The Two-Bear Mambo (Hap Collins and Leonard Pine Series #3) » (Playaway Edition with Earbuds)

Joe R. Lansdale has written more than a dozen novels in the suspense, horror, and Western genres. He has also edited several anthologies. He has received the British Fantasy Award, the American Mystery Award, seven Bram Stoker Awards, and an Edgar Award. He lives in Nacogdoches, Texas, with his family.

Full of savage humor, 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.

“Lansdale has a zest for storytelling and a gimlet eye for detail.” - Entertainment Weekly

“Lansdale’s prose, both laconic and sarcastic, is so thick with slang and regional accent that it’s as tasty as a well-cured piece of beef jerky. Readers will want to savor each bite.” - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Publishers Weekly

In bringing Lansdale's rollicking Edgar Award–winning novel to life, Phil Gigante goes to tremendous lengths to capture the ambience of good-old-boy charm met with darkly comic dysfunction. Unlikely best friends and crime-fighting partners Hap and Leonard reveal themselves through an assortment of delightful nuances and insecurities, as Gigante injects race, sexual orientation and cultural identity into his portrayals of the principals without falling into one-dimensional stereotypes. Gigante juggles the sprawling cast of townspeople in the Klan hotbed of Grovetown, Tex.; particularly memorable turns include the town's police chief, whose gruff demeanor and insensitive buffoonery belie innate wisdom and judgment. Even minor characters vividly enhance the landscape thanks to Gigante's attention to detail. The marriage of Lansdale's creativity and Gigante's pitch-perfect delivery makes for a sublime listening experience, assuming that audiences can handle the raw subject matter and language. A Vintage paperback. (May)