Reading one of Joe R. Lansdale’s Hap and Leonard East Texas crime novels always brings tears to my eyes. I’m not crying. I’m laughing so hard that I’m near busting a gut. He’s just that funny, that rednecked, and that insanely offensive in everything he puts on the page.
Vanilla Ride is the first Hap and Leonard novel that’s come down the pipe in a while, and I have to admit that I was somewhat antsy we might not see any more books about the two ne'er-do-wells that have so captured my imagination. Joe’s a busy guy and likes to have a lot of irons in the fire, from screenplays to comics to short stories to novels about crime and novels about horror. In the meantime, he runs his own martial arts dojo, where he’s invented his own style that’s been recognized in the martial arts community.
Joe’s a friend, and I like him and his way of thinking a lot, so you’ll have to forgive me. We grew up around (and probably were) the same kind of miscreants, troublemakers, and rabble-rousers that he writes about. We both know small town minds and ways, and both of us can pass for socialized individuals for hours at a time. But we ain’t never truly moved away from those small towns.
At any rate, that’s the background that Joe always brings to his book. The way he writes it? That’s the way it is. Oh, the running gun battles, bar brawls, and body count is probably exaggerated a little, but that’s to be expected of a first-rate small town storyteller if he’s to keep the attention of his audience.
Vanilla Ride starts off as a favor for Marvin Hanson, another series regular. Hanson’s granddaughter has holed up with a drug dealer and Marvin already threw the guy a beating that didn't take. Since the guy has surrounded himself with thugs, Marvin knows he’s going to subcontract the next butt-kicking to a couple of guys that kind of enjoy the work and don’t flinch at the prospect.
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