"Of Mice and Minestrone" was a short (really short, about 150 pages with big font, it took me all of an hour to read it) collection of early Hap and Leonard stories. A few were just Hap, Leonard didn't even appear. The title story is about a teenage Hap trying to rescue a battered wife from her abusive husband and learning how no good deed goes unpunished. "Sparring Partner" was probably the best one: Hap and Leonard go to help train a boxer that an acquaintance of Leonard's wants to put in the ring. I really enjoyed the recipes at the end, too, even though I can't eat any of them since I'm vegan. They were funny, though ("beat those eggs like they owe you money"). I would totally read a cookbook Lansdale wrote. My only complaint was how he kept repeating how strange it was for Hap and Leonard to be friends. Like, every other paragraph, it felt like. Yes, we know. We got it. Let's move on. Still, a fun way to spend a lunch hour.
"Peach Clobbered" was one I put on hold last year right when it came out, and it took so long for our book vendor to fill the order that we had a bunch of patrons on hold so I decided I would take my name off the list and wait until the demand died down (I'm compassionate like that). It was pretty cute, I liked it. Nina is recently divorced and has moved to the tiny town of Cymbeline, Georgia, which has a Shakespeare theme (I wish this place really existed, I would so visit). She bought a beautiful historical Queen Anne home and is working on converting it to a B&B. Unfortunately, Harry Westcott, the former owner's great grand nephew, thinks that he should be the rightful owner because his great aunt promised to revise her will and leave it to him, only she died before she got the chance. He's pestering Nina, and then the Mayor asks her to take in some nuns who were kicked out of their convent by a ruthless developer name Greg Bainbridge. Turns out the whole town has reasons to hate Bainbridge, he's a real slimeball. So when Bainbridge is stabbed to death while wearing Harry's penguin suit (it's a long backstory), the sheriff has plenty of suspects. Gerard did a good job of planting red herrings, I wasn't quite sure who was innocent.
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