Hap and Leonard are part of an investigation of a couple murdered a couple of years before. The mother of the man is not satisfied of the police conclusion of a robbery gone bad while the couple were jogging. Both had been shot in the back of the head. A devil, painted with red blood, was on a nearby tree.Their investigation lead them to a vampire cult, the Dixie Mafia, and puts them in the headlights of a contract killer.Lansdale's two characters, a straight white man and a gay black man, best friends, more brothers than anything, are their usual wisecracking selves, the dialogue crisp and real, the plotting tight as Hap has conflict of emotions at what he does. Until a signal event that makes him harder than normal.The author knows how to write a race horse thriller while staying true to character.Exceptional. Hap Collins and Leonard Pine are fresh off of kicking the crap out of a couple of thugs who stole $87.00 from a defenseless old woman when their some-time employer, Marvin Hanson, asks them to assist in an investigation. A young man and woman have been brutally murdered. The police have written off the case as an unsolved robbery gone bad, but the young man's mother refuses to accept that explanation. Not surprisingly, she wants justice.Hap and Leonard are never ones to back away from a challenge, and they discover that the young woman who was killed with the client's son, had a pretty hinky lifestyle, including forays into a vampire cult. As they begin to probe more deeply, they begin to see a pattern between these and several other killings and they sense that lurking behind them all is a fearsome killer named Devil Red. Their search will inevitably antagonize a lot of the wrong people, including the aforementioned Devil Red and pretty soon the bullets will be flying.As is usually the case in these books, the humor is front and center as well. Hap and Leonard are, to say the least, a couple of colorful characters, even for East Texas. Fans of the series will take this book to heart.
What do You think about Diable Rouge (2010)?
Un classico Hap e Leonard. Non uno dei capolavori di Lansdale ma ci si sollazza alquanto.
—wuddupbieber
Best HApn and Leonard book of them all !!! I LOVED IT ! Way to go JOE !!
—beccaandchris
Vanilla Ride & Devil Red should make a Pink Cadillac.
—Jackie
