Hap collins, intellectual, liberal, white trash drifter and occasional unwilling adventurer, returns home from a stint on an offshore oil rig to be greeted by a bite from a rabid squirrel and the news that Raul, the lover of his best friend, gay black Vietnam vet Leonard Pine, has disappeared. Run off with a local biker, it appears. When the biker turns up dead, suspicion naturally falls on Leonard, especially since he has vanished. Leonard's name is quickly cleared, but things aren't over yet. Once again, something rotten is going on in LaBorde, Texas, something involving grease thieves, gay-bashing videographers, former wrestlers gone bad, and the local chili king. And in the midst of it all, Hap is falling in love.
Anyone who knows suspense fiction knows Joe R. Lansdale delivers with the force of an atomic-powered pile driver. I've got to admit, after Hap and Leonard's last adventure, The Two-Bear Mambo, I wasn't sure I wanted to see another book featuring them right away. Lansdale so thoroughly ran the boys through the ringer, parts of my body ached in sympathy, and I just couldn't stand the thought of anything else bad happening to them. Well, this is a slightly kinder, gentler book, closer to Mucho Mojo than The Two-Bear Mambo or Savage Season. Doesn't mean it doesn't pack the usual Lansdale punch, though. There are the usual colorful characters, old and new, including one that will particularly delight fans of Cold in July. There are the usual tense set pieces, and while nothing compares to the action of The Two-Bear Mambo, there's plenty of gunplay, martial arts, and good-old-fashioned guys thumping each other, as well as the traditional Lansdale injury to the genitalia. And, of course, there's the usual brilliant, so macho it's hysterical, dialogue between Hap and Leonard.
Bottom line: nobody writes this stuff better than Joe R. Lansdale, and if you haven't read him, you're missing out, plain and simple. A couple of years ago, I called him one of the best, most-talked-about authors that nobody's heard of. These days, folks have heard of him, and he's still the best. If you're reading him, you'll already be waiting for Bad Chili. When you're done, give Morman Partridge or Neal Barret, Jr. a try. They're pals of Joe's, and you'll like them, too. And if you haven't read Lansdale, what are you waiting for?