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missyjohnson's review against another edition
3.0
a little more predictable than usual from Lansdale but a good read. I almost hate to admit enjoying the twisted stories that Joe L. can come up with but I do.
sea_caummisar's review against another edition
4.0
I'm pretty sure that I used to be a huge Lansdale fan. This was one that I didn't read previously, saw it online and the cover grabbed me. I opted to go for audio, and I have to admit that listening to it was not the treat that I was expecting. Don't get me wrong, the voice was okay, but it did cause me to fall asleep a few times.
It's weird how our memories can remember one thing, but when we revisit them, it was totally off. I'm pretty sure that I remembered Lansdale as one that was somewhat shocking and fun and gory. Maybe it was just this one book that didn't fall into those qualifications.. but with that cover I was expecting more.
The story was fine. A typical thriller type deal. A soldier returns home, gets a job for a newspaper and digs up some dirt on an old murder case.
There was nothing wrong with the story, but for me it was just okay
It's weird how our memories can remember one thing, but when we revisit them, it was totally off. I'm pretty sure that I remembered Lansdale as one that was somewhat shocking and fun and gory. Maybe it was just this one book that didn't fall into those qualifications.. but with that cover I was expecting more.
The story was fine. A typical thriller type deal. A soldier returns home, gets a job for a newspaper and digs up some dirt on an old murder case.
There was nothing wrong with the story, but for me it was just okay
dantastic's review against another edition
4.0
For me, a Joe Lansdale novel is like a visit from that foul-mouthed uncle your parents wish you wouldn't talk to when he comes to family gatherings. The stories he tells are outside your normal sphere and often make you uncomfortable.
Leather Maiden is about an Iraq war veteran who returns to his home town and starts a job writing for the local paper. He finds out about an unsolved missing person case that happened while he was gone and writes a story about it. Not long after, a mysterious envelope shows up, containing a dvd with his brother and the missing girl engaged in adult situations. Things spiral from there.
Leather Maiden is vintage Joe Lansdale: black humor, gore, interesting characters, and an intriguing story. What else do you need from a mystery novel?
Aside from the selling point of being a Joe Lansdale novel and all that entails, this story has another big thing going for it: I had no idea where things were going until they were 7/8s of the way there. I love that in a book.
Leather Maiden is about an Iraq war veteran who returns to his home town and starts a job writing for the local paper. He finds out about an unsolved missing person case that happened while he was gone and writes a story about it. Not long after, a mysterious envelope shows up, containing a dvd with his brother and the missing girl engaged in adult situations. Things spiral from there.
Leather Maiden is vintage Joe Lansdale: black humor, gore, interesting characters, and an intriguing story. What else do you need from a mystery novel?
Aside from the selling point of being a Joe Lansdale novel and all that entails, this story has another big thing going for it: I had no idea where things were going until they were 7/8s of the way there. I love that in a book.
sjj169's review against another edition
4.0
Cason Statler has come home to the small east Texas town of Camp Rapture. He saw military action in the Gulf War and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize at a newspaper in Houston. He pissed his chance at the big time away when he was bonking his editor's wife and step-daughter (she was of age). So he applies for a job at the local newspaper and is hired on. Cason has a tad bit of a problem with being obsessed with an ex-girlfriend who live in town.
"I'm obsessed. That I have problems from the war. That and a buck fifty might get me a ride on the horsey out in front of the Wal-Mart."
Once on the job Cason starts going through his predecessors old notes and finds notes on Butterfinger pies, types of bugs and a missing person case involving a beautiful young college student.
He starts poking his nose into the case and discovers it involves way more than he bargained for.
His "best" (and I used the term best loosely because Cason is kinda scared of him) friend from the war keeps checking in with Cason also. I want a BFF like Booger.
He's the kind of guy who's not averse to scratching his privates in public or beating a smartass near to death with a car antenna, which he nearly did once. No one remembers the source of the disagreement that led to the beating, not even Booger, though he has a faint memory about an argument over a game of horseshoes.
"Hey man," Booger said. "hold your goddamn water till I get my pants on. Me and Mr. Lucky are going with you."
Mr. Lucky was Booger's .45. It was one of his small circle of friends.
These characters are like-able. Cason is a sarcastic asshole and at times his humor wore thin, I think that the characters in the book even thought so. I still adored him.
This is my third Joe Lansdale book and I'm very impressed by his scope of writing. The other two books [b:The Bottoms|102113|The Bottoms|Joe R. Lansdale|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348765461s/102113.jpg|2038476] and [b:A Fine Dark Line|768945|A Fine Dark Line|Joe R. Lansdale|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1298643778s/768945.jpg|98465] were both coming of age tales that differed enough to impress me. This one is dark, funny, thriller material. I can not wait to read more of his work.
"I'm obsessed. That I have problems from the war. That and a buck fifty might get me a ride on the horsey out in front of the Wal-Mart."
Once on the job Cason starts going through his predecessors old notes and finds notes on Butterfinger pies, types of bugs and a missing person case involving a beautiful young college student.
He starts poking his nose into the case and discovers it involves way more than he bargained for.
His "best" (and I used the term best loosely because Cason is kinda scared of him) friend from the war keeps checking in with Cason also. I want a BFF like Booger.
He's the kind of guy who's not averse to scratching his privates in public or beating a smartass near to death with a car antenna, which he nearly did once. No one remembers the source of the disagreement that led to the beating, not even Booger, though he has a faint memory about an argument over a game of horseshoes.
"Hey man," Booger said. "hold your goddamn water till I get my pants on. Me and Mr. Lucky are going with you."
Mr. Lucky was Booger's .45. It was one of his small circle of friends.
These characters are like-able. Cason is a sarcastic asshole and at times his humor wore thin, I think that the characters in the book even thought so. I still adored him.
This is my third Joe Lansdale book and I'm very impressed by his scope of writing. The other two books [b:The Bottoms|102113|The Bottoms|Joe R. Lansdale|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348765461s/102113.jpg|2038476] and [b:A Fine Dark Line|768945|A Fine Dark Line|Joe R. Lansdale|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1298643778s/768945.jpg|98465] were both coming of age tales that differed enough to impress me. This one is dark, funny, thriller material. I can not wait to read more of his work.
david_agranoff's review against another edition
4.0
Lansdale is the East Teaxas author known to most as the evil genius behind the horror short story Bubba-Ho-Tep which became a movie starring Bruce Campbell directed by Phantasm director Don Coscarelli. To his readers he is known mostly for writing southern gothic weird crime mysteries. It makes no difference what genre he writes in I spent the majority of the books laughing. The novels have the sarcastic dialogue of Fletch novels, but the narration also has a level of sarcasm that bring great hunor to his books.
This novel Leather Maiden is a murder mystery and the humor comes mostly in the third person narration of Iraq war vet and small town Reporter named Cason. He has returned to his small Texas town to a job at the shitty little paper and inherited a column that appears weekly. It appears at first this sleepy little town will be boring, but in the end he is able to discover a murder conspiracy that no one else seems to have noticed.
The fantastic dialogue between characters is a highlight, Lansdale shares the skill for dialogue that is only matched by Tarintino, Elmore Leonard, and Gregory Macdonald. If you have dark or grumpy sense of humor you can’t really go wrong with this, or any other Lansdale novel.
sandeestarlite's review against another edition
3.0
Does everyone in East Texas really have ski masks handy? Kathy H? I got stuck wondering about that factoid early on in the book. Is the weather conducive to such cold weather gear? Seems unlikely with the talk of the heat throughout the rest of the book.
I'm not a huge fan of mysteries but this one was rather well done, an account of a man returning home to rebuild his life after a tour of duty over seas and being fired from a reporting job in Houston. Sometimes the author's command of language was read-out-loud witty and sometimes it fell rather flat.
I'm not a huge fan of mysteries but this one was rather well done, an account of a man returning home to rebuild his life after a tour of duty over seas and being fired from a reporting job in Houston. Sometimes the author's command of language was read-out-loud witty and sometimes it fell rather flat.
dylanperry's review against another edition
4.0
4.5/5
Really enjoyed this, probably my third favorite Lansdale novel after Paradise Sky and Edge of Dark Water. It did take about 40 or so pages for me to get sucked in, but once I was, it was all smooth sailing.
Really enjoyed this, probably my third favorite Lansdale novel after Paradise Sky and Edge of Dark Water. It did take about 40 or so pages for me to get sucked in, but once I was, it was all smooth sailing.
appalonia's review against another edition
2.0
Normally I enjoy Lansdale’s books, but this one disappointed me. It was too gruesome in some places, and I’m afraid the psychotic “friend” who loves weapons and pops up just in time to help the protagonist has been done to death in crime fiction books. Also the author’s excessive use of "down-home" similes was getting to me after a while. The story itself was fine, but I don’t think the author developed the main characters enough. Good enough for a quick read if you like this type of story, but definitely not a keeper.
kmk182's review against another edition
2.0
From what I've read you have to set aside reality and just go with it with Lansdale. There's always plot holes and people act in very unbelievable ways. This one is a little too out there. A very slow beginning that was hard to get through. The ending was just too much; if you make it that far I'm not sure how you can't laugh at it.