We Are Detectives

A straight, white draft dodger and a gay, black Vietnam vet: not exactly the East Texas crime-solving buddies you might envision. But in the crime-ridden world created by Edgar Award-winning author Joe R. Lansdale, Hap Collins and Leonard Pine are a pair of compelling best friends who have a knack for finding trouble, despite their best intentions.

First published in the early 90’s, Savage Season and Mucho Mojo (out now) have been re-released in paperback just months before the mid-year debut of a new Hap and Leonard novel. In the original books, the two politically incorrect wiseacres struggle to survive LaBorde, Texas, a violent, homicidal and dysfunctional hellhole as intolerant as it is charmless. And as Hap and Leonard might say, those are its good points.

The straight author has long challenged traditional genres by mashing up mystery, comedy, thriller and Western themes. Bloody and unrelenting, Lansdale’s work is not for the squeamish. Nor is it for readers interested in a too-good-to-be true gay role model. Leonard’s raunchy gallows humor, not to mention his platonic devotion to buddy Hap, make Savage Season and Mucho Mojo crackling good reads.


Savage Season and Mucho Mojo are available now from Vintage Books.