Joe has taken a break from his old faithfuls to delve into the lives of some of the strangest people you'll read about.
'One of the things I always liked about James L Cain [author of Double Indemnity, The Postman Always Ring Twice] is that his stories were about small dreams, usually bad ones. But you were intrigued by these people. They were fascinating. Cain showed that the idea that you always have to create characters that are likeable is simply not true. You can be fascinated and gripped by evil. ' Joe R. Lansdale

Bill is a loser. He has no job, no money and no mother- his mother is dead and freeze-dried in her bedroom. She doesn't smell as bad as she used to, but her welfare checks are piling up and Bill doesn't feel smart enough to forge her signature.
So lacking money he decides to rob the firecracker stand across the highway from his house in the hope of acquiring some cash and a few loud bangs along the way.
But because Bill is Bill the heist goes horribly wrong and he winds up on the run with a freak show, including Ulysses S. Grant the bearded lady, Double Buckwheat the Siamese twins and Conrad the dog man. Not to mention Gidget, the trailer-trash hot blonde. Could things be looking up for Bill? As if...

'Freezer Burn goes back to that idea of small people and small dreams. There 's no one to really like in the book, and I'm really proud of that. It's about small people trying to commit small crimes. Joe R. Lansdale

Joe R Lansdale was born in East Texas and grew up in the sixties. He was an antiwar resister who dropped out of school, was drafted and refused to go, instead of sending him to prison the army sent him to a psychiatrist who proclaimed him nuts and sent him home. Joe is the author of over two hundred short stories and a dozen novels - including Savage Season, Mucho Mojo, The Two-Bear MQn~o, Bad Chili and Rumble Tumble (the Hap and Leonard series). He has won the British Fantasy Award, the American Mystery Award and Five Bram Stoker Awards. He lives in Nacogdoches, East Texas with his wife and children.

Joe Lansdate's zany and irresistible new novel, brings back the madcap Hap Collins and his partner in crime, Leonard Pine.

On his way home from work one evening Hap Collins saves a young woman from an attacker. The next day, when he gets to work at the chicken plant where he is a security guard, he discovers that the young woman he saved is the daughter of the owner. Hap is given a month's holiday and a large cash bonus as a reward. Persuaded by his friend Leonard to take a cruise, Hap and Leonard set off to Mexico and the Caribbean in search of adventure.
The trouble begins when Hap and Leonard are abandoned in Mexico after Leonar falls out with one of the waiters on board the ship. A walk along the beach ends with Leonard being stabbed in the stomach by an off duty policeman but they are rescued by a friendly fisherman and his beautiful daughter, Beatrice, who Hap then falls for.
However, Beatrice turns out to have a past that involves a Mexican mobster, who's a practising nudist and has a seven-foot tall sidekick with a sumo wrestler's looks. Trying for once to stay out of other people's business, Hap is overwhelmed with regret when Beatrice is murdered, and the evil that haunted him follows him home to East Texas, resulting in the death of one of Hap's closest friends. But Hap refuses to let things lie and he, Leonard and Jim Bob Luke, a hog raising private eye, return to Mexico to even the score.

Fast paced and extremely funny, Captains Outrageous sees Joe Lansdale writing at his very best.

Joe R Lansdale is the author of over two hundred short stories and a dozen novels, and has edited several anthologies of dark suspense and western fiction. He has won the British Fantasy Award, the American Mystery Award and Six Bram Stoker Awards. His last novel, The Bottoms, was winner of the 2001 Edgar Award for Best Mystery Novel.