Hap and Leonard Thrillers Series

Florida Grange, Leonard's drop-dead gorgeous lawyer and Hap's former lover, has vanished in Klan-infested Grovetown while in pursuit of the real story behind the jailhouse death of a legendary bluesman's blackguard son. Fearing the worst, Hap and Leonard set out to do the kind of investigating the good ole boy cops can't - or won't - do. In Grovetown they encounter a redneck police chief, a sadistic Christmas tree grower, and townsfolk itchin' for a lynchin'. Add to this a dark night exhumation in a voodoo graveyard, a thunderstorm of Biblical proportions, and flat-out sudden murder. Hap and Leonard vow to face the hate and find Florida, even if Leonard has to put a hole in anyone who gets in the way. Besides, they've packed a lunch.

Bad Chili

by Joe R. Lansdale

Published 1 August 1994

Hap Collins is home, fresh from his stint on an offshore oil rig, bright with determination to change his life. Back in LaBorde, he finds his friend Leonard Pine grieving over the breakup of his affair with his lover Raul. Then things get serious. A local roughneck by the name of Horse Dick is dead and Leonard is implicated. Not surprisingly, the law is little use. To help his partner, Hap won't be bending the law, he'll be stomping the hell out of it. But Hap has always had to do things he doesn't like. What he does like - a lot - is Brett Sawyer, a nurse and a woman with her own past.

Honky Tonk Samurai

by Joe R. Lansdale

Published 2 February 2016

Only Hap and Leonard would catch a cold case with hot cars, hot women, and ugly skinheads. The story starts simply enough when Hap, a former 60s activist and self-proclaimed white trash rebel, and Leonard, a tough black, gay Vietnam vet and Republican with an addiction to Dr. Pepper, are working a freelance surveillance job in East Texas. The uneventful stakeout is coming to an end when the pair witness a man abusing his dog. Leonard takes matters into his own fists, and now the bruised dog abuser wants to press charges. One week later, a woman named Lilly Buckner drops by their new PI office with a proposition: find her missing granddaughter, or she'll turn in a video of Leonard beating the dog abuser. The pair agrees to take on the cold case and soon discover that the used car dealership where her granddaughter worked is actually a front for a prostitution ring. The mystery of her disappearance only deepens from there.

Rusty Puppy

by Joe R. Lansdale

Published 21 February 2017

Mismatched private detectives Hap and Leonard investigate the murder of a young black man who was conducting his own civilian investigation into the white cop who was stalking his sister.

Jackrabbit Smile

by Joe R. Lansdale

Published 22 March 2018

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.

'Reading Joe R. Lansdale is like listening to a favorite uncle who just happens to be a fabulous storyteller' Dean Koontz

Hap and Leonard are an unlikely pair - Hap, a self-proclaimed white trash rebel, and Leonard, a tough-as-nails black gay Vietnam vet and Republican - but they're the closest friend either of them has in the world. Hap is celebrating his wedding to his longtime girlfriend, when their backyard barbecue is interrupted by a couple of Pentecostal white supremacists. They're not too happy to see Leonard, and no one is happy to see them, but they have a problem and they want Hap and Leonard to solve it.

Judith Mulhaney's daughter, Jackrabbit, has been missing for five years. That is, she's been missing from her family for five years, but she's been missing from everybody, including the local no-goods they knew ran with her, for a few months. Despite their misgivings, Hap and Leonard take the case. It isn't long until they find themselves mixed up in a revivalist cult believing that Jesus will return flanked by an army of lizard-men, and solving a murder to boot.

With Lansdale's trademark humour, sharp dialogue, and plenty of righteous beatdowns, you won't want to miss Hap and Leonard's latest.

Devil Red

by Joe R. Lansdale

Published 1 January 2011

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.

If there's one thing Hap Collins and Leonard Pine like, it's trouble - and they especially like getting paid to find it.

So when their friend and sometime boss Marvin Harmon asks the boys to look into a cold-case double homicide, they're happy to oblige. It turns out that both victims were set to inherit some serious money, and one of them ran with an honest-to-goodness vampire cult.

The more closely Hap and Leonard look over the crime scene photos, the more trouble they see. The image of a red devil's head is painted on a tree. A little research turns up a slew of murders with that same fiendish signature. And if things aren't weird enough, Leonard has taken to wearing a deerstalker cap... Will this be the case that finally sends Hap over the edge?

Savage Season

by Joe R. Lansdale

Published 1 July 1990

Hap Collins and Leonard Pine are an odd crime team - one white and straight and the other gay and black. The reappearance of Trudy, Hap's one-time lover, with talk of buried loot, is greeted with misgivings by Leonard. In this tale of greed and murder his assumptions are not wrong.

Mucho Mojo

by Joe R. Lansdale

Published 25 May 1995

When Leonard and his friend Hap clean out his Uncle Chester's house, they find a skeleton wrapped in pornographic magazines. Leonard is aware of the unwritten codes in that part of town and knows that they must find the answer without the law. Together they then unearth the deepest truth of all.

Vanilla Ride

by Joe R. Lansdale

Published 1 January 2009

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.

Hap Collins and Leonard Pine, the kings of East Texas mischief and mayhem, return in this full-throttle thriller to face off with the Dixie Mafia.

When Leonard is asked to rescue a teenage girl from a lowly drug dealer, he gladly agrees and invites Hap along for the ride. Everything goes according to plan, until they find out the dealer is a member of the Dixie mafia. A wild gun fight ensues, after which Hap and Leonard are arrested. Turns out, however, that the law needs a favour and if Hap and Leonard can do the deed they'll be free to roam. There's one problem, the Dixie Mafia's new hired gun - the legendary assassin Vanilla Ride.

Filled with breakneck action, gut-busting laughs, and one gigantic alligator, this hilarious novel is as hot as a habanero pepper.

Rumble Tumble

by Joe R. Lansdale

Published 1 September 1998

Hap Collins is hitting the hard edge of a mid-life crisis. By night, he's bouncing at a local club. By day, he's living by the grace of his best friend -- black, gay Vietnam vet Leonard Pine -- and his good woman, former Sweet Potato Queen Brett Sawyer. Hap may be down, but he's a long throw from out. That's the good news. Brett's daughter, Tillie, who is turning tricks and taking drugs, stands in need of a quick and merciful rescue. It will be no easy chore, starting with a hard trek from mosquito-ridden but familiar LaBorde, Texas, to the fleshpots and hardasses of Hootie Hoot, Oklahoma.

On the road the trio picks up new friends, like a hulking Pentecostal preacher and retired hit man, as well as fresh enemies, including a redheaded midget with a giant chip on his shoulder and an army of bikers turned profiteers and cold-blooded killers. "Rumble Tumble" is a suspense yarn in the class Texas style. It'll be a ride. Just leave the shooting to Hap. And the driving to Leonard.