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More Better Deals (2020)

by Joe R. Lansdale

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978279,252 (3.8)3
Dispatched to repossess a Cadillac from a deadbeat pet-cemetery owner and his beautiful wife, an unscrupulous used-car salesman embarks on an affair that tests the limits of his character. From the Edgar Award-winning author of the Hap and Leonard series, a hard-boiled novel set in 1960s Texas in which a no-nonsense car salesman faces a tempting decision, a dangerous deal, and an alluring affair. Ed Edwards is in the used car business, a business built on adjusted odometers, extra-fine print, and the belief that "buyers better beware." Burdened by an aging, alcoholic mother constantly on his case to do something worthier of his lighter skin tone and dreaming of a brighter future for himself and his plucky little sister, Ed is ready to get out of the game. When Dave, his lazy, grease-stained boss at the eponymous dealership Smiling Dave's sends him to repossess a Cadillac, Ed finally gets the chance to escape his miserable life. The Cadillac in question was purchased by Frank Craig and his beautiful wife Nancy, owners of a local drive-in and pet cemetery. Fed up with her deadbeat husband and with unfulfilled desires of her own, Nancy suggests to Ed -- in the throes of their salacious affair -- that they kill Frank and claim his insurance policy. It is a tantalizing offer: the girl, the car, and not one, but two businesses. Ed could finally say goodbye to Smiling Dave's, and maybe even send his sister to college. But does he have what it takes to see the plan through? Told with Joe Lansdale's trademark grit, wit, and dark humor, More Better Deals is a gripping tale of the strange characters and odd dealings that define 1960s East Texas.… (more)
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Showing 1-5 of 8 (next | show all)
Reading Joe R. Lansdale's “More Better Deals” (2020) is like watching classic film noir from the 1940s or 1950s. You might even imagine Fred McMurray and Barbara Stanwyck playing the key characters.

Appropriately enough, Lansdale's story takes place in the 1950s. Ed Edwards sells used cars for a shady Texas dealer. He doesn't like cheating people, but it's a living. When he goes to repossess a Cadillac from the owner of a drive-in theater, the man is away, but his beautiful wife is home and quickly seduces Ed. Before long Nancy convinces him to help her kill her abusive husband. His reward: Nancy, the drive-in, a pet cemetery sideline business and a hefty life insurance payment.

Things don't go as planned, of course, and soon enough Nancy has talked Ed into another brainless scheme.

Ed isn't doing all this just for himself and Nancy. He and his beloved younger sister had a black father but are passing as white. He wants to use some of the money to get her a fake birth certificate and a college education. His life may be a mess, but hers doesn't have to be.

Lansdale keeps things moving, and as dark and grisly as the story becomes the reader nevertheless finds something in Ed, if not Nancy, to like. But in this kind of story, justice finds a way. ( )
  hardlyhardy | Jan 28, 2024 |
It Joe R Lansdale! Take Double Indemnity, add the author’s trademark white trash crazies and you have an amusing book where everyone is lying and double crossing those they get in involved with.
Fun book. ( )
  zmagic69 | Mar 31, 2023 |
A compelling crime novel in the vein of the classics. Very satisfying. ( )
  admiralfinnegan | Mar 23, 2023 |
This was a fun timewaster by Lansdale, though it does feel a touch like he's treading water here.

I've read a couple of reviews where Lansdale was shredded for his misogynistic descriptions of Nancy by Ed. And while they are over the top, I also think Lansdale's a smart enough writer to know precisely what he was doing here. There's no specific year given, but the protagonist is a Korean War vet, and the memories are reasonably fresh, so I'm putting this around 1955-7. Which also means that, unfortunately, a sizable chunk of men at the time truly did look at women the way Lansdale describes. My father did. So did all his brothers.

So, while it's distasteful, it's also pretty much accurate. Just like the characters who drop the n-word. It was just a word back then, not the bomb it is now.

As for the story, it's Lansdale's take on the standard guy-who-thinks-he's-smarter-than-he-is and the sexy double-crossing woman he falls for, and all the sex and violence that comes with a volatile mix of the two. Like I said, fun to read, not his greatest stuff. ( )
  TobinElliott | Sep 3, 2021 |
Pure Noir done in the capable hands of Joe Lansdale. Writing so smooth, you don't even realize how many pages you've read until you look at the page count. Lansdale is always a great story teller and More Better Deals is no exception. ( )
  bjkelley | Nov 12, 2020 |
Showing 1-5 of 8 (next | show all)
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He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have. Socrates
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For Chet Williamson and Laurie Williamson. Friends
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I folded the check and put it in my shirt pocket and tried not to grin.
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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Dispatched to repossess a Cadillac from a deadbeat pet-cemetery owner and his beautiful wife, an unscrupulous used-car salesman embarks on an affair that tests the limits of his character. From the Edgar Award-winning author of the Hap and Leonard series, a hard-boiled novel set in 1960s Texas in which a no-nonsense car salesman faces a tempting decision, a dangerous deal, and an alluring affair. Ed Edwards is in the used car business, a business built on adjusted odometers, extra-fine print, and the belief that "buyers better beware." Burdened by an aging, alcoholic mother constantly on his case to do something worthier of his lighter skin tone and dreaming of a brighter future for himself and his plucky little sister, Ed is ready to get out of the game. When Dave, his lazy, grease-stained boss at the eponymous dealership Smiling Dave's sends him to repossess a Cadillac, Ed finally gets the chance to escape his miserable life. The Cadillac in question was purchased by Frank Craig and his beautiful wife Nancy, owners of a local drive-in and pet cemetery. Fed up with her deadbeat husband and with unfulfilled desires of her own, Nancy suggests to Ed -- in the throes of their salacious affair -- that they kill Frank and claim his insurance policy. It is a tantalizing offer: the girl, the car, and not one, but two businesses. Ed could finally say goodbye to Smiling Dave's, and maybe even send his sister to college. But does he have what it takes to see the plan through? Told with Joe Lansdale's trademark grit, wit, and dark humor, More Better Deals is a gripping tale of the strange characters and odd dealings that define 1960s East Texas.

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