I'd read and enjoyed another of Lansdale's "Hap and Leonard" books, Bad Chili, so when I spotted a nice clean copy of "Savage Season" at the recycle/swap shed at Four Hills landfill in Nashua, I grabbed it.

*** Later: a quick read, and enjoyable, if you like a lot of violence with your bittersweet memories of the lost passions of youth. Lansdale manages to mix the most appalling bloodletting into his stories, while keeping his main characters likeable and (more or less) believable; I find I can get through some pretty nasty scenes in the hope that Leonard will come up with a really good quip at the next pause in the mayhem!

This is the first book in his series of adventures featuring Hap and Leonard, and it provides some information on their backgrounds and how they came to get acquainted. When Hap's ex-wife Trudy shows up with a suspicious-sounding job that could net a lot of money, Hap's willing to be led (though he knows he'll regret it) and Leonard, though convinced that Trudy's a snake, goes along to keep Hap out of trouble (or at least to be there to laugh at him when he gets into it - they're such good friends!). Things get complicated, at first in a clumsily amusing fashion and then get increasingly gory and savage, until you have to wonder if anyone's going to be left standing...

Released on Saturday, August 30, 2003 at On the Border Restaurant, 413 Middlesex Rd. in Tyngsboro, Massachusetts USA.

I plan to leave this on one of the benches outside the entrance, at around 4:45 or so.