Vanilla Ride

by Joe R. Lansdale

Book Overview

Hap and Leonard is now a Sundance TV series starring James Purefoy and Michael Kenneth Williams. Hap Collins and Leonard Pine, the kings of East Texas mischief and mayhem, return in this full-throttle... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0307270971
• ISBN13: 9780307270979
• Release Date: June 2009
• Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
• Length: 243 Pages
• Weight: 1.19 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.7" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Man, what a rip-snorter!

I've read all of Joe Lansdale's novels, and this one might be the most fun yet. Hap and Leonard are back and in a boatload of trouble (just the way we like 'em), and it's the getting into and then out of that trouble that provides the core of the book -- that and the relationships between the two and their assorted friends and foes. Tonto is a great new addition, as is the title character, and they're filled with the rich character touches we've come to expect from Lansdale. The action is non-stop, but the book still manages to be thoughtful and introspective. The final paragraph is a textbook study in the way to effectively end a novel, and wraps a fist tight around your heart. Lansdale just keeps getting better -- reading him is to remember why you started reading books in the first place and why you still love to now. Write on, Joe!

A great novel if you give it time....

I have been a Lansdale fan for years and I am familiar with his neck of the woods (my wife is from the area). So, his books are always a treat for me. However, I had some issues with this novel until it twisted. Up until that point I felt that the jokes and characterizations were somewhat forced. That is, Lansdale was just giving us what we expected and in spades. Beyond that some of the characters seemed to be out of character (as compared to previous Hap and Leonard novels). But then the book twists and the story suddenly comes alive. By the end the main characters have become three dimensional and the book becomes more than a thriller (and what a thriller it is). This would have been the best Hap and Leonard novel if "The Two Bear Mambo" had never been written.

Lightning Sharp East Texas Noir

Reading one of Joe R. Lansdale's Hap and Leonard East Texas crime novels always brings tears to my eyes. I'm not crying. I'm laughing so hard that I'm near busting a gut. He's just that funny, that rednecked, and that insanely offensive in everything he puts on the page. VANILLA RIDE is the first Hap and Leonard novel that's come down the pipe in a while, and I have to admit that I was somewhat antsy we might not see any more books about the two near-do-wells that have so captured my imagination. Joe's a busy guy and likes to have a lot of irons in the fire, from screenplays to comics to short stories to novels about crime and novels about horror. In the meantime, he runs his own martial arts dojo where he's invented his own style that's been recognized in the martial arts community. Joe's a friend, and I like him and his way of thinking a lot, so you'll have to forgive me. We grew up around (and probably were) the same kind of miscreants, troublemakers, and rabble-rousers that he writes about. We both know small town minds and ways, and both of us can pass for socialized individuals for hours at a time. But we ain't never truly moved away from those small towns. At any rate, that's the background that Joe always brings to his book. The way he writes it? That's the way it is. Oh, the running gun battles, bar brawls, and body count is probably exaggerated a little, but that's to be expected of a first-rate small town storyteller if he's to keep the attention of his audience. VANILLA RIDE starts off as a favor for Marvin Hanson, another series regular. Hanson's granddaughter has holed up with a drug dealer and Marvin already threw the guy a beating that didn't take. Since the guy has surrounded himself with thugs, Marvin knows he's going to subcontract the next butt-kicking to a couple of guys that kind of enjoy the work and don't flinch at the prospect. Hap and Leonard, with all the customary name-calling, philosophizing, and backbiting that has become their trademark, get the job done. But things just get worse from there. Before long, they're up to their eyebrows in alligators (literally at one point) and the Dixie Mafia. Things get so bad they even have to call in another couple of hard guys to help tote the load. The plot is pretty straightforward and builds naturally to a roaring bonfire and even an Old West High Noon shootout, but it's Joe's way of telling the story that really shines. His prose is lurid, descriptive, and a lot of readers are going to have to resist the impulse to read passages or one-liners out loud because it just won't set well in public. And sometimes you have to really be there in the moment to get what's going on. His dialogue is dead on. But it's his focus on the friendship between his two heroes that really shines, as it does in every book. Leonard Pine is black and homosexual, and always in the middle of trouble that's caught up to him or he's instigated. Hap Collins is white and not ove

The boys have finally returned!!!

Okay, this is probably going to be a long review, so bear with me. First of all, I have a lot of things here to say about Joe R. Lansdale. I've said many of these things before in other book reviews, but I'm going to repeat them because I want you to know whom Joe Lansdale is, and I want you to buy and read his books. This author deserves to be on every bestseller list there is in the county, but so far it's only the Italians who have chosen to recognize him first as a great American writers. Shame on us! I first became acquainted with the horror fiction of Joe Lansdale back during the late eighties and early nineties. It wasn't until the year 2000, however, that I actually read something by him. The book was The Bottoms, and it blew me right out of my little white cotton bobby socks. The Bottoms is probably one the best novels I'd ever read and I eventually wrote a review on it, stating that this book deserved to have been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. I felt that way then, and I feel that way now. A few months later, author John Connolly (creator of the fabulous "Charlie Parker" series) paid me a visit when he was in Las Vegas to promote his newest novel. He was looking at the books on my shelves and saw The Bottoms. He picked it up and said, "This is a great book." He then asked if I'd ever read any of Joe's Hap Collins/Leonard Pine novels. I told him no, and he ordered me to get a few, saying they would have me laughing my butt off, while delivering a solid story of suspense and redneck violence. I took John's advice and ordered every Hap/Leonard book that Lansdale had written up to that point and started reading the series from the middle outward, beginning with Bad Chili. The first chapter of that book had me laughing so hard that I got stomach cramps and almost fell off the couch. The novel also made me wonder how someone could write a book like The Bottoms and then turn around and write a novel like Bad Chili, which is about a pair of good ol' Texas boys (think Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson), who always get more than they bargained for whenever they help out their friends. Hap is a white laid-back, former Vietnam activist who served some time in prison for his liberal beliefs, while Leonard is an angry, black, gay Vietnam Vet, who's studied the martial arts and wants to right every wrong he comes across. By the end of Bad Chili, I was in love with these two characters and wanted to read every book in the series, which I did in less than two weeks. I then wrote reviews of all the Hap/Leonard novels, trying to let as many people as possible know about this one-of-a-kind series. When you read something that's downright great, you want to share it with everyone in the world. I was also lucky because the newest Hap/Leonard novel, Captains Outrageous, was due to come out a few months later in hardcover. This was in 2001. I've been waiting eight long years for the next Hap/Leonard book to arrive at the stands and

insane return of the kings of deadly chaos

In East Texas, unlikely sidekicks Hap Collins and Leonard Pine behave like identical twins though the former is white heterosexual and the latter is black homosexual. These two kick butt buddies believe in the code of LDRSHIP (loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity and personal courage); they are there for each other. Being Good Samaritans, they rescue the granddaughter of a friend Marvin Hanson from local drug dealers. However, their actions embarrass the Dixie Mafia, who cannot allow this affront to their friends go unnoticed. They send a horde of trained killers to take out the dynamic duo, who enjoy the war. As the body count explodes to the point they may need a stadium to hold the corpses, the humiliated Dixie Mafia send their top gun Vanilla Ride to kill the pair starting with her blue eyes, blond hair, and killer smile. The return of the kings of deadly chaos Hap and Leonard will delight fans as they once again get involved in an outrageous caper that leaves plenty of corpses in which the title Vanilla Ride probably should have been Cherry Ride. The story line is fast-paced, filled with action as Joe R. Lansdale satirizes the epic crime thriller with a super insane only in Texas thriller. Harriet Klausner