jack must grow up fast and enlist a band of heroes the likes of which has never been seen if his sister stands any chance at survival. Then catastrophe strikes on the way to their uncle’s farm, when a traveling group of bank-robbing bandits murder Jack’s grandfather and kidnap his sister. His parents have just succumbed to the smallpox epidemic sweeping turn-of-the-century East Texas - orphaning him and his younger sister, Lula. His grandmother was killed in a farm accident when he was barely five years old. Jack Parker thought he’d already seen his fair share of tragedy.

Love and vengeance at the dark dawn of the East Texas oil boom from Joe Lansdale, “a true American original” (Joe Hill, author of Heart-Shaped Box).

The thicket by joe r lansdale