A new Hap and Leonard book by Joe R Lansdale is always a cause for celebration, and his latest, JACKRABBIT SMILE, lives up to expectations, even though this series has been running for a long, long time. JACKRABBIT SMILE is book 13 in the series. Those familiar with Hap and Leonard will know what to expect, those coming to them for the first time are in for a treat. The book is full of the usual wisecracking wit, humour that is integrated into the narrative (no bolted-on gags here), dark themes and on occasion, eye-watering violence.
Long-time partners Hap and Brett have just got married when the celebrations are interrupted by the arrival of a couple of far-right white supremacists, a mother and son, coming to the detective agency owned by Brett, as a last resort. They are looking for their close relative, Jackie Mulhany, known as Jackrabbit, who vanished months ago.
Despite their reservations about the couple, Hap and Leonard take on the case. Hap, always the softer touch (relatively speaking) feels sorry for them. The investigation takes them to Marvel Creek, a small town where Hap grew up and which is now firmly in the hands of white supremacy segregationists. Hap and Leonard are not welcome, and they have to face down the bad ones after being threatened, run out of town and jailed, by being, as they always are, more bad.
This raises a question of where Lansdale may be taking the books: Hap is always the more liberal-minded of the pair, Leonard, a gay black man has learned to deal with prejudice early. He is always the more aggressive one, and more likely to resort to violence when dealing with problems they encounter. There is a developing darkness in Leonard that could take the series in a new direction.
The novel is short, but the plot is complex. Nothing is as it seems, and what looks like a fairly simple case of a missing girl quickly becomes anything but. Things have been hidden, people are dying, the corrupt Professor who is on his way to owning the town doesn’t want Hap and Leonard to succeed with their quest and takes firm action to ensure that they don’t.
In the course of the narrative, Lansdale explores issues that are very current in the US today: racism, the exclusion of minorities, the extremes of the religious right, the abuse of power and the effects of social exclusion and poverty. There is nothing didactic here – this is all part of the world that Hap and Leonard inhabit.

If you are fans of Hap and Leonard, this is a must-read. If you haven’t come across them before, then you could do worse than start here.
Highly recommended.

I found Hap and Leonard, through the Sundance Channel, and now finding the books. I like the characters and the stories they tell.

As Lansdale's one of my fave rave authors--and Hap and Leonard two of my favorite characters--I can't be entirely open-minded re: his stuff, but this one was another hoot and a holler of a yarn.

Although I've had some Lansdale books on my TBR shelves for a little while, I first experienced his riveting, quirky world via the screen drama Hap and Leonard. Adapted from his first three books in his long-running series, that stars James Purefoy and Michael K. Williams as the seemingly mismatched pair of lifelong best friends. It's a great show - full of action, humour, intrigue, memorable characters, social issues and more - and it's well worth visiting the original material.

Lansdale has been called 'the bard of East Texas', and he has a distinctive storytelling style and vivid world creation, a sort of 'swamp noir' that is both bizarre and brilliant. It's violent and action-packed, but also funny and thoughtful and laced with character and a potpourri of relevant issues. For readers who haven't yet experienced Lansdale, it's a little tricky to offer a comparison with other authors.

He's created something terrifically unique.

JACKRABBIT SMILE is the twelfth instalment in Hap and Leonard's escapades. Working as private eyes, they're approached by a couple of Bible-misusing redneck racists who are searching for their troubled sister and daughter, 'Jackrabbit'. Hap and Leonard don't care for the mother-son duo, but their concern for the young woman has them reluctantly on the case. Plus, they could use the cash.

The search takes Hap and Leonard back to Hap's hometown, a place full of striking characters and bizarre leads. From the local sheriff whose brothers are hired goons for a cult-leader-like white separatist-not-supremacist, to old friends and enemies, there are plenty of people keeping things off-kilter. Lansdale demonstrates his deft touch for character in among all the action and confrontation. He sprinkles the tale with 'grotesques' in the Southern Gothic tradition, without falling into cliche. There's a verve and freshness to his characterisation, an authenticity to the relationships and nice moments of surprise that ensure crime readers aren't just seeing the same-old, same-old.

Overall, there is a crackling, anarchic energy to Landsdale's storytelling in JACKRABBIT SMILE. It's a quick read that doesn't feel 'thin', that is overflowing with unusual moments and characters, while also raising plenty of thought-provoking contemporary and evergreen issues. Landsdale veers towards 'pulp' in style and mindset, but he's so much more than such distillation. A terrific read.

As usual, Joe R. Lansdale does a tremendous job of bringing societal problems to light, without overshadowing the story. Hap and Leonard themselves represent the strong bonds and camaraderie that open-minded diversity, honesty and empathy can create among people.

Then there are the villains: despicably small-minded, greedy, mean-spirited and black-hearted. The cast of foes facing Hap and Leonard this time might have been curiously anachronistic outsiders a few novels ago. But this is the time of Trump, when shit weasels of all types think they can step into the light. Not so, says Lansdale, through Hap and Leonard’s righteous blend of kindness, justice and ass-kicking.

Hap and Leonard are not your run of the mill detecting duo. Hap is a straight guy with a bad attitude, and Leonard is a gay black Vietnam vet with a temper. They have been friends all their lives, and they operate outside the law in often violent attempts to punish wrongdoers who would never be apprehended under legal circumstances. Neither takes any crap off of anybody, and seeing as how they are Texans, a lot of people try.

In this outing, the 13th series entry, they reluctantly agree to try and find a missing woman who came from a racist Pentecostal family and hasn’t been seen for a while. Their journey takes them into small town Texas. The book is filled with the normal humorous give and take between Hap and Leonard, and the usual amount of mayhem and violence being meted out to those who run afoul of the unlikely pair. The action is sometimes implausible, but it is always satisfying to see them deliver their form of justice.

Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

JACKRABBIT SMILE: A Hap and Leonard Novel
Joe R. Lansdale
Mulholland Books
ISBN 978-0-316-31158-8
Hardcover
Thriller

It is nice to see Joe R. Lansdale getting something close to his proper recognition. Lansdale as the result of yeoman’s work over the course of the last three-plus decades is closing in on the fifty-novel mark without a bad one in the bunch, and thanks to the television adaptation of his Hap and Leonard series is finally becoming something close to a household name. JACKRABBIT SMILE, Lansdale’s latest book in the Hap and Leonard canon, appears to be aimed at those folks who are newly aware of his work thanks to the fine Sundance TV adaptation but sticks closely to Lansdale’s trademark style. As with Lansdale’s other books, there are things in JACKRABBIT SMILE that you just can’t put on television, which is why the books will forever be better.

JACKRABBIT SMILE begins with the marriage of Hap Collins and Brett Sawyer, Hap’s love interest and the owner of the detective agency which employs Hap and Leonard Pine, his opposites-attract BFF. They are only a few hours into their west Texas style reception, however, when the party is crashed by an unlikely mother-son pair. Judith Mulhaney and her son Thomas are a pair of white racists who reluctantly retain Hap and Leonard to find Jackie Mulhaney, daughter and sister to the pair. Jackie, affectionately nicknamed “Jackrabbit” due to a set of prominent front teeth has been out of their family life for years, but word has gotten back to them that Jackrabbit has seemingly vanished. Hap and Leonard reluctantly take the case --- yes, there is more than enough reluctance to go around in JACKRABBIT SMILE --- and the trail leads right back to Marvel Creek, the dusty Texas town where Hap and Leonard grew up. It’s not exactly a happy homecoming for a lot of reasons from the past and the present. One of them is that Hap would rather be at home enjoying the conjugal bliss of the newly married, while Leonard would just rather be at home, period. It beats farmwork, however, and the Mulhaneys are paying clients, so investigate they do, and find among other things that the lovely Jackrabbit has left a trail of dead bodies in her wake and that while she may have disappeared the people who were around her continue to die, violently and involuntarily. Hap and Leonard with the occasional help of local law enforcement follow the clues, even as they are dissuaded by a wealthy local businessman bent of turning the community into a paradise of his own liking. This does nothing other than encourage Hap and Leonard, however. The powder keeps getting loaded into the keg, and the final fourth or so of the book puts the reader on the edge of his seat. The book ends with a very satisfying chain reaction, even if an innocent does get caught in the crossfire. I had to read a particular scene over a couple of times, wondering “Did Lansdale really go there?” Yes, he did. And that’s why I read every word the man writes.

While JACKRABBIT SMILE is not Lansdale’s best or worst book --- he really doesn’t have a “worst” book --- it contains some of his best writing, including a new phrase which, at least as of this writing, seems to be an original. You’ll love it. It’s a term for the a manifestation of obesity which incorporates the condition’s etiology. You’ll know it when you see it. If there is a fault with JACKRABBIT SMILE, it’s that the first third or so of the book is a bit topheavy with virtue signalling and light on the humor, violence, and metaphors that we all came for. That absence is more than balanced out, however, by the presence of same in the remainder of the book. Strongly recommended, particularly for those coming aboard as a result of the television series.

Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
© Copyright 2018, The Book Report, Inc. All rights reserved.

Hap and Leonard return to Hap's hometown of Marvel Creek in Joe Lansdale's latest release JACKRABBIT SMILE.

This time around our heroes are hired by a man and his mother to find their missing sister/daughter. The relationship between Hap, Leonard and Brett and their new clients isn't a good one, since both the man and his mom are openly prejudiced against any and all who aren't white. Which, of course, doesn't sit well with Leonard. Will the dynamic duo find the missing girl? Will the people who hired them get their due? You'll have to read this to find out!

The humor Joe Lansdale is famous for is here in spades, but there's a lot of darkness as well. Hap's hometown is full of racism, violence, and both false prophets and profits. (It's hard to believe good-hearted Hap came from such an ugly place.) All of this makes for a quick, extremely entertaining read.

If you're reading the Hap and Leonard series, you already know how addicting these books can be. If you're watching the television series on the Sundance Channel, you'll note some similarities between the current season and this book. Both take unflinching looks at the ugliness of racism in all of its different faces and forms; but they do it with bravery and a sense of humor. I think that's what makes this series, (both the books and the television show), so special and enjoyable.

If you're not reading this series or watching the show, what are you waiting for?

Highly recommended!

*Thanks to Mulholland Books and NetGalley for the e-arc of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. This is it.*

Racist white folk, BBQ, then add Hap and Leonard and you have got what you need! I love these books but hate the show. I have enjoyed everyone one of these mystery/adventures/butt whipping head knockers!