From Publishers Weekly
Edgar-winner Lansdale's (The Bottoms) fifth Hap and Leonard mystery marvel is sure to keep you laughing amid the carnage. No good deed goes unpunished, especially when Hap Collins becomes a reluctant hero down in East Texas while working as a security guard for a chicken plant. After rescuing a local girl from a savage beating, Hap receives a big reward. Problem is while on the outs with his girlfriend, Brett he decides to use some of the reward money on a sea cruise shared with his best friend, Leonard Pine. After all, the closest Hap's family had ever come to a cruise "was a rowboat down the Sabine River with a fishing pole." So off to the Caribbean the fearless pair go, only to run smack dab into the usual heap of trouble. Not only does the food stink, but on their first tourist stop to check out some Mayan ruins, they miss the boat back to the ship. Stranded in Playa del Carmen, they run into muggers and, aided by a mysterious old fisherman and his troubled daughter, get caught in a sticky web of intrigue, violence and chicanery. As the body count mounts, they find no place is safe, not even East Texas. The two friends ultimately go back to Mexico to take care of some business they're not apt to soon forget. Lansdale's quick wit is in top form, and his raunchy, sometimes ridiculous and yet so lovable heroes continue to amuse. Take this one along on your next cruise. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Hap Collins is guarding chickens at a poultry plant when he saves the life of the plant owner's daughter. As a reward, the grateful father sends Hap on a luxury cruise for two to Mexico. Because Brett, the love of Hap's life, isn't speaking to him, Hap takes his best buddy, Leonard Pine, the genre's only gay, black, tough-guy sidekick. Left behind in Mexico when they miss a ferry, the friends are assaulted and Leonard is stabbed. An old Mexican fisherman nurses Leonard back to health while his daughter entertains Hap. Feeling indebted to their guardian angels, the pair attempts to help the fisherman out of a little trouble with a loan shark. When things go horribly wrong, Hap and Leonard embark on a deadly mission of revenge. Lansdale's latest isn't up to The Bottoms [BKL Je 1 & 15 00], his Edgar-winning stand-alone thriller, but it's typical Hap-and-Leonard fare, which means it's funny, violent, peppered with profanity, oozing testosterone, and ultimately very satisfying. The repartee between Hap and Leonard tramples all over any standard of political correctness, but it's full of wit and outrageously entertaining. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description
Fresh from his most recent fictional triumph, The Bottoms, winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel and a New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year, Joe R. Lansdale brings back Hap Collins and Leonard Pine, the bad ol' boys of his classic novels Rumble Tumble, Bad Chili, and Mucho Mojo. Now feeling the fresh gust of mortality and the biting edge of fighting-mad, the East Texas duo head down Mexico way straight into a pungent guacamole of danger definitely not on the tourist's menu. Hap Collins is stuck in a bit of a mid-life rut. Spending his days guarding the local poultry plant, he doesn't look forward to going home to his lady Brett, with whom making love has become like twice-ground hamburger without the fixings. Suddenly, a spontaneous, off-duty act of rescue earns Hap and his best friend Leonard Pine a cruise down the Gulf of Mexico to the Caribbean. But their holiday is short-lived, thanks to a shipboard eruption of Leonard's proud, hot temper. Stranded with Hap in Mexico, Leonard buys an ugly hat, gets stabbed by a thug cop, and is saved from armed desperadoes by a geriatric fisherman and his gorgeous daughter. Then things get dangerous. On frighteningly foreign turf, Hap and Leonard wade through a cast bigger than the U.S. army, including a nudist mobster, his seven-foot enforcer, and a hog-raising private eye. Getting way too close to high-echelon corruption and murder, they will find a parcel of trouble following them everywhere. And along the way Leonard may even buy a new hat. Combining a thirst for old-fangled adventure with the thrill-romping, New West spirit that is the Lansdale brand, CAPTAINS OUTRAGEOUS presents a side of one of today's most compelling fictional partnerships that is mellower than before-and more buckwild than ever.


Download Description
Hap Collins, a chicken plant guard, saves a young woman from an attacker, and her father, the owner of the plant, rewards Hap with a large cash bonus. No good deed goes unpunished, however, and when Hap decides he and his best friend Leonard should take a cruise to Mexico and the Caribbean, their troubles begin. Leonard, angered by coat-and-tie rules at an on-board lobster dinner, causes the two to be removed from the ship in Mexico, where in short time Leonard buys an ugly hat, is knifed by an off duty policeman, and is saved from armed attackers by a geriatric fisherman and his lovely daughter. The daughter turns out to have a past that involves a Mexican mobster who's a practicing nudist and has a seven-foot tall lackey who resembles a sumo wrestler. Trying for once to stay out of other people's business, Hap is overwhelmed with regret when the senorita is murdered, and the evil that haunted her follows him home to East Texas, resulting in the death of one of Hap's closest friends. Hap is hot for revenge, and he, Leonard, and Jim Bob Luke, a hog-raising private eye, return to Mexico to even the score.


About the Author
Joe R. Lansdale has written over 200 short stories and over a dozen novels in the suspense, horror, and Western genres. He has also edited several anthologies of dark suspense and Western fiction. He has received the British Fantasy Award, the American Mystery Award, and six Bram Stoker Awards from the Horror Writers of America. He lives in East Texas with his wife, son, daughter, and German shepherd.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
Edgar Award￯﾿ﾽwinning author Joe R. Lansdale brings back the wild team of Hap Collins and Leonard Pine (featured in his classic novels Rumble Tumble, Bad Chili, and Mucho Mojo), for another gritty, gutsy, action-packed adventure. Whoever said that no good deed goes unpunished must have met these two East Texas bad ol' boys on one of their better days. Working security for a chicken-processing plant pretty much guaranteed a quiet life, until Hap heard a faint cry for help from just beyond the fence and charged to the rescue of a girl in the clutches of a brutal, drug-crazed attacker. He didn't expect any reward for his knee-jerk gallantry, but the girl's father (who happened to own the chicken plant) insisted on giving him a big check and offered him and Leonard a month-long vacation to boot. Only Hap and Leonard could turn a windfall like that into a disaster￯﾿ﾽand still come out on top. On paper, the cut-rate cruise they booked had all the amenities, but in fact, the food was lousy, the entertainment was worse, and travelling the high seas on the Sea Pleasure, a former Argentine navy boat, was anything but pleasant. It was almost a relief when the boat left without them after their first landfall. Then they were jumped by muggers, rescued by a feisty fisherman with a sexy daughter, and got tangled up with mobsters, murder, and mayhem south of the border￯﾿ﾽ. Sue Stone

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"Hap Collins is stuck in a bit of a mid-life rut. Spending his days guarding the local poultry plant, he doesn't look forward to going home to his lady Brett, with whom making love has become like twice-ground hamburger without the fixings. Suddenly, a spontaneous, off-duty act of rescue earns Hap and his best friend Leonard Pine a cruise down the Gulf of Mexico to the Caribbean. But their holiday is short-lived, thanks to a shipboard eruption of Leonard's proud, hot temper. Stranded with Hap in Mexico, Leonard buys an ugly hat, gets stabbed by a thug cop, and is saved from armed desperadoes by a geriatric fisherman and his gorgeous daughter." "Then things get dangerous." On frighteningly foreign turf, Hap and Leonard wade through a cast bigger than the U.S. army, including a nudist mobster, his seven-foot enforcer, and a hog-raising private eye. Getting way too close to high-echelon corruption and murder, they will find a parcel of trouble following them everywhere. And along the way Leonard may even buy a new hat.

SYNOPSIS

Hap Collins and Leonard Pine, the bad ol' good ol' boys of the Lansdale classics Mucho Mojo and Bad Chili, return to LaBorde, Texas, in their first appearance since 1998's Rumble Tumble!

FROM THE CRITICS

Book Magazine

Best buddies Hap Collins and Leonard Pine get into trouble more often during the course of this book than most characters could manage in an entire series. These East Texas rowdies are working as security guards for a chicken-processing plant￯﾿ﾽwhich makes for several almost-funny chicken jokes￯﾿ﾽwhen Hap saves the life of a young woman who turns out to be the plant owner's daughter. Hap is rewarded for his heroics with a large check and a Caribbean cruise, which he takes with his friend Leonard. The two are quickly abandoned by the cruise ship in a small port, mugged by off-duty cops and saved by an old fisherman who is a whiz with a machete￯﾿ﾽall this before becoming ensnared in an elaborate, sometimes improbable, plot involving murder and revenge. What makes this duo unusual is that Hap is a white heterosexual and Leonard is a black homosexual. So along with the chicken humor you also get a handful of black-white, gay-straight jokes. Lansdale's last book, The Bottoms, won the prestigious Edgar Award, but if you've never picked up his other books, you'll probably scratch your head while reading this one and wonder what the fuss is about. ￯﾿ﾽRandy Michael Signor

Publishers Weekly

Edgar-winner Lansdale's (The Bottoms) fifth Hap and Leonard mystery marvel is sure to keep you laughing amid the carnage. No good deed goes unpunished, especially when Hap Collins becomes a reluctant hero down in East Texas while working as a security guard for a chicken plant. After rescuing a local girl from a savage beating, Hap receives a big reward. Problem is while on the outs with his girlfriend, Brett he decides to use some of the reward money on a sea cruise shared with his best friend, Leonard Pine. After all, the closest Hap's family had ever come to a cruise "was a rowboat down the Sabine River with a fishing pole." So off to the Caribbean the fearless pair go, only to run smack dab into the usual heap of trouble. Not only does the food stink, but on their first tourist stop to check out some Mayan ruins, they miss the boat back to the ship. Stranded in Playa del Carmen, they run into muggers and, aided by a mysterious old fisherman and his troubled daughter, get caught in a sticky web of intrigue, violence and chicanery. As the body count mounts, they find no place is safe, not even East Texas. The two friends ultimately go back to Mexico to take care of some business they're not apt to soon forget. Lansdale's quick wit is in top form, and his raunchy, sometimes ridiculous and yet so lovable heroes continue to amuse. Take this one along on your next cruise. (Sept. 20) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews