Joe R. Lansdale

For Hap and Leonard, even an inheritance comes with complications.

Mucho Mojo

Janice Hopper

I binge-watched the second season of Hap and Leonard on Netflix recently. That made me curious about the books and what they were like.

Joe R. Lansdale is a really excellent writer, but I tend to be a little wary about him. His good writing can also be brutal and a bit disturbing. I remember one story where I finished it and thought "Wow, that was good, but I feel like I've been beaten and flayed now." I think he kinda likes sensationalist/pulp style writing at least sometimes. Nothing wrong with that. It's just the kind of thing I have to be a little careful around for my mental health and outlook.

This is the second story in the Hap and Leonard saga. Leonard has come into some money and a house from his uncle who recently passed. Leonard had a fraught relationship with said uncle because of the fact that he (Leonard) is gay. But he comes home to fix up the house to sell, and Hap comes with him to help. In the uncle's town, Hap and Leonard find a crack house next door, a beautiful attorney, and the mystery of young boys who have been going missing for a few years. And Leonard's uncle may have been involved in that, one way or another.

It's a mystery story, basically, with a little romance and more than a little righteous anger at what's going on around the two men. The writing wasn't brutal to me here. There are some fight scenes, and a death scene or two that was a little scary, but nothing too graphic for me.

I like the friendship between Hap and Leonard. Leonard's gay; Hap is not. It doesn't matter to either of them. They're there for each other, and they depend on each other. They get along without a lot of dick-measuring competition too, though with a lot of good-natured ribbing. 

The Netflix series changes the details of the story pretty substantially, but the main plot is still the same. I think the book characters are a bit more competent and solid than the series characters. Of course, now that I've seen the series, I have James Purefoy and Michael J. Williams faces in my head as the faces of the characters. Oh well.

I liked it. Will probably read more.

Mucho Mojo

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