Bill Kerwin's Reviews > Savage Season

This, the first “Hap and Leonard” adventure, is so early in the development of the detective series that Hap and Leonard aren’t even detectives yet. They are East Texas men in their thirties, working off-and-on at low-paying jobs (flower pickers in the rose fields, for example), just trying to get along, while amusing themselves by shooting skeet and beating each other up in martial arts duels. Hap is a straight white male, a sixties radical who did time for resisting the draft, and Leonard is a black gay Vietnam vet with serious anger issues (but then, how could a gay, black Vietnam vet not have anger issues?)

Into Hap and Leonard’s mostly tranquil lives walks Trudy, Hap’s manipulative ex- wife, who tries to rope Hap into a hair-brained project to resurrect some old bank heist money from the tributary of local Texas river. Soon, against Leonard’s better judgment (he hates Trudy), he and the still love-smitten Hap become part of Trudy’s radical sixties crew—boyfriend Howard, fatboy Chub, and facially disfigured Paco—who plan to used the bulk of the money to “save the whales,” or in service of some equally idealistic cause. Hap and Leonard, though, get an equal share each, and plan on keeping the money for themselves.

Of course, as is true of all such adventures, things do not go according to plan. Soon stupidity, betrayal, and unexpected evil take their toll, and Hap, Leonard and Trudy are on the run, trying to save not just their money but their lives.

This is an entertaining novel, full of twists and turns and a lot of smart-ass dialogue. I liked the local East Texas atmosphere (described by narrator Hap with an affectionate cynicism) and loved the two protagonists (particularly Leonard). Odds are good I’ll come back to this series for more.