I am a big admirer of Joe R. Lansdale, two-fisted fictioneer and badass bard of the horrific, and especially of his series of thriller/horror/crime novels chronicling the (mis)adventurers of Hap Collins and Leonard Pine. The last installment, Captains Outrageous, came out a long eight years ago and fans of the series have been hoping for book seven ever since.
Good news is book seven, Vanilla Ride, is due out at the end of this month. From the synopsis:
In this Texas-sized thriller, Hap Collins and Leonard Pine—best friends, freelance troublemakers, and tough guys with good intentions—find themselves in the crosshairs of the Dixie Mafia.
Hap is an East Texas smart mouth with a weakness for southern women. Leonard is a gay, black veteran pining for a lost love. They’re not the makings of your typical dynamic duo, but never underestimate the power of a shared affinity for stirring up trouble and causing mayhem. When an old friend asks Leonard to rescue his daughter from an abusive, no-good drug dealer, he gladly agrees and, of course, invites Hap along for the fun. Even though the dealer may be lowly, he is on the bottom rung of the Dixie Mafia, and when Hap and Leonard come calling, the Mafia feels a little payback is in order. Cars crash, shotguns blast, and people die, but Hap and Leonard come out on top. Unfortunately for them, now they’re facing not only jail time but also the legendary—and lethal—Vanilla Ride, who is still out to claim the price on their heads. Full of twists and turns, gunfire and gaffes, this hilarious, rip-roaring novel will have readers turning the pages faster than a Texas tornado.
Lansdale’s Hap and Leonard are great characters, larger-than-life yet always human, and their stories run the gamut from hardboiled crime, mystery, action adventure, horror, texas tall tale, and dirty joke. If you haven’t yet read the series it looks like some reprints are on the horizon, but it shouldn’t be too difficult to track down a copy of Savage Season or Mucho Mojo and give it a go.
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hey thanks for the heads up. Sounds like something I could enjoy. I’ll check Amaz…No, wait. I’ll head over to Book ‘em tomorrow and see if they have #1.
Good luck finding it at a book store — as much as I want to support local booksellers (obviously from all my blogging about it) stuff like tracking down hard to find stuff like older Lansdale novels is exactly what the internet excels at.
And if you can find only one of the later books it’s not too big a deal to start with those, as the books are pretty self-contained. Though I wouldn’t want to start too late into the series, any of the first three should do for a start (Savage Season, Mucho Mojo, and The Two Bear Mambo).
Although, with the Vintage reprints, hopefully they’ll be seen in more stores.