Born for Trouble: The Further Adventures of Hap and Leonard

This is the 20th “Hap and Leonard” book and it’s just as good and fresh as the first, offering high voltage action mixed with down-home humor. Hap’s white, working class; he spent time in federal prison for refusing to be drafted during the Vietnam War. His best friend, Leonard, is almost his opposite: Black, gay, with serious anger issues. Hap’s a Democrat, Leonard a Republican. And though Hap doesn’t like violence—Leonard doesn’t care—violence finds its way to him no matter what he wants. The five stories in this collection are set in and around the fictional East Texas town of LaBorde. The two are investigators there by default as much as talent, but once started on a case, they never give up and aren’t afraid of anything or anyone. One case involves a dead dachshund, whose mummified corpse is being held for ransom. Another involves a vanished bookmobile and generations of missing children. In still another, Hap and Leonard are chased through the woods by a killer who gets his jollies by tracking and killing helpless people with a crossbow.