Member Reviews
For a mystery/crime thriller this was much funnier than I expected!! This is book 13 in the series and these characters have a familiarity and ease with each other that has been built over time. They felt very authentic to me and I think that will resonate with people.
Honestly at first I thought this would be a DNF. The first few chapters gave me a…eh feeling about these characters and this story. There are some jokes that I didn’t think were funny and just felt like I wasn’t the target audience for this one.
But…they really changed my mind! Those jokes end up driving the story and there are some deeper themes of internal bias. There are also some great twists and turns. This book surprised me and I enjoyed it!
Hap Collins is happily married to Brett. Leonard Pine is contemplating marriage to Pookie, a cop in LaBorde. Minnie Polson tries to hire the trio to investigate the disappearance of her daughter, Alice, but they are not interested. The next day, Minnie is dead and her house burned to the ground. Hap wakes up one night with the creepy feeling someone is in his and Brett's house. Sitting in the kitchen is Kung Fu Bobbie, a very bad man that Hap did not kill a few years back, so Bobbie feels obligated to tell Hap that he, Leonard and Brett are on a short list of people to be killed by an East Texas very, very bad man. Sure enough, as Brett, Hap and Leonard investigate Minnie's death, they end up running from assassins and watch their good friend getting murdered. They discover Minnie's daughter, Alice is dead, probably murdered by the same group who are kidnapping people and selling their organs. As always, murder and mayhem follow Hap and Leonard. However, both of them are getting older and they are beginning to realize perhaps it is time to hang up their guns and ride peacefully into the sunset. Yeah...I don't think so! Another great entry in the series. Recommended, as always.
Thanks to NetGalley for the early look at this Hap and Leonard adventure
Hap and Leonard are feeling their age; they're talking about domesticity. Old colleague Marvin Hanson gives them a lead on a case, but Brett turns it down. When the woman is then murder, our heroes seek vengeance. Then all hell breaks loose. This installment takes a while to get started, but has one zinger of a finale, with a number of old friends along for the ride. Our heroes have faced bad before, but not like the pure evil they find here. Any time spent with Hap and Leonard is a joy.
As soon as I turned to the page that announced "Chapter Six" and I knew damned well that I'd been in a completely different time and place for the past several minutes, I knew I was right back into the world of Hap and Leonard and that I'd missed them both for far too long.
There's something about what Joe Lansdale does--not just when he's writing about "the fellas," but when he's writing about anything, that brings the reader into another world so effortlessly you don't even know you've been transported. He's a magician.
The story is a bit more complicated than some of Hap and Leonard's undertakings, but it's got everything you would ever want in a detective thriller and then some. I enjoyed seeing some of the old characters come back, too. Made the book sort of a family reunion without pushing it onto me.
Overall, I have to say this is one of the most enjoyable Hap and Leonard tales I've read and I've read them all.
You can't beat Joe with a stick.
Joe Lansdale writing Hap & Leonard, it's like pulling the car into the driveway after time away from home. A sigh of relief and warm fuzzy touch of familiarity. Simply put, if you've enjoyed previous entries, you'll enjoy this one. If you've yet to dive in, Sugar on the Bones is as good a place as any, though my reader's heart demands you at least try to pick up Savage Season. Lansdale's ability to mature and age these character gracefully without sacrificing an ounce of entertaining should be studied, all these volumes in and never a dull moment. Sugar on the Bones boasts the anticipated twists, turns, and unusual detours with enough fart jokes to draw plenty of hearty laughs, enough violence to draw a wince and grimace or two, and some stakeouts with old friends. Add this one to your pile.
My first time reading Joe Lansdale and it was fun! Great humor and quirky entertainment abound with the constant action and drama in this fast-moving saga.
Thanks to NetGalley and Mulholland for the opportunity to read this ARC.
Joe Lansdale just has a way with words. And his humor always catches me by surprise. PIs Hap & Leonard are on the case again, investigating the death of a woman - a woman who they turned down for a case. Highly recommend.
Champion Mojo Storyteller Joe R. Lansdale returns to Hap and Leonard after an extended absence and delivers a fun, well-done, if not spectacular novel. This one had a wild, mysterious plot and zigged and zagged all over the place in the way the later Hap and Leonard books have done. I'll say that while this one was wasn't up to the incredibly high standards of the earlier books, a weaker Hap and Leonard story or a weaker Lansdale story all together is still much better than quite a bit of what I read on a weekly basis. It had a one-last-ride feel to it and if this is the end, it certainly was a great, fun way to go out.
Special Thanks to Mulholland Books and Netgalley for the digital ARC. This was given to me for an honest review.
This was my first introduction into the world of Hap and Leonard, and it definitely won't be my last. These two PIs are up there with Sipowicz and Simone, Briscoe and Logan, Blomkvist and Salander, Pickett and Romanowski, and Robicheaux and Purcel when it comes to great, fictional detective partners. I'll definitely be back for more.
This is a favorite series, featuring Hap & Leonard, two outrageous Texas characters who take care of business and avenge wrong-doing. Despite their differences (one is Black, one is White, one is gay, one is straight) they are really more like brothers.
Hap & Leonard don't go looking for trouble, but they can't stand to see someone up against it with no one to help. They have an eclectic group of compadres who help them out. And they have no compunction whatsoever about killing bad guys who need to be eliminated. The interaction between the two main characters is often laugh out loud funny and their banter is the best thing about the books. The characterizations are well-drawn and nicely fleshed out.
This time out they turn down a case involving a missing daughter because they don't really get along with the prospective client. But when she is murdered, they feel bad and decide they need to make things right. Then they are off and running on an adventure involving a deadly ring of organ thieves, among other things. This pair is easy to root for.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.