Hap and Leonard: Blood and Lemonade

Hap and Leonard: Blood and Lemonade by Joe R Lansdale
Published by Tachyon Publications
Ebook
Expected publication 14 March 2017
240 pages
Review copy

Connect with the author Buy the book: UK (affiliate's link) I was given an ARC by the publisher and voluntarily reviewed it. WHAT'S IT'S ABOUT

Hap Collins is a complicated man. He looks like a good 'ol boy, but his politics don't match. After way too many jobs, Hap has discovered what he's best at: kicking ass. Vietnam veteran Leonard Pine is even more complicated: black, Republican, gay-and an occasional arsonist. As childhood friends and business associates, Hap and Leonard have a gift for the worst kind of trouble: East Texan trouble.

Joe R. Lansdale's popular Texan crime-fighting duo is immortalized in this collection of new Hap and Leonard short stories and tall tales. Hap and Leonard: Blood and Lemonade follows the exploits of the early years of these beloved characters. Many of these intertwined stories appear for the very first time.

OPENING

Leonard looked up from the newspaper he was reading, a little rag that was all that was left of our town paper, the bulk of it now being on line and glanced at me (PARABLE OF THE STICK)

WHAT I THOUGHT

I've never really read Lansdale's work before other than the odd story. I have seen some of the Hap and Leonard TV series and thought it was mad and brilliant so wanted to read Blood and Lemonade.

This is my first time reading a mosaic novel. I had no idea such a thing existed. I really enjoyed Blood and Lemonade which is really a series of stories delving into the past of Hap with occasional forays into Leonard's past. I liked the way the book is structured with flashbacks of the past triggered by places Hap and Leonard visit or people they encounter. This works really well. I enjoyed all of the individual tales and how well they worked together. However, as I've not read anything about Hap and Leonard before I felt like something was missing or I missed something and didn't get as much from Blood and Lemonade as a proper fan would. Nevertheless, I enjoyed Blood and Lemonade enough to read more of the author especially Hap and Leonard's adventures. My favourite tales were Not Our Kind, Down by the Riverside, Blood Lemonade and The River of the Dead. The other stories were good but these appealed to me a bit more.

Published