Hap Collins & Leonard Pine
Created by Joe R. Lansdale

A pal of mine insisted I read these. Man, are they great! I don't know why they're trying to market them as. Horror? Suspense? Voodoo hoodoo crime fiction? Country noir? But what these really are just great, rock 'em, sock 'em books. The two heroes are HAP COLLINS , a disillusioned former sixties activist and white trash rebel, and his best bud, LEONARD PINE, a hardass black gay Vietnam vet who doesn't seem to have any illusions. These two yahoos manage to end up in some of the weirdest situations imaginable. They're not private eyes; not by a long shot -- they're frequently out of work, in fact, layabouts who get into some truly nasty business. But who cares, with books this good?

Maybe it's a new sub-genre...the Gonzo Crime Novel. Maybe I can claim I discovered it. Outlandish characters, lots of weaponry, both legal and illegal, rednecks, looney tunes and some real humdinger plot twists, all set to a rock'n'roll soundtrack (no soft, muted jazzbo soundtracks for these books--they're the literary equivalent to a really great rock'n'roll radio station set to eleven...or maybe twelve).

Hap and Leonard's banter back and forth is certainly not going to meet any federally-approved politically correct standards, but Hap and Leonard are great characters. The first book in the series, Savage Season, really packs a wallop, reminds me of a cross between Deliverance and Straw Dogs and maybe The Big Chill, sort of a outdoorsy showdown as orchestrated by Quentin Tarantino via John Boorman, and so far, the series has shown no signs of slowing down.

UNDER OATH

• "(Captains Outrageous is) typical Hap-and-Leonard fare, which means it's funny, violent, peppered with profanity, oozing testosterone, and ultimately very satisfying. The repartee between Hap and Leonard tramples all over any standard of political correctness, but it's full of wit and outrageously entertaining."
  (Wes Lukowsky, Booklist)

NOVELS

• Savage Season (1990). Buy this book
• Mucho Mojo (1994). Buy this book
• The Two-Bear Mambo (1995). Buy this book
• Bad Chili (1997). Buy this book
• Rumble Tumble (1998). Buy this book
• Captains Outrageous (2001) ..Buy this book

SHORT STORIES

• "Veil's Visit" (1999, Veil's Visit; co-written with Andrew Vachss)

RELATED LINKS

• The Home of Joe R. Lansdale
  Produced by Angry Pitbulls (well, that's what they call themselves), this is the official Lansdale web site, fulls of all all sorts of goodies, including giveways and free short stories, as well as the usual bio and bibliography.