Honky Tonk Samurai

Starred review from December 21, 2015
At the start of Edgar-winner Lansdale’s terrific 11th entry in his Hap and Leonard series (after 2013’s Dead Aim), Hap Collins and Leonard Pine, who are doing some freelance detective work, are on a stakeout in their car watching a house in an East Texas town when they notice a man abusing a dog. Leonard jumps out of the car, knocks the man to the ground, and takes the dog. An octogenarian neighbor, Lilly Buckner, who captures the incident on camera, tells them that she’ll go to the cops unless they help her find her missing granddaughter. What begins as a simple missing persons case soon turns into a full-scale assault against a group of elite hired assassins. But Hap and Leonard assemble their own team, including series regular Jim Bob Luke, a mercenary known only as Booger, and the beautiful but deadly Vanilla Ride. This shambolic, action-packed novel will ensnare new readers and satisfy devoted fans alike. With the Sundance Channel’s highly anticipated Hap and Leonard cable series coming in early 2016, this really could be Lansdale’s year. Agent: Danny Baror, Baror International.

Starred review from January 1, 2016
Hap and Leonard, the East Texas duo of two-fisted do-gooders, return in the ninth novel about their adventures. The pair has always functioned as an odd mixture of shamuses, handymen, guardian angels, and no-nonsense fixers. The comedy comes from the comfortable tension between this mismatched pair of best friends--Hap, the white, liberal former draft dodger always advocating for a reasonable solution, and Leonard, the black, gay, Republican ex-Marine. In this outing, Hap's squeeze, Brett, tired of being a nurse, takes over ownership of a local detective agency and puts her beau and his buddy to work. A crusty old woman engages them to track down the niece she hasn't seen in five years. The investigation begins with a luxury car dealership, which may be a front for a prostitution ring, and proceeds into some truly dark territory involving an inbred gang of backwoods assassins. The series has a temperamental connection to the comic thriller as practiced by the likes of Carl Hiaasen and the late masters Ross Thomas and Donald E. Westlake, what with the tangled multithread plots and the constant wiseass banter. But they're also a good deal bloodier, and events have the potential to turn out much worse than you feared. At times, Hap natters on too much with his bid for a pacifist solution; it's well-intentioned but disingenuous because there are bad people who need killing in these books. But the camaraderie and down-home scatology carry the day. Let's hope there's more of that good feeling to come in this terrific series.

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Starred review from January 1, 2016
Hap is a former 60s activist. Leonard is black, gay, and a Vietnam vet. Over nine previous novels, plus a number of shorter works, the pair finds trouble like flies find poop, to paraphrase Hap. The boys have been semi-legit the last few novels, working for Marvin Hansen, an ex-cop with a detective agency. When the novel opens, they learn that Marvin has his old job back as chief of police and wants to sell the detective agency to Hap and Leonard. Hap's lady, Brett, actually buys the agency, but Hap and Leonard will do all the detecting. Their first client is Lilly Buckner, an octogenarian who wants them to find her granddaughter, Sandy, who disappeared five years earlier without a trace. Before she vanished, Sandy went to work for a used-car sales company specializing in classic cars with some unusual options and a warranty that sometimes included blackmail. The car agency is run by a transgender former pimp named Frankie. It isn't long before Hap and Leonard learn that other folks, including a couple of hit men, met grisly ends after brushing up against Frankie and her cars. Blood, violence, bodies, and pulse-pounding terror soon follow, not necessarily in that order. This is damn fine reading from Lansdale, the 2001 Edgar winner for Best Novel for The Bottoms (2000). Don't miss it.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

September 1, 2015

PIs Hap Collins, once a tie-dyed Sixties activist, and Leonard Pine, a black, gay, Vietnam vet toughie who votes Republican, are persuaded by Lilly Buckner to look for her missing granddaughter. A Sundance TV series based on Edgar Award winner Lansdale's Hap and Leonard adventures will premiere in 2016.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2016

When nonagenarian Lilly Buckner sees Hap and Leonard beat up a man abusing his dog, she determines that they are the perfect private investigators to find her granddaughter, Sandy, who has been missing for five years. They have the same spunk and sass that she has. Lilly is unable to provide many details except that Sandy was working at a local high-end antique car dealer when she disappeared. What these two bumbling P.I.s uncover is a prostitution ring. They also encounter a biker meth lab with killers for hire and a family of professional assassins. A side story involves the appearance of 25-year-old Chance on Hap's doorstep, who claims to be the daughter Hap never knew he had. VERDICT This latest installment, following Dead Aim, features strained humor, excessively vulgar language, and a paper-thin plot. The characters, both good and bad, are devoid of any likable characteristics, even Hap as he sentimentally ponders parenthood. The attempted sharp repartee falls short in this failed attempt at a humorous mystery. However, because of the upcoming Sundance TV series, there will be reader interest. [See Prepub Alert, 8/10/15.]--Edward Goldberg, Syosset P.L., NY

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.