GUNFIGHTS, KUNG-FU, & LAUGHS WITH OLD FRIENDS: JOE LANSDALE'S SUGAR ON THE BONES

When Joe Lansdale returns to his heroes Hap and Leonard it's like our college buddies have come to visit. There's lots of laughs and comfort from being around those we've gotten to understand well. There's also a good chance of getting in a little more trouble again. All of this can be found in the latest in the series, Sugar On The Bones.

The boys end up taking a case they initially turned down. When their friend, Police Chief Marvin Hanson announces his retirement to them, he also says he referred the detective agency Hap's wife Brett owns and they work at to Minnie Palson, a wealthy woman who feels someone is targeting her. When Minnie and Brett get into it over pronouns use, they walk off the proposed job. Soon, Minnie's mansion is burned down with her in it and they hear her daughter is missing with her girlfriend. The three go poking around out of guilt.

They uncover a crime ring where the members will kill anyone to keep it covered up. They even employ Hap and Leonard's old foe Kung Fu Bobby. For their own survival, they put some of the old band back together with redneck troubleshooter Jim Bob, female assassin Vanilla Ride, and lethal lawyer Veil.

One of the pleasures of the Hap and Leonard series is how it allows Joe Lansdale to use the classic hard boiled tale as a take off ramp to touch different genres. There is an "operation" scene that allows him to lean into his horror chops then end it with martial arts action. The climax that involves the gang scaling a mountain to reach the criminals' compound has hints of an Alistair MacLean commando adventure.

Of course, another pleasure is Lansdale's humor. This book shows how, like Mark Twain, he uses it as a tool to accomplish more than just getting laughs. He applies it in a boat chase to sharply describe the action and the emotion of Hap in it in a way that instead of interfering with the pace, accelerates it. He also provides a sober exclamation to the end of the action when he quickly drops it. While many authors use humor to release tension, he often demonstrates in the book how to ratchet it up, with Hap and Leonard's jokes clearly getting across the danger they are in.

However, as with many many of the later Hap and Leonard books, the characters face aging and mortality. Their questioning of how they can continue to do this kind of thing grows stronger, with Leonard even throwing in with the idea more, now that he is in a more solid relationship with his cop boyfriend "Pookie". They now asks themselves if they can change their ways since they only know of one. This question becomes embodied in something Veil reveals on their adventure.

Sugar On The Bones is a book in a hero series that subtly looks at its heroes. It delivers everything you want in a Hap and Leonard novel with a slight melancholy thread woven through. If you have followed these guys since the eighties and nineties, Joe Lansdale reminds us we've all gotten a little older.