The fifth installment in Joe R. Lansdale's low-key East Texas thrillers finds Hap Collins and Leonard Pine, despite their best efforts, once again in the midst of grim violence. It begins when Hap volunteers to help his girlfriend, Brett, retrieve her daughter from a life of prostitution just outside Oklahoma City. And where Hap goes, Leonard follows, as always with an eye on the aspects of the situation that Hap would rather not deal with: "I know you don't like the gun talk, Hap, but you know as well as I do, at some point those people up there, they're who I think they are, they're going to point guns at us. And the guns are gonna be loaded, and when they pull the trigger our heads are gonna go away. Unless we shoot first or intimidate their asses into not shooting at all." Mayhem ensues, to be sure, but the story in Rumble Tumble is not as important as the ongoing relationship between Hap, who still wishes that he could empathize the world's troubles away, and Leonard, who knows better. As with the series of Westerns directed by Budd Boetticher and starring Randolph Scott, theirs is a world where "good" and "bad" matter less than whose business you're taking care of. People on both sides are willing to engage in plain conversations about how to define ethics under those circumstances, in dialogue that fulfills Lansdale's high standards of excellence. Whether you've been on board for the full ride with Hap and Leonard or are meeting them for the first time, Rumble Tumble will entertain and subtly challenge you. The other adventures of Hap Collins and Leonard Pine include Mucho Mojo, The Two-Bear Mambo, Savage Season, and Bad Chili. --Ron Hogan
Hap Collins' significant other, Brett, has finally heard word of her daughter, Tillie. Brett lost control of Tillie years earlier during a bad marriage, and Tillie took to the streets. Now a couple of hard cases want to sell Brett information on Tillie's location. With Hap's two-fisted help, Brett reduces the cost of the information and, more significantly, decides to find Tillie and help her. Help as in "rescue" since Tillie is now the property of one Big Jim in Hootie Hoot, Oklahoma. Hap agrees to come along and convinces his partner, Leonard Pine, to abdicate his role as LaBorde, Texas' baddest black gay Vietnam vet. The trio embarks on a bloody road trip that includes a shoot-out with a biker gang in their Mexican hideout, a mano-a-mano between Leonard and one of Big Jim's thugs, and the questionable company of a former hit man and his psychopathic midget brother. The fifth Collins-Pine adventure is a bit more dour than its predecessors but is still extraordinarily entertaining. Lansdale's dialogue is a magical mix of profanity and profundity, the action scenes are print versions of Sam Peckinpah's six-gun ballets, and the friendship between Hap and Leonard belongs in the men's Hall of Fame. Wes Lukowsky
From Kirkus Reviews
Just when it seems that life is good for Hap Collins and his new lady, Brett Sawyer, Brett gets word that her daughter Tillie is in even more trouble than most Texas prostitutes. According to midget businessman Red Ames and his buddy Wilber, Tillie got on the bad side of Big Jim Clemente, the main man in Tulsa, who sentenced her to service the Bandito Supremes, a crowd of Nazi survivalists, at their encampment south of the border. Since a rescue is obviously called for, Hap and Brett enlist the help of their friend (and Hap's current landlord) Leonard Pine, who stocks up on ordnance like a kid in a computer store before rounding up a crew of soiled Galahads that includes ``an East Texas bouncer, a black queer, an ex-sweet potato queen, a six-foot-four overweight retired hit man and former reverend, and a redheaded midget with an attitude,'' as well as a smuggler they don't trust, his paint-thinner-sniffing uncle, and a pilot who swears his plane is just fine for the trip. The only problem is that the tension among the rescuers, who are constantly making fart jokes and ethnic slurs at each other's expense, seems to guarantee tricks and surprises that Lansdale is too lazy this time to provide. A routine adventure in between Hap and Leonard's serious outings (Bad Chili, 1997, etc.) that's still enlivened by dollops of the most pungent dialogue this side of Quentin Tarantino. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Review
"[Joe Lansdale] is one of the greatest yarn spinners of his generation: fearless, earthy, original, manic and dreadfully funny."—Dallas Morning News
"A folklorist's eye for telling detail and front porch raconteur's sense of pace." --The New York Times Book Review
"Hilarious. . . . Addictively scarfable. . . . Two thumbs-up, and pardon the barbecue smears."—Texas Monthly "A master at taking a simple everyday event and turning reality upside down."--Mystery Scene "Hilarious. . . . Lansdale is a terrifically gifted storyteller with a sharp country boy wit."--The Washington Post Book World "Lansdale's prose, both laconic and sarcastic, is so thick with slang and regional accent that it's as tasty as a well-cured piece of beef jerky. Readers will want to savor each bite."—Milwaukee Journal Sentinel "Lansdale has an unsettling sensibility. Be thankful he crafts such wild tall tales."--Chicago Sun-Times "A storyteller in the great American tradition of Ambrose Bierce and Mark Twain."--The Boston Globe "Funny, compulsive . . . enjoyably raffish."—Esquire
From the Trade Paperback edition.
About the Author
Joe R. Lansdale has written more than a dozen novels in the suspense, horror, and Western genres. He has also edited several anthologies. He has received the British Fantasy Award, the American Mystery Award, seven Bram Stoker Awards, and an Edgar Award. He lives in Nacogdoches, Texas, with his family.
