Book review: Private detective from East Texas becomes a vigilante in the funny and wild “Sugar on the Bones”

Minnie Polson was in trouble, so a friend recommended the private detective firm of Hap Collins, his wife Brett, and their buddy Leonard Pine. But when they meet, Minnie doesn’t like their attitude, and they don’t like theirs.

Hours after they split up, Minnie’s mansion burns to the ground – the fire is so fierce that all that’s left of Minnie is a blackened arm. At first, the authorities assume it was an accident, but Hap and his companions aren’t so sure.

Feeling a little guilty for turning her down and wondering if she would still be alive otherwise, they decide to do a little snooping to see what they can find. And they find plenty of it in Sugar on the Bones, Joe R. Lansdale’s 13th thriller featuring the East Texas private detectives.

Hap and his associates are clever, tenacious, politically incorrect, heavily armed, and capable of extreme violence when threatened or provoked. They also think they are funny, and often are, although their humor tends toward irony, quips, and sarcasm.

At first, the investigators focus on Minnie’s relatives, some of whom profited greatly from the rich woman’s death. But someone doesn’t like the private detectives asking questions. Soon, the people they questioned about the case are found dead and Hap and his partners are accused of murder.

It turns out that Minnie’s death was just a small cog in a vast conspiracy involving a series of heinous crimes. For a while, the private investigators team up with a high-ranking police officer, but he can’t think of a legal way to stop the carnage, so he tells the detectives that he’ll look the other way if they take out the bad guys.

“This is murder. This is illegal. This is vigilantism,” says Hap. “And I didn’t want to do it. But I knew I would.”

So Hap and his companions recruit three old friends who have even fewer scruples about violence than they do and go to war. The result is perhaps the best novel in this great series. The quirky characters are well drawn, the prose is tight, the pace is fast, the surprises are endless and the violent climax is downright cruel.

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Bruce DeSilva, winner of the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award, is the author of the Mulligan mystery novels, including The Dread Line.

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