Cold In July by Joe R. Lansdale By Steve Rudd

This Texan author is surely one of the hottest 'action-thriller' writers of his generation. An expert in martial arts himself, his stories are always graced with superb plots and graphically violent action set-pieces that he describes so well I would have thought movie producers in Hollywood would all be falling over themselves to adapt his novels into big-budget blockbusters. Many of his novels are actually part of a madcap series that all focus on the (mis)adventures that a couple of buddies called Hap and Leonard get into, but 'Cold In July' is nothing to do with such a series and stands on its own bloody two feet.

The story opens with a family man called Richard Dane killing dead an intruder in their house, while the story proceeds to bring into the fray the dead man's father - Ben Russell - who sets out to avenge his son's death, firmly believing that 'a life should be for a life,' even if his son had no right to be prowling around Dane's house. The twist comes when they come to terms with the fact that the dead bloke isn't Ben Russell's son at all, and clearly the local police force are covering something up. So, in mock 'Mulder and Scully' style, Dane and Russell team up in search of the whole truth - and nothing but…

Whenever I read anything by Lansdale I usually do so in one sitting. All his books are tension-packed, and while some of his novels have 'a lot of talk and little action,' rest assured that all the talk is necessary, and when the action comes it hits hard and is of the shocking 'no nonsense' variety. As a rule I hate violence, but the three-dimensional characters that Lansdale consistently manages to create are 'real' people who usually get caught up in violence against their will. Just because his books are violent, it doesn't mean that they are macho or pro-violence. Far from it. In fact, 'Cold In July' could be viewed as being a fantastic 'drama,' packed with human tenderness and high emotions. Shot through with a few painful spurts of all-out action that might just shock you to the core, that is.

Lansdale truly is a genius writer, and there's no wonder that his work has won many awards over the years. Check him out… but whatever you do - don't get on the wrong side of him! You might get hurt. ISBN 0-575-40059-5 (INDIGO; first published in the USA in 1990)

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