BOOKS: One for the Money; Captains Outrageous

I'm in the middle of two books right now, so here's two half reviews.

The first is Janet Evanovich's One for the Money, the first Stephanie Plum mystery. I like how Plum starts out from square one; she becomes a bounty hunter basically because she can't find any other job, and she has to learn as she goes, which means she makes a lot of mistakes. And it doesn't help her ego any that she gets rescued from her most severe peril by the guy she's supposed to be arresting.

Plum is flat broke (her car has been repossessed, and for breakfast she has the only thing in her fridge, one bottle of beer), but she's tough, foul-mouthed, sharp (it doesn't hurt that she seems to know everyone in New Jersey -- and their mothers), and entertaining. I have no idea how her character progresses in later novels -- whether she remains a bounty hunter, or becomes a more traditional detective -- but I have a feeling I'll find out. It's a good read, good enough to want more.

The other book is Joe R. Lansdale's Captains Outrageous, which I just bought yesterday. I'm reading it now instead of the Plum book (but that's only fair, because I started reading the Plum book to get a break from Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver -- and, if I may go off on a tangent, here, where the hell is the paperback version of Quicksilver? The second book of Stephenson's Baroque Cycle trilogy is out in hardback now, but according to Amazon, the paperback of the first book isn't coming out till October. What gives? I got Quicksilver from the library, but there's no way I'm gonna finish it before it's due back. I'd like to buy it, but not at hardback prices. Irritating).

Captains Outrageous is the sixth book in the Hap and Leonard series. I recently finished Bad Chili, the fourth in the series. Why'd I start with #4 and #6? Because #4 was the only one at the library, and #6 was the only one at Barnes & Noble. The supply ain't meeting my demand. And I do demand the other books, because Captains Outrageous is as great as Bad Chili.

The first chapter opens with Hap and Leonard as security guards at a chicken plant, and Lansdale's laidback humor is in full evidence:

     "Any chickens try to break out?" I asked.
     "Nope. None tried to break in either. How about on your side? Any trouble?"...
     "No chicken problems. I saw a suspicious wood rat out by the trees, but he didn't want any part of me."
     "Well, I can see that."

When they get going on what anatomical properties Hap (straight) and Leonard (gay) like in their partners, I laughed so much the people in Barnes & Noble (where I read the first few pages) thought I was crazy.

The second chapter shifts gears, and it left me slack-jawed and breathless at its sudden shocking brutality. Hap finds a man savagely beating a woman in the woods and tries to subdue him, but the man is out of his mind on drugs and near-unstoppable. And the third chapter, with Hap meeting the father of the woman in the woods, had me almost in tears.

From hysterics to horror to heartbreak in 25 pages. That's damn good writing. And that's before the real story even begins.

Lansdale has a gift for storytelling, and I couldn't recommend him more highly. This series especially, if you can handle a little rough dialogue and a little rough violence: you've got to give it a try.