The Best of Joe R. Lansdale [Paperback]

“A folklorist’s eye for telling detail and a front-porch raconteur's sense of pace.”  —New York Times Book Review

By turns absurd, hilarious, and terrifying, this outrageous collection features the best writings of the high priest of Texan weirdness. Odd-ball detectives, malicious rocks, spectral prehistoric fish, and vampire hunters permeate these vividly detailed stories. Featuring cult-classic award-winning tales such as “Night They Missed the Horror Show” and “Mad Dog Summer,” along with nonfiction forays into drive-in theaters and low budget films, this dynamic retrospective represents the broad spectrum of Lansdale’s career. “Bubba Hotep”—the tale of Elvis, John F. Kennedy, and a soul-sucking mummy, which was made into an award-winning film—is included along with the acclaimed novella, “On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert with Dead Folks,” and never before collected works. Original, compelling, and downright odd, this unforgettable compilation is essential reading for fans of horror, mystery, and southern gothic.

Joe R. Lansdale is the author of 30 novels, including Bad Chili, The Bottoms, Lost Echoes, and Mucho Mojo, and more than 200 short stories, nonfiction articles, and comic books. His novel, Bubba Hotep, was made into a major motion picture and he is the winner of seven Bram Stoker Awards, the British Fantasy Award, and the International Horror Award. He is a writer in residence and teacher at Stephen F. Austin University. He lives in Nacogdoches, Texas.