Sugar on the bones - joe r. lansdale

PI Duo Hap & Leonard investigate the untimely death of a woman whose family stood much to gain from her passing.

Its a holy mess of a case for the perpetual bad boy ( New York Times ) sleuths in this beloved series.

Minnie Polson is dead.

Burned to a crisp in a fire so big and bad it had to be deliberate.

The only thing worse is that Hap and Leonard could have prevented it.

Maybe.

Minnie had a feeling she was being targeted, shaken down by some shadowy force.

However, when shed solicited Hap & Leonard, all it took was one off color joke to turn her sour and shed called them off the investigation.

Wracked with a guilty conscience, the two PIs--along with Haps fleet-footed wife, Brett--tuck in to the case.

As they look closer, they dredge up troublesome facts: for one, Minnies daughter, Alice, has recently vanished.

Shed been hard up after her pet grooming business went under and was in line to collect a whopping insurance sum should anything happen to her mother.

The same was due to Minnies estranged husband, Al, whose kryptonite (beautiful, money-grubbing women) had left him with only a run-down mobile home.

But did Minnies foolish, cash-strapped family really have it in them to commit a crime this grisly? Or is there a larger, far more sinister scheme at work? Irreverent, wise-cracking, and full of atmosphere and bite, Sugar on the Bones is not to be missed.