Edge of dark water

This novel has a fabular feel to it, with children who uncover a treasure, set out on a quest, and are pursued by a troll. That folklorish style is interesting in that the narrator is a blunt-spoken, no-nonsense East Texan. The place comes through in her voice, but there's not much else anchoring this story to a particular historical moment, because these kids live outside the kind of history we study in school or see in the first draft of newspapers. In many ways this reminded me of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (the river, the picaresque series of adventures collecting oddball fellow-travelers, pursued by a mythic, almost supernatural monster of a man. Evocative but in many ways more a collection of tall tales and adventure than a crime novel.