Rating:  Summary: What? Review: 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.
Rating:  Summary: Doesn't get much better than this Review: If you enjoy a down to earth novel with the great buddy story line, it's going to be hard to find any better one than this. Joe Lansdale writes like we live, honest, down to business, and with a wit unlike any other.
Rating:  Summary: A modern masterpiece of suspense Review: Joe R. Lansdale is a writer like no other. He hears the music and translates it better than just about anyone. MUCHO MOJO is a fine-tuned suspense novel cranked up to the max. This is the second book in the series about Hap and Leonard, two Texas buddies who get into tons of trouble. Hap is a straight white guy and Leonard is a gay black man. Both are brilliantly realized characters and you're going to love them. You could just hang out with Hap and Leonard for a few hundred pages listening to them talk about stuff and you'd have a great time. But Lansdale is a true master. He hammers out a great story to drive the suspense. The scene where Hap and Leonard are in a black bar and Leonard explains various deragotory terms to Hap (like "honky" and a number of them that I can't print here) is worth the price of admission alone. There's humor, action and suspense as only Joe R. Lansdale can deliver.
Rating:  Summary: LANSDALE STORIES? YES! LANSDALE NOVELS? NO! Review: Joe R. Lansdale is, in my opinion, one of the best cult writers of our time when it comes to the short story. Any of his collections of short fiction is worth the MSRP price, no question. His voice is raw, crude, rude, vulgar, crass and funny as hell. Unfortunately, Ol' Joe just doesn't have the kind of imagination that fits well into novel format. I don't consider this to be a major criticism of him, but I do think it suggests that he keep his efforts directed at shorter narrative forms. Way back when I read "The Nightrunners," I passed off the book's shortcomings as simply the natural by-product of a first novel. Let's face it, even the best writers usually have a bum time of it their first day out. However, after having read "Mucho Mojo," I think I can say without hesitation that Lansdale should simply stay away from the format all together. The book has some interesting and highly atmospheric touches, to be sure. The plot, however, is one of the weakest I've ever read. Anyone paying attention and not simply using the book as something to do during lay-overs will have no problem putting the mystery together. The rest is simply a long slog as we wait for the two protagonists to play catch-up. There is also a ridiculous love story angle thrown in for no apparent reason and which adds absolutely nothing to the story. Weak, weak, weak! As I say, the book isn't without its stylistic charms (hence the three star rating), and Lansdale still ranks high on my list of contemporary authors (hence the high probability of my purchasing any forthcoming short story collections), but do yourself a favor, dear reader, avoid this guy's novels like the plague. Read or reread "Writer of the Purple Rage" or "By Bizarre Hands" for a real taste of Mr. Lansdale's talent.
Rating:  Summary: Mucho Mojo is Mucho Fun! Review: MUCHO MOJO is terrific. True, it had a violent ending; but the rotten guys got their just reward. The main protagonists, Hap and Leonard, cut through the criminals like a Chuck Norris and Wesley Snipes duo; but their dialogue is peppered with incredibly dry and funny wit. Lansdale is secretly a humorist, and that's what you'll really get out of these novels and short stories of his -- gut-wrenching, laughter; he makes his characters talk like the FLETCH character that Chevy Chase played (in the movie). Only I believe that Chevy would have dearly wished that Joe had written all his quips all the time. Mr. Lansdale is incredibly smart and darn funny! Makes you want to say, "Damn! I wished I'd said or written that in my own story!"
Rating:  Summary: These Hap&Leonard guys are hilarious! Review: 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.
Rating:  Summary: Thought-provoking crime thriller Review: 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.
Rating:  Summary: Funny and VERY SUSPENSEFUL!!!! Review: 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!
Rating:  Summary: Wonderful characters -- I fell in love with them Review: Recommend all of the Hap Collins and Leonard Pine books.
Rating:  Summary: Lansdale is the king Review: 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.
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