Devil Red
Hap Collins and Leonard Pine Series, Book 8
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- اطلاعات
- نقد و بررسی
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نقد و بررسی
January 17, 2011
In Lansdale's rollicking eighth Hap and Leonard novel (after Vanilla Ride), the East Texas crime-fighting duo, Hap Collins (white and straight) and his partner, Leonard Pine (black and gay), look into a two-year-old unsolved murder. They step into the usual hornet's nest of troubles when they spot a devil's head scrawled in blood in crime-scene photos. It's the tag of a merciless mass murderer who has tallied numerous hits across the country, and as their investigation broadens, the pair discovers that Devil Red—who could be one of the countless criminals they've cheesed off in previous capers—is now hot on their trails. Lansdale delivers his patented blend of hard-boiled mayhem and laconic humor, leavened with reflections on mortality, morality, sex, and brotherhood. There's enough seriousness to make this novel stand far apart from run-of-the-mill thrillers—and enough comedy to have readers laughing through the blood spatters.
January 15, 2011
Those charming miscreants Hap Collins and Leonard Pine are back (Vanilla Ride, 2009, etc.), minus some of the charm.
For newbies: Hap Collins is emphatically hetero, Leonard Pine unabashedly gay. Sexual preferences aside, they are close as clones, prone to refer to themselves as brothers. Currently, Hap and Leonard have time on their hands. Not unusual. The two are chronically under-employed, which might explain the inordinate amount of mischief and mayhem they've been responsible for over the course of seven previous novels. Soon they are given a mission to accomplish, assigned to them by old friend Marvin Hanson, owner and operator of a somewhat idiosyncratic private-detective agency. Local thugs have made the mistake of mugging the wrong elderly woman, relieving her of $88 and then, quite gratuitously, breaking her arm. Turns out that Mrs. Johnson is a friend of Marvin's, hence the assignment. A bone for a bone, think Hap and Leonard, baseball bats at the ready. Money retrieved, justice rendered and assignment duly completed, Hap and Leonard are in line for another, this one more substantive, and—what with wannabe vampires, the Dixie Mafia, plus a very active serial killer—significantly more dangerous. Consider, for instance, that there's a contract out on Hap, who happens to be in the throes of a sudden and inexplicable psychological meltdown. Debilitated by a mysterious attack of melancholia, he needs all the help he can get and can't get any from Leonard, who for complicated reasons is out of the picture at the moment. Enter the cavalry—in the lissome form of a former enemy. Bad guys fall, body bags fill and unhappy Hap seems sanguine once more.
The question remains: Will a fan base built on blithe spirits take kindly to an unhappy Hap, enduring the angst of a midlife crisis?
(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)
Starred review from January 1, 2011
It's easy to imagine a young Joey Lansdale, aged about 12, huddled under the covers, reading the Hardy Boys by flashlight. Right then, he knows that someday he will write like that, and so he has. This eighth Hap and Leonard mystery (following Vanilla Ride) opens with the duo investigating a series of murders in their patch of east Texas. Each murder site is signed with a drawing of a red devil's head (a nice Hardy Boys touch), and suspects are as thick on the ground as pine needles before the adrenaline-stoked shoot-out of a conclusion. Nobody's better at smacking us with the look, feel, and smell of derring-do. Along the way, there is the usual camaraderie, banter, and sex (this is the Hardy Boys for the 21st century, after all). VERDICT Lansdale has deservedly swept up nearly every award for genre writers there is, and fans will welcome this latest addition to the canon. For those unfamiliar with the series, and mercifully free of delicate sensibilities, with a hankering for smart, and smart-mouthed, adventure yarns, there's a lot here to relish.--Bob Lunn, Kansas City, MO
Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
February 1, 2011
Hap Collins and Leonard Pine are a couple of East Texas troublemakers who occasionally subcontract a little investigatory work because, well, sometimes they get to make trouble while investigating. Perfect! Marvin Hanson, a real private investigator, hands the boys a cold case involving a double murder in which both victims, who had something to do with a vampire cult (the crime scene was decorated with a devils-head symbol), were in line to inherit serious money. Hap and Leonard arent just tough. Theyre pretty fair investigatorsLeonard has taken to wearing a deerstalker hatand soon they have a shadowy group on their tail. An attempt is made on Leonards life, and a vengeful Hap sets out to settle the score with an assist from Vanilla Ride, the sexy female assassin the boys encountered in their last case. Lansdale is funny, often profane, sometimes profound, and a master of the prolonged shootout. The Hap and Leonard novels are re-readably entertaining. Each time through reveals something that was missed earlier.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)
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