Joe Lansdale is one of those writers who makes you feel slightly embarrassed for not having read him sooner. Savage Season is the book that introduces Hap Collins and Leonard Pine — two friends in East Texas who work dead-end jobs, argue constantly, and somehow keep ending up in situations they should have walked away from.

The setup is deceptively simple. Hap’s ex-wife reappears with a scheme involving sunken money from a long-ago bank robbery. Hap, who is that particular kind of fool who wants to believe in people even after they’ve burned him twice, goes along with it. Leonard, who is both more cynical and more loyal, goes along because Hap is going.

What follows is not a standard crime novel. Lansdale doesn’t play by thriller rules — he plays by the rules of a writer who spent formative years reading pulp fiction and watching drive-in movies and thinking seriously about what it means to be poor and stubborn and Southern and trying to be a decent person anyway. The violence is real and has consequences. The friendship between Hap and Leonard is more interesting than most literary novels manage.

The East Texas setting matters. Lansdale renders it without romance or contempt — it’s a specific place with specific economics and specific ways people relate to each other, and that specificity is part of what makes the book work. These aren’t types. They’re people from somewhere.

Savage Season is a short novel and reads quickly, but it doesn’t feel thin. Lansdale earns every scene. By the time you finish it you’ll want the second one, which is always the test.

Published: 1990 · Genre: Crime fiction · Series: Hap and Leonard, Book 1

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Savage Season about? Hap Collins and Leonard Pine are two East Texas friends working dead-end jobs who keep ending up in situations they should have walked away from. When Hap’s ex-wife reappears with a scheme involving sunken money from a long-ago bank robbery, Hap — ’that particular kind of fool who wants to believe in people even after they’ve burned him twice’ — goes along. Leonard, ‘both more cynical and more loyal,’ follows because Hap is going.

What makes Lansdale’s approach to crime fiction distinctive? The review describes Lansdale as playing ‘by the rules of a writer who spent formative years reading pulp fiction and watching drive-in movies and thinking seriously about what it means to be poor and stubborn and Southern and trying to be a decent person anyway.’ The violence is described as real and having consequences. The friendship between Hap and Leonard is credited as ‘more interesting than most literary novels manage.’

What role does the East Texas setting play in Savage Season? The review argues the setting matters significantly: ‘Lansdale renders East Texas without romance or contempt — it’s a specific place with specific economics and specific ways people relate to each other, and that specificity is part of what makes the book work. These aren’t types. They’re people from somewhere.’ The place grounds characters who might otherwise feel like genre conventions.

Further Reading from Authoritative Sources

  • Hap and Leonard — Wikipedia’s Hap and Leonard article provides series context, helping readers understand Savage Season’s place as the founding novel of a long-running crime fiction series and Lansdale’s approach to the duo.
  • Joe R. Lansdale — Wikipedia’s Joe R.