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A review by misterjay
Bad Chili by Joe R. Lansdale
3.0
Like all the preceding Hap and Leonard novels, Bad Chili's best parts are the quick dialogue and honest affection between the two main characters. Add in a couple of new characters in the form of a good old boy private investigator and a nurse and new girlfriend for Hap and all the dialogue, both internal and external, gets that much better. Additionally, for readers of the series, there are enough small plot points among the recurring characters that rather than reading the novel feeling like seeing a couple of old friends again, the reader might feel more like they've come back for a reunion where they get to see everyone at once.
This makes it easy to empathize with our heroes when we lose a few of the side characters, but, likewise, it makes it easier to see where Lansdale may have chosen to sacrifice a character or two in favor of the plot by having them act in ways that we had not known they were capable of.
Relatedly, Bad Chili suffers from too much plot and too much seemingly random plot at that. The story begins with Hap being bitten by a rabid squirrel and somehow ends up with Hap fighting a former professional wrestler in his house while a storm rages around them. The amount of coincidence needed for each section to segue into the next is more than a little contrived and the novel suffers some for it.
So, when all is said and done, this is not my favorite of the Hap and Leonard novels, but I really did enjoy the chance to catch up the boys and meet the new people in their lives and I look forward to seeing how these new relationships develop in the next book. Which I'll be reading very soon.
This makes it easy to empathize with our heroes when we lose a few of the side characters, but, likewise, it makes it easier to see where Lansdale may have chosen to sacrifice a character or two in favor of the plot by having them act in ways that we had not known they were capable of.
Relatedly, Bad Chili suffers from too much plot and too much seemingly random plot at that. The story begins with Hap being bitten by a rabid squirrel and somehow ends up with Hap fighting a former professional wrestler in his house while a storm rages around them. The amount of coincidence needed for each section to segue into the next is more than a little contrived and the novel suffers some for it.
So, when all is said and done, this is not my favorite of the Hap and Leonard novels, but I really did enjoy the chance to catch up the boys and meet the new people in their lives and I look forward to seeing how these new relationships develop in the next book. Which I'll be reading very soon.