Are you kidding? A book of 5 Hap and Leonard stories, how can you go wrong? You can’t. All are darkly hilarious. Not a bad story in the book. If you are a Hap and Leonard fan, do yourself a favor and read this! ( )

This is Joe R. Lansdale, and it's Lansdale writing Hap & Leonard, so there's always going to be a good time had by all.

This one's no exception, with five shorter tales from Hap & Leonard's latter years.

I will state absolutely right up front that I loved every single one of these stories.

But I do also have to state that, at times, they did feel a little indulgent. For example, we're treated to a few pages at the start of "The Briar Patch Boogie" that really add nothing to the context of the story, it's just Hap & Leonard langorously insulting and berating each other and cracking mildly amusing jokes at the start of the story. It takes several pages for any story to actually kick in.

And there's other spots like this scattered throughout the other stories. While I don't mind them, because, let's be real, we come for the camaraderie of those two fellas, but there's also a thing as too much of those fellas with no story to support their antics.

Elmore Leonard said, in his rules of writing, that a writer should cut out the parts the reader would skip over.

These stories, while entertaining, could have used a bit of judicious pruning.

Still, Lansdale at his worst is still miles better than most authors at their best. Definitely worth the read. ( )

Born for Trouble: The Further Adventures of Hap and Leonard by Joe R. Lansdale
Tachyon Publications 3/5 stars LibraryThing
GENRES: Mystery, Private Investigators, Crime, Short Stories

This is a collection of five short stories that follows Texan private investigators during the 1980’s. They are as different from each other as friends could possibly be. Leonard Pine is black, gay, and Republican: while Hap Collins is white, a recently married heterosexual, and (gasp!) a liberal. They get involved in crimes that take place in fictional town LaBorde, located in east Texas.

The writing in these stories is comfortable and witty. The dialogue is realistic, and the writing is sparse and crisp. Although this was my first Hap and Leonard book, I got to really know these guys as they interacted during their capers. You can enjoy these stories without having to read previous novels.

If you like Walter Mosely, James Lee Burke, and Elmore Leonard, you would enjoy this book and the Hap and Leonard series. ( )

This latest collection of Hap and Leonard stories focuses on our heroes in their later years as they try and settle down into something more resembling a normal life while working for a private investigator agency run by Hap’s wife.

But there’s no need to worry that they have been tamed as these five stories contain the requisite amount of sick crime, murder, and mayhem in true Hap & Leonard style.

While the mystery and action of these stories is always fun (in a twisted sort of way) it is the relationship between Hap and Leonard that is the heart and soul of these books. It’s for that reason that my favorite part of this collection is the first part of “The Briar Patch Boogie” story which is nine pages of the two of them just bitching at each other about a failed fishing trip ( )

Break out the Dr. Pepper and vanilla cookies, I’m reading Hap and Leonard again! Five of their short tales, to be exact! Bummer for me, I had already read the first two. “Sad Onions” was a good read, but way too short, for my tastes. Loved the fourth story where the hillbilly hunters become the hunted! And the collection ends on a high note, with murder, robbery, and impotency! All-in-all, a good collection of H&L craziness! And like everyone of their tales, they were all - “Easy up until it wasn’t.”

Table of Contents:

1. Coco Butternut
2. Hoodoo Harry
3. Sad Onions
4. The Briar Patch Boogie
5. Cold Cotton ( )