Vanilla Ride

So I got this book from the now-departed Trover Book Shop in Capitol Hill just before they went out of business. I happened to be in the neighborhood that day and just dropped in to find they were in the last vestiges of business. I should almost make a bookshelf devoted to long lost book shops such as Trover, Olsson's, Chinook, Stars Our Destination, MysteryBooks, Borders, and the Western Springs Book Rack. These were friends who are greatly missed. Here in Tampa, I'm now limited to Barnes & Noble, the mostly-used Almost New Books, and the excellent, yet science-fictionally challenged, Inkwood Books. If I want to go over to St. Pete, they have the excellent Haslam's. But that is it. Hopefully, my meager dollars can help keep them going.

Back to our novel, VANILLA RIDE is another in Joe R. Lansdale's Hap and Leonard series. When I got it, it was the latest book. Now there are two more out. I'll get to them as soon as I get through the newest Wild Cards. (Maybe one day Champion Joe can write one of those tales.) Hap is an East Texas guy and Leonard is his best friend. Leonard is gay, black, out and proud. These books usually center around some crime and meander a lot.

In this case, Hap and Leonard are asked to get back the granddaughter of a friend. Over the course of the book, they fight drug dealers, the Dixie Mafia, hitmen, corrupt cops, rednecks, but thankfully no rabid squirrels. They eat a lot of fast food, talk about their pasts, and generally find their way to where they are going.

Sometimes, Hap and Leonard can ramble too much. A couple of books just seemed to happen, but VANILLA RIDE keeps you going despite the fact that not much is going on.

Lansdale's books are fun to read. He has an ear for patter and can make disgusting references sound normal. He is one of my five favorite authors and I cannot recommend him more highly.