Customer Reviews

Mucho Mojo: A Hap and Leonard Novel (2)

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Novels in the mystery and suspense genres often get a bad rap, with aspirations to something other than the typical being overlooked, or at most touted as "transcending the genre." The second entry in Joe R. Lansdale's series starring Hap Collins and Leonard Pine, Mucho Mojo, is a book just like that.

When Leonard's uncle Chester dies, he inherits the old homeplace. This causes complex feelings in Leonard since Chester had disowned Leonard on learning that Leonard was gay. While he and Hap are fixing up the place, they discover a large wooden box in which is found a child's skeleton and a stash of child porn magazines. Despite the obvious circumstantial evidence, Hap urges Leonard to look into alternative explanations. Meanwhile, they meet up the drug dealers across the street, a local preacher with questionable motives, and the lovable MeMaw, Leonard's neighbor who always has time (and an open invitation) for a glass of tea.

In addition to the plot involving the secret murders of several of a small town's black children, Mucho Mojo investigates such heavy subjects as relationships -- whether black-white, man-woman, gay-straight, adult-child, young-old -- and racism. And all the while Lansdale delivers a cracker of a crime novel, with a terrific ending, that continues the story of the main characters as begun in Savage Season.

I've read all the reviews to Mucho Mojo and I wonder if the other reviewers read the same book. Hap & Leonard are neither funny nor cool, just lame. The plot was slow and predictable. I had it figured out about half way through. I stuck with it hoping there would be a last chapter plot twist, but there was none. This should have been a 30 page short story not a 300 page novel. Stay away.

Since discovering Lansdale earlier this year, I've read everythign i can get my hands on. i even visit his website once a week because he posts a new short story every Thrursday. The guy is simply amazing. By and far the best writer I've read in a long time, simply hilarious.

Hap and Leonard are two of the coolest characters I've ever had the pleasure to read about. One white trash, the other a black gay man. together they're two of the toughest honchos to ever clean up a neighborhood. I can't wait for the movie (though I'm sure it'll be crap in comparison).

Only reason I'm giving this four stars instead of five is that the mystery is a bit easy to solve. But it dosesn't realy matter because it's such a fun read. And now that Bubba Ho tep has been made into film (an amazingly funny film at that) you can expect to see a lot of lansdale's work translated to the screen.

Those who are politically correct and who don't want to laugh at stigmas, stereotypes and others misfortunes will miss a real treat. The plot and the story are well written as well as the sarcasm and the wisecracks which will leave you giggling to yourself and too embarassed to tell your partner what you are snickering about. This is an offbeat author who has created a cult following. Mucho Mojo takes the worse social problems, child exploitation, drug use and violence and turns it into a mystery unraveled by two guys you would like to meet in a novel but would not want living one your street. Throw in one of the dearest grandma figures as well as a corrupt minister and you have a bizarre story which will hook you to this series. Yes I was so disgusted by this book that the third time I read it I said that enough is enough! (Time to move on to the next book in the series!)

Except for an ending that drops the ball, this is a ripping read by a master story teller. Second in a wonderful series, it's a great read and rife with southern literary grit.
Go for it.

Mucho Mojo is the second installment in the Hap&Leonard series. The first book in the series is savage season but that novel is now out of print and quite difficult to find. Besides, I've been hearing through the grapevine that it is easily the weakest entry in Lansdale's five-book Hap&Leonard series. I felt like Mucho Mojo was the best place to start and I was not dissapointed in the least.

The story is set in rural East Texas in a segregated black section of the town of Laborde. Leonard's uncle Chester has recently passed away and Leonard inherits his house. While him and Hap are working on renovating the house, they discover the remains of a young child hidden in a metal chest. Leonard refuses to believe that his uncle was a child killer and convinces Hap to help him uncover the mystery behind the child's murder.

As always, Joe Lansdale dazzles the reader with his unique writing style. You can practically feel the heat of a Texas summer day. I would have to say the highlights of this novel were the verbal exchanges between Hap&Leonard. There was something to make me laugh on every page. Now I want to read all of the Hap&Leonard books.

One of Joe R. Lansdales best books! I am a junior in high school, and it takes alot for me to like a book, but i LOVED this book!!! Hap and Leonard are at their best, making funny quirks throughout the book! I would reccomend this book to a true Lansdale fan! great book!

When I recently started getting into mystery novels, a friend recommended Joe Lansdale's Hap & Leonard books....I've read three novels in the series so far, and I love them. I'm from Texas, and though Lansdale never pretties up East Texas, showing it warts and all, I still feel a warm, at-home feeling.

I've known people very much like Hap and Leonard, and while these characters feel real, they also serve as cultural icons--like some other detective-novel protagonists (such as Spenser and Hawk, Elvis Cole and Pike, Phil Marlowe, and others), they represent what is best in people. They show how people ought to treat each other. And like the best of those, they have their flaws. We can take them as heroes, but also relate to them.

This book was interesting to say the least. The characters are well-developed and believable. The plot is intricate and keeps you wondering what will happen next. Lansdale's descriptions are very colorful. The imagery he uses allows you to visually see the story. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone.

Well written except the paces are kinda too slow as a thriller. The prose is more like James Lee Burke's style, slow, slow and slow, and if the writer is not good enough, then I might fall sleep without knowing when I lose consciousness until the book fall from the bedside to the floor. All the fighting scenes are okay but not too excited since both salt and pepper characters are sidekick to each other. Both are small timers in midofnowhere town like nobody and I just could not care less. If every one of Lansdale's book is like this one, then I might not try to read one more if the night is too old.