The Thicket

I’d forgotten how much I enjoy Joe R Lansdale, he is a witty writer who tells good hard boiled stories.

The Thicket is set in East Texas at the turn of the century, it’s a combination of a ‘coming of age’ story and a tough bounty hunting chase of a brutal gang of bank robbers and killers. The lead character, Jack Parker, is accompanied by Shorty, a crack shot midget, Eustace, a grave digger and a Jimmy Sue, kind hearted whore on his pursuit of his sister’s kidnappers.

This is a very good read, when you’ve finished you will want to meet more by Lansdale, a great find.

This is at least a 4/5

The Plea

The Plea by Steve Cavanagh is a cracking legal novel, sort of Micky Haller with knuckle dusters.

Eddie Flynn is an ex con man turned lawyer.  He gets pressured into defending an open and shut murder case by a secretive FBI agent who wants Eddie to convince the defendant to plead guilty. As he looks into the case and meets the defendant Eddie starts to have doubts about his guilt but anything other than a quick guilty plea will put Eddie’s wife at risk.

This is a pacy courtroom page turner with some good twists and turns. Well worth a read, 4/5