REVIEW  
Joe R. Lansdale - The Two Bear Mambo 
Gollancz pbk £6.99
Reviewed by Jay Russell      
Joe R. Lansdale has always been an eclectic writer, making a name for himself in horror (for my money "Night They Missed the Horror Show" is the best horror short story of the modern era), but dabbling as well in westerns, crime, the odd comic book, and bizarre and compelling combinations of all those categories.  His recent career trajectory into relatively mainstream crime fiction speaks volumes about the woeful state of horror publishing in the US and UK, but one genre's loss is another's gain, for Lansdale just gets better with each new book. And the sumbitch was pretty damn good to start. 
    THE TWO-BEAR MAMBO is the third Lansdale novel featuring his East Texas odd-couple of Hap Collins and Leonard Pine. Hap's white, dumb and straight, Leonard's black, smart and gay. If that sounds somehow PC, not to worry: it just don't come more incorrect than this. Hap and Leonard are rednecks with a keenly defined sense of justice, and they manage to get themselves into heaps of trouble in the violent wilderness that is Texas. TWO-BEAR MAMBO has the unlikely pair tracking down Hap's ex-lady love, a black lady attorney who has gone missing in Klan country while looking into a jailhouse death. Our heroes fear for the worst; with Lansdale at the wheel, of course they find it.
There's nothing sensational about Lansdale's plotting -- though there's nothing wrong with it -- but like the best fiction in any genre, this is a book which lives in character and voice. But what characters and woo-doggies what a voice. Lansdale has a wicked sense of humour and an ear for colloquial dialogue which will have you roaring with laughter. But he also knows what hurts, and TWO-BEAR MAMBO bears the mark of a seasoned horror writer as well as a man who just plain knows people. Occasionally, some of the interchanges between Hap and Leonard feel a tad too arch -- a little too knowing -- but when dialogue is this sharp it's simply churlish to complain.
Lansdale has come a long way with these characters. Their first appearance, in SAVAGE SEASON, was an engaging failure, their second -- in MUCHO MOJO -- a neater and more keenly sketched rollick of an adventure. TWO-BEAR MAMBO is pure pay dirt. Go. Read. Enjoy.