Review: Rusty Puppy

Rusty Puppy by Joe R. Lansdale
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When the woman who lives across the street from Brett's detective agency hires them to find out who killed her son, Hap and Leonard wind up in Camp Rapture, where the cops are worse than the criminals...

Rusty Puppy, the twelfth Hap and Leonard novel, features the dynamic duo we've all come to know and love, Hap and Leonard. As usual, the boys are in way over their heads, making smart ass remarks and sticking their noses where they don't belong.

Joe Lansdale's writing is as hilarious as ever, full of his front porch wisdom and hilarious one-liners. I'd say there's a quoteable line on almost every page. As per usual, the violence is pretty harsh once it finally arrives and the bad guys are huge scumbags. I like where things have gone with Chance and that Hap still bears some scars from the events of the last book.

While I enjoyed this as much as the last few, the series is starting to feel kind of formulaic. Hap and Leonard are still total bad asses despite having to be in their sixties at this point in the series. While the bad guys are pretty bad, there was no point that I thought they'd get the best of Hap and Leonard. Also, Marvin Hanson has covered for Hap and Leonard a few too many times to still have a badge.

Another gripe I had is that all the dangling threads from the last book were already resolved by the time this book was published in Briar Patch Boogie: A Hap and Leonard Novelette and Hap and Leonard: Blood and Lemonade.

Gripes aside, Lansdale still writes some of the best dialogue in crime fiction and I still devoured this thing in two sittings. It's gripping, and while I knew how it would end, it was still a lot of fun getting there and even a lesser Hap and Leonard book is still more enjoyable than a lot of books on the racks. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

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