Devil Red — Joe R. Lansdale

Hap Collins and Leonard Pine return in a red-hot, mayhem-fueled thriller to face a vampire cult, the Dixie Mafia, and the deadliest assassin they've ever encountered -- Devil Red.

When their friend Marvin asks Hap and Leonard to look into a cold-case double homicide, they're more than happy to play private investigators: they like trouble, and they especially like getting paid to find it. It turns out that both of the victims were set to inherit serious money, and one of them ran with a vampire cult. The more closely Hap and Leonard look over the crime-scene photos, the more they see, including the image of a red devil's head painted on a tree. A little research turns up a slew of murders with that same fiendish signature. And if that's not enough, Leonard has taken to wearing a deerstalker cap . . . Will this be the case that finally sends Hap over the edge?

Full up with Lansdale's trademark -- whip-smart dialogue, relentless pacing, and unorthodox-to-say-the-least characters -- Devil Red is one rambunctious thrill ride by one hell of a writer.