Devil Red

Hap and Leonard, Book 8

By: Joe R. Lansdale

Narrated by: JD Jackson

Hap and Leonard is now a Sundance TV series starring James Purefoy and Michael Kenneth Williams.

If there’s one thing Hap Collins and Leonard Pine like, it’s trouble - and they especially like getting paid to find it. So when their friend and sometime boss Marvin Harmon asks the boys to look into a cold-case double homicide, they’re happy to oblige. It turns out that both victims were set to inherit some serious money, and one of them ran with an honest-to-goodness vampire cult. The more closely Hap and Leonard look over the crime-scene photos, the more trouble they see. The image of a red devil’s head painted on a tree is just the beginning - a little research turns up a slew of murders with that same fiendish signature. And if things aren’t weird enough, Leonard has taken to wearing a deestalker cap.... Will this be the case that finally sends Hap over the edge?

©2011 Joe R. Lansdale. (P)2020 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“The humor and dialogue keep the narrative rocketing along.” (Entertainment Weekly)

“There’s enough seriousness to make this novel stand far apart from run-of-the-mill thrillers - and enough comedy to have readers laughing through the blood spatters.” (Publishers Weekly)

“Lansdale is a terrifically gifted storyteller with a sharp country boy wit.” (The Washington Post Book World)

Good story, meh narrator.

The story is everything you have grown to love about the Hap and Leonard books but the narrator makes it difficult to get through. All of his character voices sound the same even for the female characters. So much so that you can not tell who is talking in the story until he says the name. Which makes dialogue between characters really annoying. A good narrator can make a good book great and a ok book good. But the opposite is also true. A bad narrator can turn a good book, bad.

Fair story

Not his best work. Seemed a little bit of a stretch to be asked to believe.

terrible narrator

good story, but very hard to get into because the narrator didn't change the voices, inflection, or seem to put in much effort. made the story dull.

Narrator not Hap!

i have been listening to this entire series in order. First off, I understand something very distasteful happened with Phil Gigante who narrated the series up to this point and if the author is anything like his characters he doesn't want him involved, I understand that. However, this narrator, who has a great voice, reads Hap absolutely nothing like the voice of the prior novels and with no appreciable cadence...I'm assuming he read Hap in his natural voice. I think maybe he was selected since he sounds a lot like Leonard, but frankly you can barely tell Hap and Leonard apart, and the soft sarcasm so perfectly expressed is absent in Leonard. I had to speed it up to 1.5 and just get through it. Lansdale should have just read it himself...I'm listening to Veil's Visit now and he sounds great.

The story was interesting but hard to follow because I was so distracted by the narration. Read this one instead of Listening, hopefully the next narrator understands the character better

Narrator Phil Gigante is better --

It's not that JD Jackson is a bad reader--he just doesn't distinguish between voices very well. I'm often not sure if it's Hap or Leonard speaking because their voices are so similar. And there's not much difference when it's Brett or any of the other characters either. There is never a doubt when Phil narrates. I finally had to stop resenting the voice similarities and just let the story wash over me. Admittedly, I'm not finished with it yet, but I didn't want to forget to let my comments about JD Jackson go unsaid.

Not as good as all before in series

The storyline was a little confusing and some of the dialogue they seemed to say the same thing just differently. Hap was without his pizzazz most of the book, so it was different. Not sure where and he aged Leonard go after this. It seems like, as in many series, this one is losing its way. Hope not.

One voice for all! 😡

The fact that this is the worst Hap & Leonard story thus far is not helped in the slightest by the change in narrator!
Every single sentence felt as if it were being slowly extracted by a rusty pair of pliers!
And there was virtually NO distinction between character voicing!
I tried to get a refund immediately, but I’d made the foolish mistake of purchasing the book since I hadn’t received my next point yet, and audible’s money-grubbing policy doesn’t allow for anything so fair and just. ;)

needs different narrator

An ok book of the series needs a different narrator characters sound the same

always a train wreck in slow motion

you know it's going to end bloody but you just can't look away the author has built a beautiful friendship that we all know and love to see what's next for the two knuckleheads. but it doesn't seem to ever get easier for them or the reader you leave almost feeling like you been in the shit with them. powerful writing often dark but filled with humor.

DO NO WASTE YOUR TIME AND MONEY

Up to this point, I have loved all of Joe R Lansdale's books and I am sure that I will love this one as soon as I get a printed version and read if for myself. In all his previous books in the HAP & LEONARD series have been read by PHIL GIGANTE who always does a fantastic job. I have over 300 Audible books in my library and I believe that this narrator, JD Jackson, is by far the worst of any I have heard.... to the point that I don't think I can force myself to sit through the entire book.