Reviewing the Mail: Week of 4/16/22

One book this week, which is my Platonic ideal: enough to be its own post, little enough to not take much time and to give that one book the maximum attention.  It did come in the mail; it is a new book sent to me by a long-suffering publicist.

The book is Born for Trouble by Joe R. Lansdale, subtitled "The Further Adventures of Hap and Leonard." It was published in trade paperback by Tachyon on March 21, or at least that was the plan: with all of the supply-chain drama this past year I'm not sure if I got this uncorrected proof after the real book was published, or if everything has been shifted back a bit. Either way: it's new, and the usual sources for books will sell it to you right now. (I write this Easter Morning, and the biggest one says it could get me this book today if I order within a little more than an hour.)

Hap and Leonard are Lansdale's most famous characters, appearing in a long series of novels since 1990's Savage Season and several previous collections of stories (most, maybe all, of them from Tachyon). I have read precisely none of those stories, nor have I seen any of the TV show based on the series that was on the air a few years back. So I have no personal connection here: nothing only I could tell you.

This is a very popular series by a well-respected, sui generis writer: I can tell you that. This probably isn't the place to start the series, but there's about a dozen novels, all of which seem to still be in print, and my guess is either Savage Season or Mucho Mojo (the second one) would be great entry points.