In Joe Lansdale's twelfth Hap and Leonard novel, the bumbling private investigators from Texas find themselves embroiled in a racially motivated murder case. Christopher Ryan Grant returns for his second outing as narrator of this series and does an excellent job emphasizing the strong friendship between "white-trash rebel" Hap and gay, black Leonard. In addition, the humor and humanity prevalent in the story receive star treatment. However, the excesses in Lansdale's writing are also acutely noticeable in the oral format: wordiness and violence being foremost among them. Nonetheless, Lansdale’s fans are sure to enjoy this latest installment, which rounds out an even dozen for the series, and it can also be appreciated by those who haven’t experienced earlier titles. J.F. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

★ 12/19/2016
The murder of Jamar Elton, a young black man, propels Edgar-winner Lansdale’s dark, moving 12th novel featuring crime fighters Hap Collins and Leonard Pine (after 2016’s Honky Tonk Samurai). A witness, recidivist criminal Timpson Weed, claims to have seen three white police officers beat Elton to death near a project house in the East Texas community of Camp Rapture. Unfortunately, Weed soon ends up dead. Aided by a motley crew, including Hap’s daughter, Chance, and Reba, who regards herself as a 400-year-old midget vampire (but is actually a tough-talking adolescent girl from the projects), Hap and Leonard follow a trail that keeps leading them to an old abandoned mill outside town, where illegal dogfights and perhaps even more sinister activities are taking place. As always, Lansdale spins a wild, rollicking yarn, but behind all the mayhem is a heartfelt tale about friendship, brotherhood, loyalty, and family. Hap and Leonard are complicated, violent men, but they display a basic humanity and decency that carries this remarkable series along. Seven-city author tour. Agent: Danny Baror, Baror International. (Feb.)

"Dark, moving . . . As always, Lansdale spins a wild, rollicking yarn, but behind all the mayhem is a heartfelt tale about friendship, brotherhood, loyalty, and family. Hap and
Leonard are complicated, violent men, but they display a basic humanity and decency that carries this remarkable series along."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"A unique mix of sly humor and horrific violence. Readers will laugh at some particularly profane smart-ass repartee and then want to cover their eyes a couple sentences later as the violence explodes. Another fine entry in a great series."—Booklist (starred review)

"The pleasure of any Hap and Leonard mystery is the yin-yang of the two heroes: white/black, straight/gay, liberal/conservative, easygoing/hair-trigger temper. Without making any brotherhood speeches, the books are rough-hewn fables of tolerance in action. Part of the reason it all goes down without any kind of 'Kumbaya' ickiness is that Lansdale writes such good smart-ass repartee. . . . This puppy tells a waggly tale the reader is happy to follow down the roughest paths."—Kirkus Reviews

"Joe R. Lansdale has a wicked way with words. Hap Collins and Leonard Pine, small-town East Texas private detectives, say the filthiest things. Some of it is good-natured banter between buddies; the rest is don't-mess-with-me trash talk. And they don't just talk dirty. They fight dirty, too. One almost feels guilty enjoying their raw, rollicking adventures. But Lansdale, an Edgar Award-winning writer from Nacogdoches, has a way of winning readers over with his deceptively elegant brand of "redneck noir."—Dallas Morning News and Ft. Worth Star Telegram

Lansdale "has a wonderfully warped way with words. In his hands, everyone can curse a blue streak and it comes out as profane poetry."—Dallas Morning News

"Lansdale has a knack for murder, though thankfully he limits that talent to the fictional adventures of crime-fighting duo Hap and Leonard."—Houston Press

In Joe Lansdale's twelfth Hap and Leonard novel, the bumbling private investigators from Texas find themselves embroiled in a racially motivated murder case. Christopher Ryan Grant returns for his second outing as narrator of this series and does an excellent job emphasizing the strong friendship between "white-trash rebel" Hap and gay, black Leonard. In addition, the humor and humanity prevalent in the story receive star treatment. However, the excesses in Lansdale's writing are also acutely noticeable in the oral format: wordiness and violence being foremost among them. Nonetheless, Lansdale’s fans are sure to enjoy this latest installment, which rounds out an even dozen for the series, and it can also be appreciated by those who haven’t experienced earlier titles. J.F. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

2016-11-22
A woman's plea to find her son's murderer sets the stage for the latest Hap and Leonard mystery.When an older black woman engages Hap and Leonard to find out who murdered her son, her plea for them to take her case ends with a bombshell: she believes that the local police are the killers. Not surprisingly, Hap and Leonard soon run afoul of the corrupt police ruling over a scruffy Texas town. But considering the two have a talent for stirring up trouble, they also incur the enmity of a group of bad-news project kids, some local drug dealers, the operators of an illegal fight club, a corrupt lawyer, and generally everyone they run into. The best of the supporting characters is named Reba, a young black girl whom Leonard refers to as a vampire midget and whose dialogue is a consistently delightful work of foulmouthed art. (Imagine Wanda Sykes in Our Gang as directed and written by Quentin Tarantino.) The pleasure of any Hap and Leonard mystery is the yin-yang of the two heroes: white/black, straight/gay, liberal/conservative, easygoing/hair-trigger temper. Without making any brotherhood speeches, the books are rough-hewn fables of tolerance in action. Part of the reason it all goes down without any kind of "Kumbaya" ickiness is that Lansdale (Honky Tonk Samurai, 2016, etc.) writes such good smart-ass repartee. He also, though, in book after book, reaches a point where he takes the violence too far and breaks faith with the reader (it was a problem in the first season of the Hap and Leonard TV series as well), including here a rape dealt out to a character we've become fond of and a final brutal fistfight that goes on for too long. Minor blemishes aside, this puppy tells a waggly tale the reader is happy to follow down the roughest paths.