Review: Sugar on the Bones by Joe R. Lansdale – with Giveaway

23 June 2024 by Melissa

About the book, Sugar on the Bones (a Hap and Leonard Novel)

Genre: Private Investigator Mystery / Noir Crime / Hard-Boiled Mystery / Lawyers and Criminals Humor
Publisher: Mulholland Books
Pages: 317
Publication Date: July 16, 2024
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In this holy mess of a case for the “perpetual bad boy” (New York Times) sleuths in the beloved Hap and Leonard series, PI Duo Hap and Leonard investigate the untimely death of a woman whose family stood much to gain from her passing.

Minnie Polson is dead. Burned to a crisp in a fire so big and bad it had to be deliberate. The only thing worse is that Hap and Leonard could have prevented it. Maybe. Minnie had a feeling she was being targeted, shaken down by some shadowy force. However, when she’d solicited Hap & Leonard, all it took was one off color joke to turn her sour and she’d called them off the investigation. Wracked with a guilty conscience, the two PIs—along with Hap’s fleet-footed wife, Brett—tuck in to the case. As they look closer, they dredge up troublesome facts: for one, Minnie’s daughter, Alice, has recently vanished. She’d been hard up after her pet grooming business went under and was in line to collect a whopping insurance sum should anything happen to her mother. The same was due to Minnie’s estranged husband, Al, whose kryptonite (beautiful, money-grubbing women) had left him with only a run-down mobile home. But did Minnie’s foolish, cash-strapped family really have it in them to commit a crime this grisly? Or is there a larger, far more sinister scheme at work?

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About the Author, Joe R. Lansdale

Joe R. Lansdale is the author of nearly four dozen novels, including Rusty Puppy, the Edgar-award winning The Bottoms, Sunset and Sawdust, and Leather Maiden. He has received nine Bram Stoker Awards, the American Mystery Award, the British Fantasy Award, and the Grinzane Cavour Prize for Literature. He lives with his family in Nacogdoches, Texas

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My Thoughts

Before I dove into Sugar on the Bones, my only experience with Joe R. Lansdale’s work was his collection of short stories, Things Get Ugly, which I loved. So, even though this novel is the thirteenth in the Hap and Leonard series, I knew I was going to get a well-crafted story.

Lansdale did not disappoint. His private-eye duo of Hap and Leonard leapt off the page and into my imagination, with their down-home language, affectionate banter, and distinctly different personalities, not to mention that one is Black and the other white, one is gay and the other straight. The friendship and history between the two came through in every scene, and while I’m sure I’d have appreciated more backstory, it wasn’t strictly necessary, and this book worked just fine as a standalone.

One thing I really appreciated was Landsdale’s ability to write in first person, and to do so well. I never saw an out-of-synch verb tense or felt that the narrator (Hap in this case) knew more than he should.

I also felt the plot was paced well. It’s a mystery, of course, and if there isn’t a sub-genre called “Texas-noir,” there should be, and this novel should be the flagship title, because it was gritty where it needed to be, but also had the right amount of comic relief to keep tensions from boiling over.

Overall, this novel is a fast – almost reckless at times – read, with characters who will take up residence in your brain and squat there forever. I can’t wait to go back and read earlier works in this series.

Goes well with: a patty melt and sweet tea.

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Review: This Time Around by Kimberly Packard – with Giveaway

19 June 2024 by Melissa

About the book, This Time Around

Genre: Time Travel Romance / Contemporary Women’s Fiction / Romantic Comedy
Publisher: Abalos Publishing
Date of Publication: June 11, 2024
Number of Pages: 286 pages
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Most of us would jump at a chance for a do-over of our teenage years…but what if our worst mistakes lead to our happily-ever-after?

Josie Gardner’s life revolves around her amazing children and her career. But, when her husband threatens to take her kids in their divorce, and the business she’s put most of her passion, time and money into building is at risk of failing, a panic attack shatters her grip on reality… and the present.

Josie wakes up in her teenage bedroom, thirty years in the past. She’s forced to relive her emotionally devastating senior year of high school — the year she cut her father out of her life, caused one of her best friends to sever ties, and turned away the boy she loved.

Determined to get back to her children in her own time, Josie tries to fix the mistakes she made, in the hope that righting wrongs will send her back to the present. But when tempted by her high school crush Josie faces the real possibility of losing her future for good.

Would you take a second chance for love…even if it meant losing everything?

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About the author, Kimberly Packard

Kimberly Packard is an award-winning author of women’s fiction.

When she isn’t writing, she can be found planning her next trip, asking her dog what’s in his mouth or curled up with a book. She resides in Texas with her husband Colby, a clever cat named Oliver and a precocious black lab named Tully.

Her debut novel, Phoenix, was awarded as Best General Fiction of 2013 by the Texas Association of Authors. She is also the author of a Christmas novella, The Crazy Yates, and the sequels to Phoenix, Pardon Falls and Prospera Pass, and her stand-alone titles Vortex, Dire’s Club and This Time Around. She was honored as one of the Top 10 Haute Young Authors by Southern Methodist University in 2019. Vortex was the 2019 winner of the Pencraft award in Women’s Fiction, and Dire’s Club, was awarded the 2021 General Fiction of the Year by the North Texas Book Festival.

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