Pulpy, blackly humorous, compulsively readable, and somehow both wildly surreal and down-to-earth. Lansdale is a national fucking treasure.

—Christa Faust, author of Money Shot

THINGS GET UGLY
THE BEST CRIMES STORIES OF JOE R. LANSDALE

Foreword by S. A. Cosby, author of the New York Times bestseller Razorblade Tears

ISBN: Print: 978-1-61696-396-5; Digital: 978-1-61696- 397-2

Published: Aug 2023

Available Format(s): Trade paperback and Digital

Edgar Award winner Joe R. Lansdale (the Hap and Leonard series) returns to the piney, dangerous woods of East Texas. In this career retrospective of his best crime stories, Lansdale shows exactly why critics continue to compare him to Elmore Leonard, Donald Westlake, Flannery O’Connor, and William Faulkner.

• In the 1950s, a young small-town projectionist mixes it up with a violent gang.
• When Mr. Bear is not alerting us to the dangers of forest fires, he lives a life of debauchery and murder.
• A brother and sister travel to Oklahoma to recover the dead body of their uncle.
• A lonely man engages in dubious acts while pining for his rubber duckie.

In this collection of nineteen unforgettable crime tales, Joe R. Lansdale brings his legendary mojo and witty grit to harrowing heists, revenge, homicide, and mayhem. No matter how they begin, things are bound to get ugly—and fast.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword by S. A. Cosby
Introduction by Joe R. Lansdale

“The Steel Valentine”
“Driving to Geronimo’s Grave”
“Mr. Bear”
“The Job”
“Six Finger Jack”
“The Shadows, Kith and Kin”
“The Ears”
“Santa at the Café”
“I Tell You It’s Love”
“Dead Sister”
“Booty and the Beast”
“Boys Will Be Boys”
“Billie Sue”
“The Phone Woman”
“Dirt Devils”
“Drive in Date”
“Rainy Weather”
“Incident On and Off a Mountain Road”
“The Projectionist”