HANGING WITH THE BOYS: JOE LANSDALE'S HATCHET GIRLS

One thing you can count on in one of Joe R. Lansdale's Hap & Leonard books is that no matter how weird it starts out, it will get weirder. The latest misadventure of the redneck liberal and his gay, black, republican buddy has "the boys" (as the author personally refers to them) hired to captured a crazed hog, After a hilarious and action packed capture of the beast, they discover the meth lab next door is the cause of Porky's disposition. The lab leads to a corrupt sheriff, buried bodies, several bad men, and a vigilante cult of hatchet wielding women.

Joe has been writing these books long enough to know what works and what we want from him. Much like him, the loyal reader keeps returning to simply hang out with these guys. Lansdale puts as focus on their personal lives, with Hap moving into a new house with wife Brett, Leonard getting married to cop boyfriend "Pookie", and the two possibly owning gym,, as he does with the thriller story. He shows more interest in serving up banter entertaining banter between the two than plot points. He also plays into his personal voice as a writer, more than in any other books. As someone who has gotten to know Joe, Hap is the character closest to himself and he leans into his own worldview, observations, and personality. Both our heroes realize they are living in a series of Gold Medal paperbacks and have adjusted to it.

He does give us one their scariest and oddest adversaries to shake things up in the title characters. These ladies are vigilantism to a point of madness. The book describes their lethal skills in well executes action-horror prose. One of the most frightening passages is done through dialogue when Leonard relates a close call he had with them to Hap and Brett.

Hatchet Girls cooks up the Hap and Leonard recipe with a few extra spices for a different kick. it's funny, with well executed off beat action and dialogue with colorful antagonists, both on two and four legs.We'll follow The Boys anywhere, no matter how weird it gets.

-review by Scott Montgomery