Joe R. Lansdale

Note-perfect thriller, building a sense of going somewhere truly and uniquely terrible, without giving any real indication of where it is until you get there. Lansdale makes it look simple: there really isn't a sense that this has been plotted or constructed, as one things happens and then another with crazy but remorseless logic, yet it all purrs like a well-oiled engine. It's character-driven, inasmuch as the characters are definitely driven to keep going to the end and do what they feel show more needs to be done. Superb. show less

Lansdale still dips back into the gonzo-pulp-horror-sci-fi genre that he made his own in the eighties, but ever since he left it largely behind to focus on the Hap and Leonard series and stand-alone thrillers, he's grown considerably as a writer, which isn't a comment on genre but an observation about a writer pushing out of his comfort zone and stretching his writerly muscles. But these depression-era historicals seem to come right out of the heart of him: the poverty and ignorance and show more backwardness, the grind and the crime and the violence and the almost claustrophobic insularity are all bread and butter to him; but so are the values of family and friendship and tough-headed stubborn virtue and plain-talking common sense that refuses to compromise and the simple dogged pragmatism of setting out to do the impossible whatever the cost. So it is with May Lynn and her friends who set out to take the remains of their murdered friend to Hollywood to honour her dreams of becoming a film star. Along the way, they come into possession of a small fortune in stolen cash. Along with the cash come some very bad men who want to take it off them and one particularly bad man who is a near mythical monster who always gets his prey. show less

Private eye turned writer Charlie Garner is worried about his ex-wife Meg, who appears to have joined a cult and disappeared with her new husband. Worse, when he tries to find out where she might be, he discovers that the cult, known as the Saucer People, is very spooky indeed. With the help of his big brother Felix, Felix’s lawyer girlfriend Cherry and would-be writer Scrappy, Charlie plunges deep down the rabbit hole of extraterrestrial beings, self-proclaimed prophets and heavily armed show more thugs in an attempt to locate and rescue Meg before it’s too late…. I probably have about a dozen of the 50 or so novels and short story collections by that bard of East Texas, Joe R. Lansdale. His writing is witty, earthy (to put it mildly) and wildly inventive, with a great deal of humor and a terrific ear for dialogue. His take on the many aspects of cultism is funny and over-the-top explosive (given that almost everybody in his universe has multiple guns everywhere), with a little bit of whimsy thrown in for good measure; recommended! show less

Attention Walmart shoppers. Any similarities between the denizens encountered in this novella and yourselves is, I'm guessing fully on purpose.

Lansdale's done it again. He can create some of the most noble creatures found between the pages of any book. That he typically does this with a character that most middle class and virtually all upper class society would either never deign to look upon or, if their snooty virginal eyes did happen to catch sight of one, would immediately pretend they show more didn't exist and erase the memory of that image is simply icing on the cake.

Of course, he's also the master of finding the absolute dregs of society, and he's not afraid to poke them with a stick, just to see how they react.

This is a hilarious, and heartbreaking story, told only as Lansdale can tell it.

This one, like virtually all Lansdale works, is highly recommended. show less