Saturday, February 25, 2017

Rusty Puppy -- Joe R. Lansdale

Hap and Leonard are back in another East Texas crime novel in which Joe Lansdale blends humor and grim events as skilfully as ever.  Hap and Leonard seem to attract trouble, and this time when they're hired to look into the death of the son of the woman to lives across the street from the detective agency where they work, things take a real turn for the dark and dangerous side.  They also spend a heck of a lot more money working on the case than they get paid.

The woman suspects that the police might be involved in her son's killing, and Hap and Leonard discover themselves involved with what might be the most corrupt police department in all of East Texas.  One of the members of the department is an old enemy of Leonard's, which leads to even more trouble.  

As usual, it's the characters and the dialogue that make a Lansdale novel special, and this one introduces Reba, a young girl whom Leonard describes as a 400-year-old vampire.  I suspect she's going to be back in a future book or two.  There are a couple of big martial arts battles, and plenty of sex and cussin'.  I suspect that everyone who reads this blog is already familiar with Lansdale's work, but if you're not, it's time to find out what you're missing.  Highly recommended.

2 comments:

Steve Oerkfitz said...

Just finished it. I've read all the Hap & Leonard books and you can't go wrong with any of them

Matthew said...

I just finished A Bone Dead Sadness a mystery story featuring the duos boss Marvin Hansen during a flight on my tablet. Nothing like reading about East Texas on a flight to Japan.