I’ve been a voracious reader of crime fiction for as long as I can remember. No other genre hooks me quite like the slow unraveling of a mystery, and I always find myself coming back to it after wandering into other types of books. That was the case with Joe R. Lansdale’s latest novel, Hatchet Girls. His publisher kindly sent me a copy of the fourteenth installment featuring his crime-solving duo Hap and Leonard. Though I hadn’t read any of the previous books in the series, I decided to dive in. Coming off a nonfiction read, I was eager for something that felt a bit more familiar.
Hap and Leonard have their hands full on the domestic front, happy to let their private investigation work sit on the back burner for a while. Hap and Brett are busy making their new home perfect, settling into cohabitation with all the mess and joy that comes with it. Meanwhile, Leonard is caught up in the whirlwind of wedding planning with his fiancée, Pookie. There’s a guest list to finalize and a venue to secure, but mostly Leonard is just thrilled at the thought of marrying the love of his life. Both men are content, happy even, but if history has taught them anything, it’s that peace never lasts long.
Sure enough, chaos comes calling, literally, in the form of a panicked young woman and a pig strung out on meth. Hap and Leonard rush in, only to discover the hog is the least of their problems. Their caller is tangled up with a crew of hatchet-wielding women, all sworn to a vengeful leader with big plans for blood-soaked retribution. What starts as a bizarre errand spirals into a helter-skelter showdown, forcing Hap and Leonard to set aside their home lives and square off against lunacy in its purest, most violent form.
The term hard-boiled gets tossed around a lot in crime fiction, but it feels tailor-made for Hatchet Girls. Joe R. Lansdale blends pulpy wit with bursts of violence to craft a story that’s both timeless and timely. Hap and Leonard are throwback detectives at heart—unafraid to bend the rules if that’s what it takes to set things right—and following them is pure fun. Even without any background in the series, I slipped easily into Lansdale’s world, rooting for his mismatched heroes while marveling at the sheer lunacy of their enemies. The result is a brisk, wildly entertaining read that scratched my itch for a true hard-boiled crime novel.
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(2025, 69)
