Charlie Garner moved away from town for privacy's sake, but a side benefit is the ability to study the heavens with his telescope. One night while he's doing so, his ex-wife Meg drives up for a chat. She's not herself, talking about hiring him to look into a murder. He's not a private detective anymore, but curiosity doesn't die when you leave a career. Who's murder? Her new husband's. As he chews this over, she offers a few cryptic tidbits: "watch out for omelets" is one, and "beware of the mound in the circle" is the other. She disappears while Charlie's turned around, gone like she was never there in the first place. The muddy ground shows no signs of either her footprints or the tracks from her car's tires. Has he just seen and chatted with a ghost?

Like it or not, Charlie has been drawn into a mystery. Turns out Meg and her new husband Ethan have disappeared, leaving their job, apartment, and possessions without letting anyone know. The police suspect they've dodged paying rent, but that doesn't quite jibe with the facts. Does their disappearance have something to do with their own peculiar fascination with the heaven? The couple are part of the Saucer People, a group of UFO afficionados who believe they are destined to be drawn away from earth to win an intergalactic war. This organization operates from a compound outside of May Town, Texas stockpiled with food and weapons so you know they're upstanding citizens.

Looking into the Saucer People reveals the group also has ties to local law and politics. Also, they are the owners of a popular chain of flying saucer-themed donut shops and the town bank. In fact, loyal members work all over town, listening and reporting back if some people ask challenging questions.

A case of missing persons leads to murder, drawing Charlie, his brother Felix, Felix's lawyer girlfriend Cherry, and the mysterious Amelia "Scrappy" Moon, a reporter with an agenda, into deep, deep trouble. Joe R. Lansdale blurs surreal, supernatural, and sf elements in his latest dark suspense yarn, The Donut Legion.

Leave it to the delightfully crazy imagination of East Texas raconteur Joe R. Lansdale to fill his latest suspense yarn's antagonist slots with hired thugs, the members of a creepy cult, a leg breaker ex-con called Cowboy, and a vicious chimpanzee called Mr. Biggs. The author is nothing if not quirky, and The Donut Legion plays to many of his strengths.

When Lansdale is on his game, his yarns move lightning fast. The Donut Legion is one such yarn, a page turner par excellence, a showcase for one of the finest talents currently working in the suspense field, and a delightful study of the quirky characters and situations to be found in East Texas. Lansdale has spent his career chronicling this side of the Great State. Luckily there's enough material that he doesn't find need to repeat himself.

Here we have an offbeat story, a crime fiction novel that dabbles with the weird, features a likeable, folksy protagonist, a tough as nails big brother, and two clever, capable women. The narrative is fearless about throwing this cast into some harrowing situations. Although neither Felix nor Charlie are believers in the supernatural or the otherworldly, we are left to wonder about the paranormal elements. The book opens with a ghostly encounter, and there's a supposed alien buried under the ground in a creepy cult's compound. Are any of these things for real, or is there a much more mundane explanation for them? Lansdale keeps his cards close to the vest through much of the book, spinning a yarn that's full up with debunking statements for mankind's propensity toward superstition while also feeding us supernatural speculations. I particularly enjoy books that can walk the line between supernatural explanations and mundane rationales for a good portion. Lansdale makes this challenging task look easy.

Of course, that peculiar Lansdalian humor runs strong throughout the text. Clever similes, witty conversation, and the occasional scatological gag gives us the chance to like the characters, to ease off tension from one scene or to provide the preamble build up to the next scene's dose of suspense.

Like Twain, Lansdale is a keen observer of behavior and a critic of some folks' need to believe. Thus, we find the expected critiques of religions and cults. However, instead of targeting the believers themselves, The Donut Legion is much more concerned with the sorts of people who draw their power from the rubes of the world and hold their station of capital-A Authority over those rubes with emotional chokeholds, physical threats, and murder. A few telling references to the tragic events that destroyed the People's Temple in Jonestown, Guyana lend the situation added gravitas.

Suffice to say, The Donut Legion is a solid thriller from a master of the form. Written with an ear for dialogue, an eye for telling details, and an understanding of the curious characters found in its East Texas region, the book delivers suspense, humor, and heartbreak in the author's classic style. This one feels like the start to a series, and I hope it succeeds enough to foster more yarns with the surviving characters. I liked seeing them work together, getting up to their throats in trouble, and I look forward to maybe doing so again.
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A special thank you to both NetGalley and Mulholland Books for providing an electronic copy in exchange for an honest review.

What: southern-fried mystery with humor, action, twists
About: Joe R Lansdale is a genre unto himself — while a mystery crime novel, it's never that straightforward, and this is why we love Lansdale. A missing persons case may be tied to a spaceship cult that operates donut shops in the region, and it's up to a writer and his PI brother to crack the case.
Features: amazing turns of phrase
Assets: pure enjoyment
Who it’s for: it's a mystery for people who don't normally read mysteries — it would be a fun friends/family/couples read-together.

This was such a fun read! The descriptions were moody and beautiful, the characters well-fleshed out. The pacing and plot were weird and wonderful. Lansdale is so unique, in his strange Southern Gothic way. He reminds me a little of the camp I get from Grady Hendrix, the fun I get from Janet Evanovich. I’ve only read his short stories (High Cotton), so it was nice to see a different side of him with this detective ghost story.

Thank you to Netgalley and Mulholland Books for the ARC!

Lansdale writes mysteries with great humor. I've read a lot of his books and this one gets a little long in the tooth. However, his wit and plot twists make it a great read.

3.5 stars

I was so excited to read this one because it’s set in an East Texas town only a couple of hours away from where I live. Plus, it involves an end of the world cult, so count me in!!

It was a solid and fun mystery, and I enjoyed the zany twists and turns and colorful characters.

What I did not enjoy was the overabundance of references to people having sex with animals. Nope. No. Just no. I realize the author was characterizing a certain type of person, but this was just a no for me.

My thanks to @mulhollandbooks and @netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book before its publication date.

A southern fried, semi hard boiled romp through East Texas involving possible ghosts, UFOs, donuts and a bad ass villain with a murderous chimpanzee. Add to this, Joe R. Lansdale’s dead pan humor and you have a hell of a fun read.

Highly recommended.

Thanks to Mulholland Books and NetGalley for the advance copy.

Joe Lansdale is one of the best at writing detective novels, in my humble opinion. He follows a pretty steady formula with how things are done in his books and The Donut Legion is no different, and that is not bad.

Charlie and his brother Felix are on the hunt to find out what happened to Charlie's ex-wife and her new husband. This leads them on quite the chase around their Southern Texas town and right to the Saucer People a cult that has been around for a spell and is up to no good (or maybe some good? it's a cult).

Anyway, supported by a wonderful cast of characters, like a wannabe journalist, a feisty lawyer an ex-con with a psychotic chimp, and more The Donut Legion is a wild novel with a lot to love. I hope that Lansdale decides to keep writing about Charlie and Felix. I'd be down for that series.

This was.... not what I expected? Granted, I selected this read solely based on the title. Donuts, amirite?

Donuts were a means to an end and had little to do with the actual story. If you're a sci-fi kinda guy that likes crime and a whole lot of weirdness, you'll love this book.

Saucer people, chimpanzees, donuts... oh my.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

While sitting on the porch of his country home late at night a car pulls up and instantly he knows it’s his ex wife Meg she asks him for help and tells him to beware of omelettes this would’ve been strange had she actually had been there but from what Charlie could gather it was her ghost. The next morning he immediately goes to his brother Felix an ex psychologist and current investigator, after explaining everything and Felix involving his girlfriend Cherry, he and Felix go to Meg and Ethan‘s apartment, while looking around they get arrested by the local Maytown police who to Charlie and Felix is understanding or a bunch of howdy duties. They get a stern warning to steer clear but that isn’t in Felix it in Charlie’s nature. It seems the more they investigate the more dangerous it is. Meg was a member of the local saucer people a type of alien religion and she also worked for the donut shop one of the alien groups businesses one day a reporter named Amelia who goes by the name scrappy shows up a Charlie‘s home because she has been investigating this “religion“ and wants to do a book with him what starts off as a friendly collaboration will soon turn to something much more and Charlie will have more on the line than he initially thought even when people start dying they cannot let it go but how will the sin? Will they get to the bottom of what happened to Meg Ethan and the other missing members how old they become victims of the religion as well? This book was so good I love the way this guy write his stories the only criticism I have is I found a lot of the ad on characters seem to of had the same personalities they all seem to speak the same way but that is the only criticism I have besides that this was a stellar book and one I highly recommend. If you love a mystery that isn’t predictable at all then you’ll love The Donut Legion by Joe Lansdale I certainly did. I received this book from NetGalley and the publisher but I am leaving this review voluntarily please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

Another great Lansdale novel. this one had a great story line, really good characters and villians that you loved to hate. really liked mr biggs just wish he had a larger role.
Lansdale never fails to deliver a story thats very easy to read and very entertaining. thank you

Charlie Garner is a writer who lives out in the piney woods of deep East Texas, near May Town, not far from Nacogdoches. One night as he is watching the stars, his ex-wife, Meg, shows up and tells him she is in danger, as is he, to beware the OMELET. But when Charlie and his brother, Felix, go looking for Meg, they find her apartment is packed up as though she and her new husband, Ethan, were in the process of moving. Meg was working at the local donut shop, run by a bad group of folks known as the "Saucer People," who claim aliens will come to take them away to fight a war to save the universe. However, the deeper Charlie and Felix dig, the more bodies pile up, including Joe, a young man who was working with Charlie to uncover the nefarious derrings-do of the Saucer People. Along with another investigative reporter, Amelia Moon (better known as Scrappy) and Felix's girlfriend, Cherry, the investigation leads to an enormous hole in the ground, several killers known as Managers and a murderous chimpanzee, Mr. Biggs. As always with Lansdale, colorful characters and bouncy dialog create an otherworldly environment. Always recommended.

While this isn't one of my favorite Lansdale books, I still pushed through it and really enjoyed it. I recommend this book if you are a fan of Lansdale's crime/mystery novels.

This book was clunky and slow. It was very difficult to get into and finish.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the advanced copy of the book.

I've only read a couple of other Lansdale books, but I liked those very much. This one...not so much. The writing seemed stilted and the dialogue clunky, and it never really clicked for me, though the plot synopsis drew me in initially.

This book was a chore for me to get through. The characters were plastic, the dialogue was empty and the story lacked substance. Rating two stars because I had some interest in the plot that prevented this from being a DNF book.

ARC was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Pub Date: March 21, 2023

Thanks to Mulholland Books and NetGalley for the ARC. I'm a huge Lansdale fan, and this is classic Lansdale. No one else writes characters or dialogue quite like Lansdale, and this is no exception. I really enjoyed this book. My only complaint is that it seemed too familiar, or too similar to some of his other books like More Better Deals, Jane Goes North, or Cold in July. This could easily have been a Hap & Leonard novel if you replaced Charlie and Felix, and even Scrappy felt very similar to Brett. While this isn't one of my favorite Lansdale books, I still burned through it and really enjoyed it. I recommend this book if you are a fan of Lansdale's crime/mystery novels.

I haven't read any books by Lansdale before, and I'm not sure I will after this one. The writing was clunky, the dialogue was unbelievably bad ("don't you remember when ... " and then "why yes, I remember, and that's when ...." -info dump after info dump after poorly disguised info dump), and the protagonist was unlikable. The decision to tinge the initial scene with the fantastic/supernatural made it even less enjoyable.

This is my second reading of Lansdale, the first being "Freezer Burn". I continue to be amazed by the author's characters, at once sympathetic and delightfully oddball. The quirkiness of the characters always leaves me wrongfooted and I often become captivated by their antics as much as the plot. The East Texas setting is always done to perfection and Lansdale always succeeds in creating an incredible sense of place. If you like hardscrabble lives and fever dream atmosphere, you'll love "The Donut Legion".