Joe R. Lansdale Books

Set in an East Texas nursing home, the story features iconic figures Elvis and JFK, portrayed by Bruce Campbell and Ossie Davis. They confront a redneck mummy, blending humor and horror in a unique narrative. This companion book expands on the film's quirky premise, exploring themes of aging, friendship, and the absurdity of their situation. The characters navigate their unusual challenges while delivering a mix of wit and nostalgia.

Jack Parker knows all too well how treacherous life can be. His parents did not survive a smallpox epidemic. His grandfather was murdered. Now his sister Lula has been kidnapped by a bank robber. Alongside bounty hunter Shorty, an eloquent dwarf with a chip on his shoulder, and Eustace, the grave-digging son of an ex-slave, Jack sets off to rescue Lula.

Hap and Leonard investigate a racially motivated murder that threatens to tear apart their East Texas town. While Hap, a former 60s activist and self-proclaimed white trash rebel, is recovering from a life-threatening stab wound, Louise Elton comes into Hap and Leonard's PI office to tell him that the police have killed her son, Jamar. Months earlier, a bully cop pulled over and sexually harassed Jamar's sister, Charm. The officer followed Charm over the course of the next couple of months, leading Jamar to videotape and take notes on the cop and his partner. The next thing Louise hears, Jamar got in a fight and is killed in the projects by local hoods. It doesn't add up: he was a straight A student, destined for better things, until he began to ask too many questions about the racist police force. Leonard, a tough black gay Vietnam vet and Republican, joins Hap in the investigation, and they stumble upon the racial divides that have shaped their Eastern Texas town. But if anyone can navigate these pitfalls and bring the killers to justice, it's Hap and Leonard. Filled with Lansdale's trademark whip-smart dialogue, colorful characters, and relentless pacing, Rusty Puppy is Joe Lansdale at his page-turning best.

Meet Hap and Leonard, the unlikely detective duo now on screen in the highly praised series starring James Purefoy, Michael K. Williams and Christina Hendricks. Full of savage humour, heart-stopping suspense, and a cast of characters so tough they could chew the bumper off a pickup truck, THE TWO-BEAR MAMBO is classic country noir. In this rollicking, rollercoaster ride of a novel, Hap Collins and Leonard Pine take a break from their day jobs to search for Florida Grange, Leonard's drop-dead gorgeous lawyer and Hap's former lover, who has vanished in the Klan-infested East Texas town of Grovetown. Before she disappeared, Florida was digging up some dirt behind the mysterious jailhouse death of a legendary bluesman's son, who was in possession of some priceless merchandise. To Hap and Leonard, something don't smell right. With murder on their minds, Hap and Leonard set out to investigate as only they know how... chaotically.

One of the most original and versatile authors today, Joe R. Lansdale garners critical acclaim and a growing readership with each work of suspense, horror, western, or graphic fiction. In this masterpiece, he blends elements of these genres into a tale of regional marvels and dark suspense. Under the relentless Texas sun, Hap Collins finds solace in fantasies while working in the rose fields, while his friend Leonard Pine's Uncle Chester faces mental decline in the slums of LaBorde. Chester's condition softens his disdain for his gay nephew, and he neglects the crack house next door, as well as the secret buried beneath his floorboards. He does, however, construct a "battle tree" to ward off black magic. When Leonard and Hap clean out Chester's house, they uncover a small skeleton wrapped in pornographic magazines, linking an unsolved series of child murders to Leonard's late guardian. While Hap wants to involve the police, Leonard, familiar with the unspoken rules of their neighborhood, persuades him to help clear Chester's name without outside interference. Together, they confront the darkest truths, intertwining themes of race, romance, sex, and death in a narrative rich with Texas Gothic suspense.

Back in the nineties a novella, The Events Concerning a Nude Fold-Out Found in a Harlequin Romance, about jobless Plebin Cook, his daughter Jasmine, and a used bookstore owner named Martha, received a Bram Stoker Award and appeared to be the start of a series. It wasn't. But now, we're taking a time machine back to the original story, involving circus dogs, mannikins and a serial killer, and we're adding a quirky, short novel, The Events Concerning Two Stabbed Clowns in a Bloody Bathtub. The novel is wilder than the original tale and answers the question: What did Plebin and the gang do next? A missing cat leads to an outrageous blackmail scheme, a sex video, a body in an out of the way cemetery, a sexy mortician, clown orgies, bathtub stabbings, and a missing child. But Plebin, Jasmine and Martha are on the job, because they not only have a used bookstore to run, they own a private eye agency, BOOKS AND BULLETS, and they are clown deep into a twisty investigation. An investigation that soon becomes a race against time to rescue a child before she is deprived of air and a wicked vengeance is completed. Step up and step out with the gang. But watch the face paint and the blood puddles, and keep your back to the wall. Things are about to go sideways in the best way possible for a reader craving mystery, suspense, and unexpected thrills

Edgar Award winner and New York Times bestselling author Joe R. Lansdale (the Hap and Leonard series) returns to the piney, dangerous woods of East Texas. In this career retrospective of his best crime stories, Lansdale shows exactly why critics continue to compare him to Elmore Leonard, Donald Westlake, Flannery O'Connor, and William Faulkner. "Pulpy, blackly humorous, compulsively readable, and somehow both wildly surreal and down-to-earth. Lansdale is a national fucking treasure." --Christa Faust, author of Money Shot In the 1950s, a young small-town projectionist mixes it up with a violent gang. When Mr. Bear is not alerting us to the dangers of forest fires, he lives a life of debauchery and murder. A brother and sister travel to Oklahoma to recover the dead body of their uncle. A lonely man engages in dubious acts while pining for his rubber duckie. In this collection of nineteen unforgettable crime tales, Joe R. Landsdale brings his legendary mojo and witty grit to harrowing heists, revenge, homicide, and mayhem. No matter how they begin, things are bound to get ugly--and fast.

A bitingly brilliant novel of comedy and crime from a master at the height of his powers.

Mucho Mojo is the basis for the second season of the new Sundance TV series Hap and Leonard and has been adapted into a full color graphic novel by Finnish illustrator Jussi Piironen.Hap and Leonard return in this incredible, mad-dash thriller, loaded with crack addicts, a serial killer, and a body count.Leonard is still nursing the injuries he sustained in the duo's last wild undertaking when he learns that his Uncle Chester has passed. Hap is of course going to be there for his best friend, and when the two are cleaning up Uncle Chester's dilapidated house, they uncover a dark little secret beneath the house's rotting floor boards-- a small skeleton buried in a trunk. Hap wants to call the police. Leonard, being a black man in east Texas, persuades him this is not a good idea, and together they set out to clear Chester's name on their own. The only things standing in their way is a houseful of felons, a vicious killer, and possibly themselves.

Joe R. Lansdale, celebrated for his contributions to horror and "splatterpunk," significantly shaped the Weird Western genre through works like The Magic Wagon. His storytelling blends elements of the supernatural with Western themes, creating a unique narrative style that has captivated readers for over three decades. Lansdale's influence continues to resonate in contemporary literature, marking him as a pivotal figure in the evolution of this genre.