The Big Book of Hap and Leonard

Starred review from January 25, 2016
Last seen in the novel Honky Tonk Samurai, Lansdale’s incomparable East Texas crime fighting duo show their chops in this remarkable story collection. Hap Collins, a straight, white liberal, and Leonard Pine, a black, gay conservative, have long challenged genre conventions, and the friendship and camaraderie between these two hard cases as they suit up against injustice and hypocrisy is at the heart of these seven tales. In the novella “Hyenas,” the boys help save a client’s impressionable younger brother from the clutches of a group of psychotic robbers. “Dead Aim” finds the pair taking on the Dixie Mafia after a seemingly straightforward cheating spouse case gets a tad more complicated. “Not Our Kind” is set against the backdrop of the late 1960s, when a teenage Hap first befriends Leonard and faces the racism and intolerance of his peers up close. Readers can also look forward to the debut of the TV show Hap and Leonard on the Sundance Channel in March. Agent: Danny Baror, Baror International.

February 15, 2016

This is Lansdale's (Paradise Sky) latest collection of short stories from the popular "Hap and Leonard" series. Hap, a self-described "freelance troubleshooter," and Leonard, his crime-fighting sidekick, get in and out of trouble in these tales. In "Hyenas," Leonard wins a bar brawl--only to find that the guy he beat is his next client. A crooked lawyer from Hap's past springs Leonard from jail in "Veil's Visit." Other stories offer insight into the past of both Hap and Leonard, including the early sparks of their friendship. The lighthearted "Death by Chili" includes Lansdale's own chili recipe. In the essay "The Care and Feeding and Raising Up of Hap and Leonard," Lansdale reflects on writing this widely acclaimed series. VERDICT Macho, action-packed, and brimming with witty one-liners, this collection is published to coincide with the March 2 debut of the Sundance TV series Hap and Leonard and will appeal to casual readers of the series, as well as newcomers. Die-hard fans will be delighted to find one previously unpublished story in this volume.--Emily Hamstra, Seattle

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 15, 2016
Seven laid-back adventures, one of them brand new, for "freelance troubleshooter" and good old boy Hap Collins and his gay black Republican partner Leonard Pine. As Michael Koryta notes in his celebratory introduction, salt-and-pepper heroes have been done to death, but Lansdale (Paradise Sky, 2015, etc.) keeps his duo fresh through their dialogue, which manages to sound both relaxed and inventive. The pair talk themselves through three long stories and four short ones. All the long ones are keepers. After Leonard wins a bar fight in "Hyenas," one of the guys he's beaten up hires him and Hap to extricate his brother from a gang that specializes in knocking over armored cars. In "Bent Twig," Hap, initially without Leonard, goes looking for his lover Brett's semi-kidnapped prostitute daughter, Tillie, who's "tough as yesterday's fajita meat." An estranged wife hires the pair to beat up her fearsome soon-to-be-ex in "Dead Aim"; when someone takes even stronger measures against him, the boys are left holding the bag. The plotting throughout is no more than routine, but the uncovering of layer after layer of double crosses allows Hap and Leonard numerous opportunities to discourse about everything and nothing as Lansdale spins out his trademark redneck similes, the most pungent since Raymond Chandler. Three of the shorter stories go by in a flash: a remembrance of a 1978 "Death by Chili"; a bullied kid's chilling final act in "The Boy Who Became Invisible"; and Hap's earliest recollections of Leonard, another kid he's just befriended, in "Not Our Kind," the only new story here. Attorney Veil's defense of Hap on charges of arson in "Veil's Visit," co-authored with Andrew Vachss, proves mainly that your best friends aren't necessarily your best collaborators. The collection is rounded out with Lansdale's reminiscences about chronicling the pair's adventures, the author's faux-interview of his heroes, and four black-and-white photos from the SundanceTV series. No one currently working the field demonstrates more convincingly and joyously the deep affinity between pulp fiction and the American tall tale.

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February 15, 2016
Hap Collins and Leonard Pine are two of the more unusual literary crime fighters. Hap is a white, kinda-hippie redneck. Leonard, a Vietnam vet, is a grumpy, gay black man prone to kicking ass first and sorting out the details later. (The eleventh Hap and Leonard novel, Honky Tonk Samurai, was just published in February.) Readers unfamiliar with the pair will find this collection of short pieces a perfect introduction. In Veil's Visit (coauthored with Andrew Vachss), a mysterious lawyer pulls Leonard out of a legal morass. In Bent Twig, Hap and Leonard rescue Hap's girlfriend's daughter from a nightmare of drug abuse and sex trafficking. Readers interested in the literary development of the two will enjoy The Care and Feeding and Raising Up of Hap and Leonard as well as a hilarious interview with this pair of fictional characters. Perhaps the most interesting piece in the collectionand surely the one readers will carry with them the longestis The Boy Who Became Invisible, Hap's poignant recollection of a kid who didn't fit in. This story nicely bookends Lansdale's The Bottoms (2000), an Edgar-winning stand-alone that also looks back at a troubled childhood.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)