Sugar on the Bones, by Joe R. Lansdale

I've been rolling with Hap and Leonard for a long time. Almost thirty-five years. I was already a monster Joe R. Lansdale fan when Savage Season was published in paperback by Bantam Books. I still remember the look on the WaldenBooks woman's face as she rang up the book. The cover, featuring a hand with a knife plunged through it, is a big favorite of mine. The clerk practically turned green and didn't want to touch the book.

I obviously loved Savage Season, and every Hap and Leonard novel in the long years since then. I got vicarious thrills of being the tough guy, the smartass who always had a clever quip on the tip of my tongue.

As with any series, the Nameless Detective books of Bill Pronzini, F. Paul Wilson's Repairman Jack, Preston and Child's Pendergast novels, I love details about the personal lives of the characters as much as I enjoy the action. I know the lives of Hap Collins and Leonard Pine more than many of my longtime friends. It's great to watch them evolve.

Leonard, always a hothead with a clear, cold grip on his conscience, undergoes emotional upheaval in Sugar on the Bones. Maybe he's been a closet romantic the whole time.

The real show, however, is the action. I'm tempted to say Hap and Leonard face their deadliest opponents yet, but the boys have run up against some doozies in the past. This time the odds are highly against them, and they have to recruit allies from their past. Jim Bob Luke, Vanilla Ride, and Veil all come to help them.

Mild spoiler here: a couple of long-running characters don't make it through this one.

This is a series, so it's pretty much guaranteed that Hap and Leonard themselves pull through. They win this battle, but the war never ends. As with past books they are fighting organized crime in Texas. That stuff never really goes away, does it?

I'm prone to hyperbole, and I'd like to say Sugar on the Bones is my favorite in the series. I'm biting my lip on that, but I will say this is easily one of the best so far. The novel kicked me in the guts with its violence and horror, but it also moved me in a deeply emotional way.

Hap and Leonard have gotten older, Joe has gotten older, and so have I. None of us are the same as when the saga began. Our hearts are wearier, but we also feel things on a more profound level. I felt a greater kinship with Hap and Leonard than ever before. My own struggles with aging and maintaining my health and ability to work seem similar to the adversaries they face.

I will say Sugar on the Bones is my favorite book thus far in 2024. I'm tempted to say it won't be topped, but you never know. I do know this: Joe is better than ever at the writing game, and he knows these characters like his own flesh and blood.

Written by Mark Sieber