Black Lizard continues its trade paperback reissues of the Hap Collins/Leonard Pine novels by Joe R. Lansdale with 1995’s THE TWO-BEAR MAMBO and 1997’s BAD CHILI. These two find Hap and Leonard getting into weightier trouble with greater and more dangerous consequences.
It’s the evening of Christmas Eve as THE TWO-BEAR MAMBO opens, and Hap arrives at his buddy Leonard’s place just in time to witness Leonard setting the house next door on fire — for about the third time. It’s a crack house, and Leonard once again has had it with how slow East Texas law enforcement moves toward closing the house down. But Leonard soon has to answer for his effective but nonetheless illegal action.
Leonard’s boyfriend, Raul, immediately moves on him, so now Leonard and Hap — who somehow is figured just as responsible for the act — must answer to the local sheriff, who offers them a deal: His fiancée, attorney and occasional journalist Florida Grange, disappeared while investigating a story in Grovetown. If Hap and Leonard can locate her, or come up with any solid information on her whereabouts, the sheriff will drop all charges.
But there are complications, of course. For one, Florida was not only Leonard’s lawyer, but Hap’s former lover. What’s worse is that Grovetown is one of those small Texas towns that both time and civil rights forgot. Not surprisingly, the two face resistance and threats to their lives the more questions they ask and the longer they stay there.
BAD CHILI takes place a few years later, with Hap returning from a back-breaking job on an offshore oil rig and learns that Raul has again broken up with Leonard, who has lost his job as bouncer for a local nightclub. But just as Leonard is filling Hap in on the details, Hap is attacked by a rabid squirrel and lands in the hospital. While recuperating (or at least staying in the hospital long enough for his lousy medical insurance to kick in), he hears some disturbing news from a local police officer: Raul had left Leonard for a local biker named Horse McNee, and now Horse has been found dead just outside of town. And the evidence, such as it is, points to Leonard as the murderer. But soon things get even more worrisome when another body is found — and this time it’s Raul.
The one bright spot in all this is Brett, an attractive, earthy nurse Hap meets in the hospital. He quickly sets up a satisfying relationship with her, but can’t spend too much time enjoying it while his best friend is wanted for murder. And no sooner does it look like Leonard will be cleared from suspicion, than more complications arise that take Hap and Leonard in a new and even more dangerous situation.
While these two novels are not without their outrageous humor — a Lansdale trademark — they are also both notably darker than their predecessors. This, no doubt, is due to the decidedly humorless topics they tackle: racism, in TWO-BEAR MAMBO; and gay-bashing, in BAD CHILI. Plus, there are numerous scenes of violence and similar menace straight out of your worst nightmare.
And owing perhaps to their heavier themes, the structure of both stories seems at times a bit lopsided. A great deal of time passes after a fatal beating in TWO-BEAR MAMBO before Hap and Leonard decide what to do next. And it seems to take most of the first half of BAD CHILI to determine what the real conflict in the novel is all about.
But what carries the reading of both far beyond such potential mishaps is the force and pull of Hap’s first-person narration. It’s down-home, to be sure, but full of surprisingly intelligent insight and assessment of himself, Leonard and everyone around him. And even in the midst of the most violent, frightening moments, Lansdale comes up with chicken-fried metaphors and dialogue that will have you laughing out loud and jotting lines down for your own personal use.
Like the first two books of the series, these two reissues are highly recommended for the most unlikely but enduring friendship you’re ever to experience in print, as well as enough memorable and often grotesque characters to populate a dozen novels, the aforementioned humor, and some frightening situations that can’t help but keep you wondering what’s gonna happen next.
Or, in other words, because they are from the amazing mind of Lansdale, who loves to pass along a damn-good story and never fails to entertain. If you haven’t met Hap and Leonard yet, please get to it. —Alan Cranis
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS AUTHOR:
• LEATHER MAIDEN by Joe R. Lansdale
• MUCHO MOJO by Joe R. Lansdale
• RETRO PULP TALES edited by Joe R. Lansdale
• SANCTIFIED AND CHICKEN-FRIED: THE PORTABLE LANSDALE by Joe R. Lansdale
• SAVAGE SEASON by Joe R. Lansdale
