MAY 2019 - AudioFile
The Texas-based setting of this audiobook makes everything about it just a bit different, from its twangy style to its unusual, but engaging, Southern charm. Narrator Christopher Ryan Grant recognizes the need to include a downhome accent and wit in every scene, ensuring that Joe Lansdale’s relatively short audiobook is enjoyable listening. The investigative duo of Hap and Leonard is trying to save a woman with a partly severed tongue who is being pursued by thugs who are trying to finish their boss’s botched mob hit. The chase is pure fun, and Grant’s pleasure-filled tone is as memorable as Lansdale’s virtually endless train of similes. D.J.S. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
01/21/2019
At the start of Edgar winner Lansdale’s relentlessly paced 12th novel featuring Hap Collins and Leonard Pine (after 2018’s Jackrabbit Smile), the two wise-cracking buddies are driving through a winter rainstorm in East Texas when they spot a young woman, who runs onto the highway and collapses. They stop the car and pick her up. She’s bleeding from the mouth, and it appears someone tried to cut out her tongue. A moment later, an SUV pulls out from a side road and stops in front of them. A large man holding a pistol gets out on the passenger side. “He looked as if he could straighten the Leaning Tower of Pisa with one hand.” Striking metaphors help drive the violent plot, in which Hap and Leonard must use all their wiles, including the “elephant” of surprise, to defeat a gang of murderous criminals, who are intent on preventing the woman they’ve saved from talking. Bad weather doesn’t make their job any easier. Some readers may wish for more breaks in between action scenes, but Lansdale’s fans will be satisfied. Agent: Danny Baror, Baror International. (Mar.)
From the Publisher
"The Elephant of Surprise is the read of the year thus far for adrenaline junkies, action-hero aficionados and, as is always the case with Lansdale's novels, fans of clever and unexpected similes and metaphors."—BookPage
"Hap and Leonard remain two of the most likable characters in crime fiction."—Kirkus Reviews
"Lansdale's narrative voice is as wonderful as ever, as is the banter between the mismatched best friends as they punctuate the violence with drolly mundane observations. . . . It's always a pleasure to spend time with Hap and Leonard, even in the worst of circumstances."—Booklist
"Relentlessly paced"—Publishers Weekly
Praise for Joe R. Lansdale
"Reading Joe R. Lansdale is like listening to a favorite uncle who just happens to be a fabulous storyteller."—Dean Koontz
Kirkus Reviews
2019-01-21
Private investigators Hap and Leonard stumble across a young woman fleeing from her torturers and wind up having to keep on saving her life in this latest entry in the amiable series.
A wild storm is wreaking havoc in East Texas, a (rather obvious) metaphor for the hell being unleashed by the pursuers going after Hap and Leonard's charge, a young woman they find with her tongue half cut out and the men who aim to finish the job at her heels. The story follows the pair as they attempt to find one safe haven after another for this young woman, named Nikki, and then scamper to save their collective butts when each place proves inadequate. The book is more relentless than previous outings in the series, with the action moving at a near-constant clip, which has both advantages and drawbacks. Among the former, the headlong pace makes for one vivid set piece after another. Among the latter, a sense of inertia when, inevitably, things have to slow down to provide background for the narrative. Nikki tells Hap and Leonard her story across pages and pages, including more information than we need; it seems like one hell of a marathon gab for someone recovering from having her tongue almost snipped out. Worse is the confrontation with the head bad guy, as verbose and pleased with himself as evil hot shots usually are. There are also the series' periodic lapses into sentimentality and, much more annoying, Hap's twinges of conscience, which will lead him, in the name of avoiding unnecessary violence, to allow some particularly vile species of thug to keep breathing when every shred of common sense should tell him this baddie is going to be trouble very soon down the road. If the series insists on providing Hap with these moments, it should live up to its toughness by making him pay the price for them.
Hap and Leonard remain two of the most likable characters in crime fiction. The writing around them needs to get back to the lean hardness that made the series such a pleasure in the first place.
