Publisher's Weekly Review
Veteran Lansdale brings back his incomparable Texas team of narrator Hap Collins and Leonard Pine for an encore that's just as funny and violent and gripping as their first appearance in Mucho Mojo. Police Lt. Marve Hanson agrees to forget the duo's role in the Christmas Eve torching of a crack house if they go to the small East-Texas town of Grovetown to find his girlfriend (also Hap's ex), lawyer Florida Grange, who was investigating the jailhouse death of a black man who possessed some valuable old blues recordings. The Klan is alive and well in Grovestown and Hap, who is white, and Leonard, who is black and gay and habitually introduces himself as ``The Smartest Nigger In The World,'' don't endear themselves to the locals. But they do track Florida to a dilapidated trailer park, where her trail ends. The conclusion, which involves a graveyard and an epic flood, is gruesome, frightening and captivating. Throughout, Lansdale intersperses some horrific and hilarious anecdotes (one is about a chihuahua that comes to a bad end: ``Yeeech,'' says Leonard. ``I'm just glad it wasn't a real dog''). This is strong stuff, filled with sexual references and violent racism. The mystery involves what happened to Florida and what happened to the dead man's music. But the heart of the tale is the friendship of Hap and Leonard, which is rendered by Lansdale in perfectly pitched, profanity-laced repartee and guided throughout by a strong moral compass. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
East Texans Hap Collins and Leonard Pine are two of the unlikeliest but most likable amateur detectives in crime fiction. Collins is a sometime field hand, and his black, homosexual pal Pine is a tough Vietnam vet with a chip on his shoulder and a smart mouth. In the third entry in the series, the pair is asked to look (unofficially) into the disappearance of Florida Grange, Hap's former lover and Leonard's lawyer. Hoping to jump-start her career as a journalist, Grange traveled to Grovetown, a Klan stronghold, to investigate the jailhouse suicide of one of the descendants of a legendary blues singer. In Grovetown, Hap and Leonard find themselves in a time warp, sort of a fantasy camp for bigots--" Redneck World," as it were. Grange's trail is cold, and the boys, fearing the worst, hunker down. They are befriended by Tim Garner, estranged son of the town's head honcho, Jackson Truman Brown. He provides a few clues, but it is only with the help of the incredibly stupid redneck citizenry that Hap and Leonard are able to determine Florida's fate. Lansdale is an immense talent. His ability to generate sidesplitting laughter and gut-wrenching terror on the same page is unique in modern fiction. There's something special going on here, and it ought not be missed. Lansdale used to be a cult favorite, but he's outgrown that. (Reviewed August 1995)089296491XWes Lukowsky
Kirkus Review
Here's the deal: Lt. Marvin Hanson will overlook Leonard Pine's habit of setting fire to the house next door (observers agree that his third experiment in arson is his most successful yet) if he and his white buddy Hap Collins will truck out to Grovetown to find out what's become of Florida Grange, Esq., Hanson's current (and Hap's former) lover. Planning to branch out into investigative journalism, ambitious lawyer Florida was determined to reopen the case of Bobby Joe Soothe, who allegedly hanged himself in jail after his homicide arrest. Trouble is that Grovetown, a tad behind the times, didn't cotton to a black girl's poking around in a black boy's suicide, and the natives--from lumber king Jackson Brown to redneck Chief Cantuck and his neanderthal sidekick--aren't too crazy about a biracial investigating team either. Hap and leonard start off by getting refused rooms at every lodging in town and asked out of Maude Rainforth's luncheonette--and that's on Christmas Day. Before they close the case, they'll be pounded to multiethnic pulps, escorted out of Grovetown by a shotgun brigade, and saddened to uncover an unexpected, but depressingly familiar, motive for murder. Like Hap and leonard's debut (Mucho Mojo, 1994), this wickedly funny tale is as refreshing and flavorsome as a jolt of moonshine. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
Bad guys beware: Lansdale's protagonists put it all up front. The narrator Hap, an opinionated, sarcastic, white heterosexual, and partner Leonard, a bull-headed, blunt, black, homosexual arsonist, travel to small, racist Grovetown, Texas, to search for news of their investigative-lawyer friend Florida. While looking for information about a black man who reputedly hanged himself in the town's notorious jail, Florida disappeared. Lansdale's prose also hangs it all out, with an eye to precise description, an ear to the proper word, and a mind to expository wit. Highly recommended. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
