Most Popular Books by Joe R. Lansdale

This Edgar Award winner is "equal parts morality tale and page-turning thriller" (Denver Post)—classic American storytelling in its truest, darkest, and most affecting form, with echoes of William Faulkner and Harper Lee. Its 1933 in East Texas and the Depression lingers in the air like a slow moving storm. When a young Harry Collins and his little sister stumble across the body of a black woman who has been savagely mutilated and left to die in the bottoms of the Sabine River, their small town is instantly charged with tension. When a second body turns up, this time of a white woman, there is little Harry can do from stopping his Klan neighbors from lynching an innocent black man. Together with his younger sister, Harry sets out to discover who the real killer is, and to do so they will search for a truth that resides far deeper than any river or skin color.

"Local fighter, future legend, Jack Johnson versus a professional street fighter brought in to put the black upstart in his place. Whorehouses, gambling, racial tension, the intersection between myth, history, legend and reality. The hurricane of the century is coming to destroy it all."--Jacket.

Mark Twain meets classic Stephen King -- a bold new direction for widely acclaimed Edgar Award winner Joe R. Lansdale. May Lynn was once a pretty girl who dreamed of becoming a Hollywood star. Now she's dead, her body dredged up from the Sabine River. Sue Ellen, May Lynn's strong-willed teenage friend, sets out to dig up May Lynn's body, burn it to ash, and take those ashes to Hollywood to spread around. If May Lynn can't become a star, then at least her ashes will end up in the land of her dreams. Along with her friends Terry and Jinx and her alcoholic mother, Sue Ellen steals a raft and heads downriver to carry May Lynn's remains to Hollywood. Only problem is, Sue Ellen has some stolen money that her enemies will do anything to get back. And what looks like a prime opportunity to escape from a worthless life will instead lead to disastrous consequences. In the end, Sue Ellen will learn a harsh lesson on just how hard growing up can really be.

In the middle of a cyclone, beautiful, red-haired Sunset Jones shoots her husband Pete dead when he tries to beat and rape her. To Camp Rapture’s general consternation, Sunset’s mother-in-law arranges for her to take over from Pete as town constable. As if that weren’t hard enough to swallow in depression era east Texas, Sunset actually takes the job seriously, and her investigation into a brutal double murder pulls her into a maelstrom of greed, corruption, and unspeakable malice. It is a case that will require a well of inner strength she never knew she had. Spirited and electrifying, Sunset and Sawdust is a mystery and a tale like nothing you’ve read before.

Godzilla’s in a twelve-step program. A soul-sucking Mummy stalks Elvis and John F. Kennedy. Joe Bob Briggs has a moral dilemma: If your girlfriend turns zombie on you, what do you do? And that’s the tame stuff. In this red-hot collection from world-champion Mojo storyteller Joe R. Lansdale, you’ll find his best, most outrageous stories. The high priest of Texan weirdness does it all: horror, mystery, satire, suspense, and even Westerns. Prepare to be offended, shocked, and cackling like a crazed redneck. Featuring five Bram Stoker Award–winning stories, this career retrospective contains some of Lansdale’s rarer work, his nonfiction forays into drive-in theaters and B-movies, and the novella Bubba Ho-Tep, later made into a cult-classic major motion picture. Come on in—the weirdness is fine.

When the devastation wrought by endless dust storms in 1930s Oklahoma makes orphans of Jack, his schoolmate Jane, and her brother Tony, they take the truck of a dead man and set out to find a new start.

Originally published: New York: Kensington, 1981.

Young Stanley Mitchell, Jr., enters the underworld of his 1958 East Texas home when he discovers a cache of love letters by a murdered girl and experiences his first encounters with blues music, racism, and lost dreams.

Hap Collins and Leonard Pine, the bad old boys from Mucho Mojo and Bad Chili return for another rough and ready adventure south of the border.

From the Edgar Award-winning author of the Hap and Leonard series, a hard-boiled novel set in 1960s Texas in which a no-nonsense car salesman faces a tempting decision, a dangerous deal, and an alluring affair. Ed Edwards is in the used car business, a business built on adjusted odometers, extra-fine print, and the belief that "buyers better beware." Burdened by an aging, alcoholic mother constantly on his case to do something worthier of his lighter skin tone and dreaming of a brighter future for himself and his plucky little sister, Ed is ready to get out of the game. When Dave, his lazy, grease-stained boss at the eponymous dealership Smiling Dave's sends him to repossess a Cadillac, Ed finally gets the chance to escape his miserable life. The Cadillac in question was purchased by Frank Craig and his beautiful wife Nancy, owners of a local drive-in and pet cemetery. Fed up with her deadbeat husband and with unfulfilled desires of her own, Nancy suggests to Ed -- in the throes of their salacious affair -- that they kill Frank and claim his insurance policy. It is a tantalizing offer: the girl, the car, and not one, but two businesses. Ed could finally say goodbye to Smiling Dave's, and maybe even send his sister to college. But does he have what it takes to see the plan through? Told with Joe Lansdale's trademark grit, wit, and dark humor, More Better Deals is a gripping tale of the strange characters and odd dealings that define 1960s East Texas.

“Lansdale’s best known—and frequently most disturbing—stories . . . sanctified in the blood of the walking Western dead and righteously readable.” —The Austin Chronicle From the award-winning master of mojo storytelling, spinner of over-the-top yarns of horror, suspense, humor, mystery, science fiction, and even the Old West comes the first “true best of Lansdale” anthology. Sanctified and Chicken-Fried brings together a unique mix of well-known short stories and excerpts from his acclaimed novels, along with new and previously unpublished material. In this collection of gothic tales that explore the dark and sometimes darkly humorous side of life and death, you’ll meet traveling preachers with sinister agendas, towns lost to time, teenagers out for a good time who get more than they bargain for, and gangsters and strange goings-on at the end of the world. Out of the blender of Lansdale’s imagination spew tall tales about men and mules, hogs and races, that are, in his words, “the equivalent of Aesop meets Flannery O’Connor on a date with William Faulkner, the events recorded by James M. Cain.” “He may be violent, gruesome and shocking, but Lansdale is also one of the greatest yarn spinners of his generation: fearless, earthy, original, manic and dreadfully funny . . . If you’re new to Lansdale, not easily shocked or offended, Sanctified and Chicken-Fried is a good place to jump in and hang on for a crazy ride off the rails.” —The Dallas Morning News

The basis for the third season of the new Sundance TV series Hap and Leonard coming Spring 2018. 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 now how . . . chaotically.

A life is taken in self-defence - but the victim's father is out for revenge. An eye for an eye, a son for a son...

"Lansdale is an immense talent."—Booklist. Small-town juvenile delinquents, Pentecostal snake-handlers, zombies, psychopaths, and assorted freaks populate these witty and gritty tales of horror by a master of the genre. The suspenseful, action-packed tales range from visions of a post-apocalyptic world ("Tight Little Stitches in a Dead Man's Back," "On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert with Dead Folks") to alternative histories ("Trains Not Taken," "Letter from the South, Two Moons West of Nacogdoches"). A dozen other stories of gruesome violence and utter depravity include "The Pit," in which car trouble develops into a life-or-death struggle; "Night They Missed the Horror Show," involving an encounter with ornery rednecks; and "Hell Through a Windshield," in which a drive-in movie provides a one-way ticket to another dimension. By Bizarre Hands, Joe R. Lansdale's debut collection of short stories, was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award for Best Fiction, and two of its tales have received Stoker awards. Lansdale's novella Bubba Ho-Tep was adapted into a 2002 film, and his Hap and Leonard detective stories inspired the Sundance Channel television series. This edition features an Introduction by science-fiction novelist Lewis Shiner and an Afterword by horror fiction author Ramsey Campbell. Suggested for mature readers. www.doverpublications.com

Now a Tubi original film starring Peter Dinklage and Juliette Lewis, this rip-roaring adventure set at the dark dawn of the East Texas oil boom is the perfect introduction to Joe R. Lansdale, whose work has been called "as funny and frightening as anything that could have been dreamed up by the Brothers Grimm — or Mark Twain" (New York Times Book Review). Jack Parker thought he'd already seen his fair share of tragedy. His grandmother was killed in a farm accident when he was barely five years old. His parents have just succumbed to the smallpox epidemic sweeping turn-of-the-century East Texas -- orphaning him and his younger sister, Lula. Then catastrophe strikes on the way to their uncle's farm, when a traveling group of bank-robbing bandits murder Jack's grandfather and kidnap his sister. With no elders left for miles, Jack must grow up fast and enlist a band of heroes the likes of which has never been seen if his sister stands any chance at survival. But the best he can come up with is a charismatic, bounty-hunting dwarf named Shorty, a grave-digging son of an ex-slave named Eustace, and a street-smart woman-for-hire named Jimmie Sue who's come into some very intimate knowledge about the bandits (and a few members of Jack's extended family to boot). In the throes of being civilized, East Texas is still a wild, feral place. Oil wells spurt liquid money from the ground. But as Jack's about to find out, blood and redemption rule supreme. In The Thicket, award-winning novelist Joe R. Lansdale lets loose like never before, in an action-packed adventure that's equal parts True Grit and Stand by Me.

In the field of country noir--the dark side of rural and small-town America--Lansdale staked his claim to East Texas with The Nightrunners. A '66 Chevy bears down on the countryside, with a carful of vicious teenagers and evil of Biblical proportions, in this terrifying morality tale of sex and violence.

"A novel of suspense" featuring Hap Collins and Leonard Pine.

On the great plains of the old American west, enormous steam-powered robots march across the countryside. Their mission: to defend the populace against invading Martians and armies of killer albino apes! The Steam Man, a giant metal man operated by a team of monster hunters, seems to have the defense of the West well in hand, until a crazed and powerful vampire comes to town with the intention of bringing forth the apocalypse!

From Edgar Award winner Joe R. Lansdale comes a laugh out loud road novel full of outrageous wit and the power of friendship, and driven by storytelling as only Lansdale can offer.

Hap and Leonard are sent to pay a ransom in exchange for the corpse of a dachshund, but the assignment turns out to be less routine than indicated.

In this thrilling follow-up to the critically acclaimed "Bad Chili", crime fiction's hottest new star, Hap Collins, returns in a hilarious and suspenseful trip through the Southwest. Local author publicity (Texas).

"Signed limited edition"--Front jacket flap.

Savage Season is the basis for the first season of the Sundance TV series Hap and Leonard A rip-roaring, high-octane, Texas-sized thriller, featuring two friends, one vixen, a crew of washed-up radicals, loads of money, and bloody mayhem. Hap Collins and Leonard Pine are best friends, yet they couldn't be more different. Hap is an east Texas white-boy with a weakness for Texas women. Leonard is a gay, black Vietnam vet. Together, they steer up more commotion than a fire storm. But that's just the way they like it. So when an ex-flame of Hap's returns promising a huge score. Hap lets Leonard in on the scam, and that's when things get interesting. Chockfull of action and laughs, Savage Season is the masterpiece of dark suspense that introduced Hap and Leonard to the thriller scene. It hasn't been the same since.

Hap and Leonard is now a Sundance TV series starring James Purefoy and Michael Kenneth Williams. 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 painted on a tree is just the beginning—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 deestalker cap . . . Will this be the case that finally sends Hap over the edge?

Edgar Award-winner and fan favorite Joe R. Lansdale is back with Hap and Leonard's latest caper: investigating the disappearance of a revivalist cult leader's daughter. 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, Brett (who is also Hap and Leonard's boss), 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 only Hap and Leonard will take the case. Judith Mulhaney's daughter, Jackrabbit, has been missing for five years. Well, she's been missing from them for five years, but she's been missing from everybody, including the local no-goods who ran with her, for a few months. Despite their misgivings about Judith and her son, Hap and Leonard take the case. It isn't long until they find themselves mixed up in a revivalist cult that believes Jesus will return flanked by an army of lizard-men -- solving a murder to boot. With Lansdale's trademark humor, whip-smart dialogue, and plenty of ass-kicking adventures to be had, you won't want to miss Hap and Leonard's latest.

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. What began as a missing-person case becomes one of blackmail and murder. Filled with Lansdale's trademark whip-smart dialogue, relentless pacing, and unorthodox characters, Honky Tonk Samurai is a rambunctious thrill ride by one hell of a writer.

This collection of 26 stories contains some of Joe R. Lansdale's favorite and most violent dark horror tales. "God of the Razor" introduces the dark god behind serial killers. A martial arts fight to the death between a reluctant champion and a sadistic alpha male, is featured in "Master of Misery." Human sacrifice, to ensure prosperity or as a coming-of-age ritual, are themes of "On a Dark October" and "Duck Hunt." In "The Fat Man," young boys learn the hard way that some mysteries should not be investigated. Many of the tales are truly weird, such as "Chompers," the story of the false teeth with an appetite. All stories are individually introduced by Lansdale, who explains the humorous, weird, and sometimes sad genesis for each.

"Wild Bill Hickok, some years after he was dead, came to Mud Creek for a shoot-out of sorts."--Back cover

"In the harsh deserts of Stygia, a sorcerer grasps for the immortal power that lies beneath the shifting sands. In his way stand Conan and his unlikely allies: Alvazar, a rogue interested in little more than wine, women and more wine; and Ohala, daughter of a mystical order of warrior women sworn to retrieve a very dangerous book" -- Page [4] of cover.

Hap and Leonard is now a Sundance TV series starring James Purefoy and Michael Kenneth Williams. 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 favor and if Hap and Leonard can do the deed they’ll be free 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 crocodile, this hilarious novel is as hot as a habanero pepper.

Dot waitresses on roller skates at the Dairy Bob, doesn't care for smoking at least partly on account of her dad having never returned from a cigarette run, and carries on the family tradition of philosophizing. Life hasn't done her any favors in her seventeen years so far. But if there was ever a heroine built for turning things upside down and seeing what shakes out, it's Dot. Determined to find out who she is and why she's the way she is, an opportunity presents itself when her heretofore-unknown uncle suddenly moves his camper into the front yard.