Selected Novels and Collections:
Act of Love — (1981) Publisher:
In 1981, Joe R. Lansdale, then a noted short story writer, published his first novel, a paperback original entitled Act of Love. A ferocious account of the search for a killer known as the Houston Hacker, Lansdale's debut was written years before the Hannibal Lecter phenomenon left its mark on American popular culture, years before the 'serial killer novel' became a distinct — and highly marketable — publishing category. Thirty years after its initial appearance, this pioneering novel continues to exert a raw but undeniable narrative force. Set in the vividly evoked urban squalor of Houston, Texas, Act of Love moves with great authority between the disordered mind of a compulsive killer and the increasingly desperate perspectives of the policemen who hunt him. In the process, it offers a detailed portrait of a complex murder investigation and anatomizes a city under siege, a city held hostage by a latter day Jack the Ripper.
As long time Lansdale readers will note, Act of Love introduces the soon-to-be-familiar figure of homicide detective Marvin Hanson. More importantly, it introduces, in embryonic form, some characteristic authorial virtues: the deceptively effortless prose, the flawless sense of place, the graphic depiction of inhuman violence, and the casually profane, instantly recognizable Lansdale humor. Unavailable for far too long, Act of Love makes a welcome reappearance in this deluxe anniversary edition, which includes the definitive text of the novel, a new introduction by  the author, and a never before published short story featuring Marvin Hanson. The result is a significant — and necessary — act of rediscovery and an irresistible gift for Lansdale aficionados old and new.
 Act of Love
Originally published in 1981, Joe R. Lansdale’s Act of Love is a serial-killer thriller. A year before Thomas Harris’s Red Dragon took us into the mind of a sadistic serial killer, Lansdale was doing it, giving us chapters in the point of view of a necrophiliac, sadistic, misogynist cannibal as he terrorizes the city of Houston, Texas.
Act of Love is set in the 1980s and follows the murders committed by the Houston Hacker. The “Hacker” was given his name by a local tabloid, and he is corresponding with them, taunting the police in the manner of Jack the Ripper. The story also follows Marshall Hanson, a black detective, and Joe Clark, his trainee partner, as they investigate the killings. Hanson has a house in a suburb of Houston, a teenaged daughter and a smart, lovely wife, Rachel. In other words, he has a lot to lose.
Lansdale shines a harsh light on the dark, festering corners of the human soul. His serial killer’s hatred of women is palpable. Lansdale did some research, obviously, and a random thought of the killer’s, almost a throw-away, about how torturing cats and dogs no longer satisfied him is accurate and downright chilling.
The book follows the form of a police procedural to some extent, and Hanson, who is obsessed with stopping the killer, does some research himself, talking to the local coroner who has made an informal study of necrophilia. Very little detecting takes place, which is a shame, because Hanson seems like a smart guy and we never see him at his best.
Lansdale’s prose is sparse and simple. He evokes a southwestern mode of speech not with dialect but by the inflection and rhythm of his sentences. The city of Houston is not directly described much, but it is evoked by the highways, the smell in the air, and the way people talk.
Hanson is a strange character for an African American detective in the 1980s. He is fixated on finding the murderer and stopping him, even if this means going vigilante. Hanson came from sharecropper stock and has worked his way up to detective, but apparently this is not important to him. He never once thinks that he is risking his career, and even more surprisingly, never considers what impact his “going vigilante” would have on young black cops coming up behind him. It seems like that would be a daily worry for this man in this place and time.
In the early 1980s, Lansdale was making the transition from short story writer to novelist, and some awkwardness in plotting and pacing show here. Elements show up early in the book and are dropped without explanation. Lansdale says in the interview in the Extras Section that he wanted to show that murder was ugly, and he certainly succeeded here. The murders — and the aftermath — are so grisly that by the third one I was skimming. Well done, just very gruesome.
Towards the end, the plot requires Hanson to be both stupid and incompetent in order to work, not to mention the amazing coincidence of Hanson’s wife Rachel, menaced by the killer, suddenly remembering that she left a bag of nails and a big old hammer in their closet because she’d hung some curtains recently. Really? Nails for a curtain rod, rather than screws, and you’re just remembering now? Both of these are the mistakes of a new novelist, and disappear from Lansdale’s later work.
Subterranean Press has chosen an anatomically-incorrect human heart, pierced with various knives, for its cover. I don’t particularly like it, but it evokes the feeling and tone of the book quite well. The Extras section includes an interesting interview with Lansdale and an opening chapter from a later book with some of the same characters.
Some readers will be horrified by this book, and not in a good way. Here’s a handy screening tool: re-read my first paragraph. If the words “necrophiliac, sadistic, misogynistic cannibal” don’t make you shudder and go “Eeuuw!” then you’ll be okay with Act of Love. I’d recommend the book for Lansdale completists, but also for horror fans who liked Red Dragon or Silence of the Lambs. In the 2000s, articulate, witty serial killers like Jeff Lindsay’s Dexter took the stage, making us think that maybe psychopaths weren’t so bad. Joe R. Lansdale begs to differ. After you read Act of Love, you will, too. —Marion Deeds
 The Best of Joe R. Lansdale — (2010) Publisher: By turns absurd, hilarious, and terrifying, this outrageous collection features the best writings of the high priest of Texan weirdness. Horny steam-shovels, odd-ball detectives, malicious rocks, spectral prehistoric fish, and vampire hunters permeate these vividly detailed stories. Featuring cult-classic award-winning tales such as 'The Night They Missed the Horror Show,' 'Mad Dog Summer,' and 'Dog,' along with non-fiction forays into drive-in theaters and low budget films, this dynamic retrospective represents the broad spectrum of Lansdale's career. 'Bubba Hotep' — the tale of Elvis, John F. Kennedy, and a soul-sucking mummy, which was made into an award-winning film — is included along with the acclaimed novella, 'On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert with Dead Folks,' and never before collected works. Original, compelling, and downright odd, this unforgettable compilation is essential reading for fans of horror, mystery, and southern gothic.
Deadman's Road — (2010) Publisher: The Reverend Jedidiah Mercer returns with the re-release of the highly influential pulp novel, Dead in the West, and four stories, one never before collected, one brand new. Contained herein are the Reverend's adventures with zombies, ghouls, werewolves, Lovecraftian monsters and kobolds. Western action blends with grisly horror and ribald humor for a super collection of shoot-outs and fang-outs, claws and crawling horrors, and lessons about an angry, unforgiving god and methods for killing nasties of all kinds.
In Dead in the West, the Reverend faces a resurrected American Indian out for vengeance. Not only is the man back from the dead, he's brought back others as servants, and they are angry, hungry little devils when there is an absence of light. Plenty of surprises, laughs, gross-outs and slimy horrors, with a slam bang ending. This novel inspired numerous writer to cross the West with Horror, Action, Humor, and a wobbly moral sensibility.
This first adventure of the Reverend sets up all the others, which include:
'Deadman s Road.' The Reverend, on his mission from God, encounters a ghoul who waits on a dark road for travelers so that he can feed his belly and his crippled soul.
'The Gentleman's Hotel.' The Reverend encounters a town, empty except for the lone survivor of a stage coach attack. Together, they face ghosts and werewolf Conquistadores who can not only transform into toothyadversaries, but also into dust and moths and are a real pain in the ass; all of it results in one hell of a cross-draw, dagnabbed, hair belly confrontation.
'The Crawling Sky.' In an isolated cabin the Reverend and an unwilling partner face a Lovecraftian horror with a nasty attitude and mind blowing abilities.
And finally, in 'The Dark Down There,' the Reverend and an unlikely partner, a three hundred pound lady named Flower, battle kobolds who cannibalize miners and serve a Queen that at a glance could pass  for spoiled tapioca pudding. The Reverend even manages a glancing chance at a kind of backwoods romance.
 Deadman's Road
Deadman’s Road is a collection of pulp stories about a gunslingin’ preacher who wanders the American Old West on a mission from God to seek out and destroy evil creatures. Reverend Jedidiah Mercer relentlessly faces down a town full of zombies, an angry ghoul, a pack of Conquistadores-turned-werewolves, a hell-spawn monstrosity haunting a secluded cabin, and a goblin horde that invades a mining town.
I’m generally not much of a fan of horror fiction. I’ve read fewer then a handful of horror books, but my limited experience is that good horror writers stand out as exceptional storytellers, so I look for the books they write outside the horror genre. Writers like Stephen King, Robert R. McCammon, and Karl Edward Wagner come to mind, and so does Joe R. Lansdale.
On the flip-side, I am a huge fan of Westerns. To me, tales of the Old West are more than just exaggerated fabrications of the American frontier. Westerns are America’s legends and myths, our King Arthur or Odyssey.
So I knew I could go either way with Deadman's Road.
Anyone who has read Lansdale knows what to expect: gruesome violence and ribald humor that recall the old horror movies of the late 60s and early 70s. It was a time when classic monsters and campy space invaders were losing ground to the living dead, psychopaths, and demon possession. In fact, it’s that same period of horror films that inspired Lansdale to write this story. Low budget, off-the-mainstream cult movies were mixing genres at that time and it’s that same kind of weird fun that Lansdale creates here.
Reading Deadman’s Road, you can tell that Mr. Lansdale is from east Texas. The dialog, mannerisms, culture, and society... it's like watching The Outlaw Josey Wales, (which, by the way, is probably the best western movie ever made).
However, I eventually became a little bored with the horror elements and the overall darkness that pervades this kind of fiction. There are very few redeeming qualities in most all of the characters, which finally wore me down. But I’m sure horror fans would disagree.
That being said, Reverend Mercer drew me into stories that I otherwise wouldn’t have cared about. He is an extremely complex, contradictory, and flawed character that reminds me of one of my favorite heroes created by another east Texan, Robert E. Howard: Solomon Kane. Both Kane and Mercer are fanatic Christians, obsessed with rooting out and destroying evil. But where Solomon uses God’s mission as an excuse for his wanderlust and violence, Jedidiah is an unwilling soldier. In fact, Reverend Mercer hates God almost as much as he hates himself, but believes his service to be his only path to redemption for a past insufferable sin. He’s hardened and lonesome, and his constant struggle against inner demons makes the reader feel compassion for what would otherwise be an unlikable character. So much so that if there are more stories about Reverend Mercer to follow, I do hope he can one day find peace, if not some measure of happiness.
—Greg Hersom
 Crucified Dreams — (2011) Publisher: Crossing noir with the supernatural, this luridly visceral anthology attacks polite society and plunges into the unthinkable horrors lurking in its underbelly. Searching for some beauty in a time of increasing poverty and neglect, the desperate are all the more menacing, and in a brief moment, ordinary people turn into something far less human. Offering stylish yet savage tales of private dicks, serial killers, lurking demons, and femme fatales, these surreal and often bloody tales provide glimpses into sinister worlds that mirror our own. Boasting an intriguing assortment of stories from celebrated authors such as Harlan Ellison, David Morrell, and the infamous editor himself, each gritty and sensational undertaking proves that being human is a far cry from being civilized.
Shadows West — (2012) Publisher:
Six guns and zombies, a chicken eating werewolf, deals with the devil, and things that go bump in the night. John Wayne never had to deal with these kind of shenanigans, or these kinds of rowdies. But Joe R. Lansdale and John L. Lansdale aren't afraid, partner. They make this kind of material their everyday business. Compared to the cowpokes in their stories, John Wayne was a big sissy.
We got shoot-em-ups and bite-em-ups and blow em-ups, and the appearance of classic bad guys, like Jesse James, sent straight from hell with a bad attitude. We got a horse black as the pit and fast as the wind. We got things that won't die even when they're dead. There are demons and ugly people, both inside and out, giant spiders and unnecessary cursing, and one hot red-head heifer with an eye patch and a bull whip.
Who could ask for anything more.
So, for your entertainment, pilgrim, here we have it:  three screenplays that venture way out west... Way, way, way out west.
The Western and the horror film will never be the same.
Shadows West
Reading a screenplay is a different experience from a novel or short story. A screenplay strips the story down to dialogue and action, with some visuals. There is no interior monologue or author philosophizing, or at least, not much. It can be refreshing.
Joe R. Lansdale, who has written crime novels, mystery, dark fantasy and horror, provides three screenplays for the interested reader in Shadows West. Two of the trio were written with his brother John Lansdale, who used to write for Tales from the Crypt. All three are Westerns, all three feature the living dead and all three have the scatological analogies and sardonic humor Lansdale does well.
- In Hell’s Bounty, a hardened bounty hunter dies and is recruited by Lucifer to stop a rebel demon from unleashing the Old Gods in a town where the people have already turned into ghouls.
- Dead Man’s Road introduces us to a team of demon hunters, the nastiest beekeeper ever, and a haunted road.
- In Dead in the West, a town faces the consequences of its actions, and a sinning man of God discovers his new role in God’s plan.
Despite the original pairing of Jubil and Terry as demon hunters, and the powerful visuals, Dead Man’s Road was not very successful for me. After a humorous introduction in which Terry and Jubil, squabbling like an old married couple the entire time, kill a werewolf, the actual story unfolds when they stop at a roadhouse. There is a tale of the curmudgeonly beekeeper who sells the sweetest, richest honey in the territory. He kills a child, and the child’s Indian mother takes her revenge by cursing him. This results in a stretch of road that is also cursed. Terry and Jubil decide to investigate, and in short order a deputy who is bringing a murderer in to be hanged, the cowardly brother of the werewolf, and a pretty, larcenous barmaid all decide that taking a shortcut along the cursed road with the demon-hunters is a fine idea. From there, everything unfolds with comforting predictability. I didn’t enjoy Dead Man’s Road that much, but I would like to read more about Terry and Jubil, who are kind of a vulgar, frontiersy Steed-and-Mrs. -Peel, or Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser if one of them had been female. And the “secret” of the honey is beautiful and grotesque.
Hell’s Bounty has the most outright humor, most of which takes place in the saloon that is the “waiting area” between earth and Hell. In the mining town of Falling Rock, Trumo Quill makes a deal with a thing he finds lurking in the graveyard. As is always the case, he doesn’t read the fine print of the bargain. Meanwhile, Smith, a cold-hearted bounty hunter comes to town. When Quill attacks a woman in the saloon and disfigures her, Smith uses that moment not to rescue the woman but to take his man. In the struggle, Smith is killed and finds himself in Lucifer’s saloon. Lucifer explains that Quill is not what he seems. He has been possessed by a demon who has escaped Hell and plants to open a portal and allow the Old Ones to enter. When Smith returns to Falling Rock, he finds that Quill and the town have undergone a metamorphosis. Quill is a demon and the townsfolk are living dead. Unlike George Romero zombies, these ghouls can still speak after a fashion, even though their bodies are decaying and many have lost tongues, jaws, etc. One ghoul speaks with subtitles. Smith soon connects with the drunken town doctor, the undertaker, and Payday, the disfigured but beautiful woman who now wears black leather and fights ghouls. It is not enough, Smith knows, to stop the ghouls. Quill is advancing the spell to open the portal, and Smith and Payday must stop it. Smith has a couple of gifts from Satan: silver bullets that never run out, and a hand of playing cards he can use to call up a “posse. ”
I can see why this would be too expensive for an independent movie production company to make, because the special effects Lansdale calls for are extravagant, but they read wonderfully. Even though nothing is a surprise, the action sequences and special effects are extraordinary. This script should win some kind of award for best use of silver dust as a weapon, and Payday is not only beautiful and spunky but pretty smart too.
Dead in the West is an adaptation of a Joe Lansdale “weird western” novel. By this time, I felt like I needed the walking-dead checklist:
 Isolated town?
Bigoted and cowardly townspeople who committed a great evil?
Tortured hero who must attain redemption?
Beautiful, unattached young woman?
Corrupt lawmen?
Smart-mouthed boy with a bad home life?
Doctor/newspaper editor who reads the Necronomicon for entertainment?
Okay, we’re good to go with the Reverend, a preacher who engaged in an adulterous affair and then killed his lover’s husband. He happens to be a crack shot, which could make him a fairly interesting minister, but Lansdale does not spend any time here developing character. The Reverend comes to a town where the townspeople did a bad thing to some outsiders, and the outsiders are wreaking a terrible supernatural revenge on them. Because the characters are flat and the action so predictable, I don’t have any desire to seek out the novel, which probably has more depth and development. It’s an unfortunate consequence.
If you decide to read Shadows West, I recommend taking a break between each screenplay. Read something completely different as a palate cleanser. I think this book will suit Lansdale completists and would actually be a helpful gift for that film student in your life. For me, I think I’ll just rent the adaptation of Joe Lansdale’s novella, Bubba Ho-tep.
—Marion Deeds
Author photo credit: Beth Gwinn |
Joe R. Lansdale writes suspense, crime thrillers, horror, and Westerns, and has edited several anthologies. He has received the British Fantasy Award, the American Mystery Award, and seven Bram Stoker Awards. He lives in East Texas with his wife, son, daughter, and German Shepherd.
We'll list those books we think are of most interest to fantasy readers. Find out about more of Joe Lansdale's books at his website.
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