Leather Maiden
by Joe R. Lansdale
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Book Summary Information
Author: Joe R. LansdaleEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Format: Deckle Edge
Published: 2008-08-05
ISBN: 0375414525
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: Knopf
Book Reviews of Leather Maiden
Book Review: Leather Maiden
Summary: 5 Stars
You know what a pleasure is in store for you from the first page of "Leather Maiden," the newest book from Joe Lansdale, upon being introduced to Cason Statler. He is returning to Camp Rapture, where his parents and his brother and sister-in-law still live, an old timber town in East Texas where he grew up and where is now moving back, after stints in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he earned some medals, and a newspaper job in Houston, where he earned a Pulitzer nomination, all of which have had a profound effect on his psyche.
The author's description of Cason's entry into town: "It was a bright day, the sunlight like a burst egg yolk running all over the sidewalk and through the yards, almost snuffing out the grass with its heated glory, and causing everything to be warm and appear fresh, even the houses on the poor side of town from which ancient coats of basic white peeled like stripping sunburn." After his first day back, he sits outside his parents' house and "leaned back and looked up at the stars. They were shiny and bright, and there was something right about the heavens that made me want to live forever. I had had that feeling before. It never lasted."
Cason has come back to interview for a job as a journalist on the local Camp Rapture Report, a far cry from the paper from which he was fired in Houston, after screwing up his life there with his excessive drinking and other, quite personal dalliances, he is happy to be hired there as a columnist. Trying to find something to interest him, he finds notes made by his predecessor on a cold case, that of the disappearance of a spectacularly beautiful girl six months prior, a 23-year-old history major at the University. He feels that story is ripe for a series of articles about "the illusion of safety in a small town." He despondently feels it might be the only interesting thing he'd ever get to write about there. Though he is warned by the police chief that "there isn't any such thing as a quiet town, unless maybe there are two people in it and one of them is dead." After the first article runs he finds he has stirred up reactions that perhaps would have better been left undisturbed, and there are some personal implications for Cason.
The portrait painted by the author is very evocative: "The sun was falling into the trees and it looked like a peeled red plum coming apart. A flock of black birds was moving from one tree to the other as my car startled them. They moved so well in tight formation they appeared to be a wind-blown cloud of crude oil. Finally they had had enough and broke over the trees and flew into the face of the dying sun, black freckles on a bright red face."
The portrait of small-town America is well-drawn, mostly dormant but still persistent racial tensions realistically depicted. The writing and the characters are original; particularly Cason's "friend" with the quaint nickname "Booger," who served with him in Iraq and saved his life more than once and now owns a gun range and a bar, and of whom he says the following: "I call Booger a friend, but I'm not really sure I mean it. He may be more of an attachment, like a growth of some sort. It was like I told Dad. I want to get rid of him, cut him out, but there are complications and attachments. . . . I suppose it's our Iraq connection. That kind of thing, making war together, gives us a link; sometimes, for me, that link is like a ball and chain. Booger, in many ways, has yet to quit fighting the war. Originally, he moved his inborn hatred of just about everybody from Oklahoma to Iraq, and now that he was home again, shooting squirrels and deer didn't do it anymore. He kept hoping they'd call him back to Iraq. He liked the smell of blood, the charred odor of burning corpses. He liked being shot at. He told me so. He was that soldier that gave the rest of us a bad name." Reminiscent of Elvis Cole's "Joe Pike," Spenser's "Hawk" and Myron Bolitar's "Win," he is not a character the reader will easily forget.
The story is suspenseful and in between the murder and blackmail it is laced with humor, some of the laugh-out-loud variety. But don't let that fool you. The author steadily builds the suspense as the tale progresses, till you find yourself holding your breath as the conclusion nears. And just when you think you can take a deep breath he has another stunning twist in store. Mr. Lansdale has written another quirky and fast-paced novel, one which will keep the reader guessing and hugely entertained right through to the last page.
Summary of Leather Maiden
A masterly new thriller from the Edgar Award?winning writer who has ?a folklorist?s eye for telling detail and a front-porch raconteur?s sense of pace? (The New York Times Book Review).After a scandalous affair costs him his job in Houston, Cason Statler?Gulf War veteran and Pulitzer Prize?nominated journalist?returns home to the small east Texas town of Camp Rapture. Cason is a wreck. He drinks too much, he?s stalking his ex-girlfriend, and he?s wallowing in envy of his successful older brother. To get back on his feet, he takes a job at the local paper, and when he stumbles across his predecessor?s notes on a cold case murder file, he thinks he?s found the thing that?ll keep him out of trouble. No such luck. The further he digs into the case, the more certain he is that the unsolved crime is connected to a series of eerie, inexplicable events that have recently occurred in town. And he knows his suspicions are right on when he finds himself dragged into a deadly game of blackmail and murder that clearly has evil as its only goal.
Leather Maiden is a brash amalgam of suspense, raw humor, and mystery that unfolds in the vividly rendered shadowy lowlands of eastern Texas. It?s country noir as only Joe Lansdale can do it.
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