|
[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
The first job Hap Collins and Leonard Pine get from their friend Marvin's new PI firm is to retrieve the money stolen from a poor widow, breaking the legs, if necessary, of the guy who stole it. If they're successful, they'll get to split $25. Of course, they have to hang out in a neighbourhood so tough that even the mice belonged to gangs. But if you think for one moment that what happened in the previous book, VANILLA ICE, has scared them off the big stuff, think again. Before you know it, the pair of operatives (no, they are not licensed detectives) are busy trying to find out who is responsible for the deaths of Ted Christopher and his girl friend Mini, whose bodies were found two years ago along the path on which they'd been jogging. The police have it down to a random mugging, but Ted's mother is wealthy enough to employ a private detective to see whether there is more to it than that. Hap and Leonard may not be real detectives, but Leonard seems to have developed ambitions in that direction. In any event, he's taken to wearing a deerstalker, which makes the tall, black, gay Viet Nam vet an arresting sight. He and Hap quickly uncover some intriguing facts about the dead couple. They were both in line to inherit large amounts of money; Mini was involved with a group of women who fancied themselves vampires. And, it transpires, they are all dead, too. As is almost everyone involved with the case, sooner or later, the sites where they died marked with a scrawled red devil. Certainly Hap and Leonard are targets - the question is who is aiming their way? And can whoever it is be stopped before Hap and Leonard join the majority of the cast as well? Lansdale is decidedly on form in this eighth in the series. His trademarks - inventive, often hilarious dialogue, eccentric but plausible characters, and, as well, his over-the-top enthusiasm for artillery, weaponry, and pulp fiction violence - are all in evidence. So too is his endearing habit of bringing back characters from other books. Here it's Cason Statler, the newspaper columnist from LEATHER MAIDEN, whose formidable sexual adventures strike awe in Hap and Leonard. It has been something like eighteen years since the pair made their first appearance. Reading DEVIL RED, I had the feeling that nothing has changed in East Texas over the years, aside from the introduction of cell phones. For all I know, this may well be true, but one thing that certainly has changed is the age of the protagonists. By my reckoning, Leonard must be getting close to collecting his first social security cheque, but he remains spry as a squirrel. While Hap experiences a frightening period of existential doubt, Leonard appears immutable. When I took a moment to consider these details, I found myself a bit disoriented. Like the $25.00 fee the pair split at the beginning of the book, much would make more sense if the book were set twenty years ago, when you'd still have considerable change from $25.00 after gassing up your car. Still, DEVIL RED is enormous fun and the reader will not mind suspending disbelief to enjoy the ride. § Yvonne Klein is a writer, translator, and retired college English professor who lives in Montreal.
Reviewed by Yvonne Klein, March 2011
[ Top ]
QUICK SEARCH:
Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]
|
