I really can't resist Lansdale. He's one of my favorite authors â I've read all of his Hap and Leonard novels as well as many of his stand-alones. I have enjoyed them all and have not really been disappointed in any of them.
MORE BETTER DEALS is one of his stand-alone novels taking place as usual in East Texas, this time during the early 1960s. The narrator and protagonist is Ed Edwards, a used car salesman who gets involved with the beautiful wife of one of the car dealer's customers, Frank Craig, who bought a used Cadillac. When Frank quits making payments, Ed is sent to repossess the car. Frank is out of town in the Cadillac but his wife Nancy is there and immediately Ed is in a torrid affair with her. Later Nancy shows signs of abuse by Frank and convinces Ed to kill Frank to collect on an insurance policy. Ed sees this as an opportunity to get out of the used car business and as a path to a better life. Well do things go as planned? And is Nancy what she claims to be?
Other reviewers have compared this novel to James M. Cain and his novel Double Indemnity. I feel that it also may have used Cain's The Postman Always Rings Twice as a template. In any event, I thought this was a pretty good noir novel with murder, lust, greed, and racism mixed in. Ed is actually half black but is passing for white and gets involved with blacks from the poor side of town who have no rights in mid-twentieth century Texas. This probably isn't Lansdale's best novel but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
MORE BETTER DEALS is one of his stand-alone novels taking place as usual in East Texas, this time during the early 1960s. The narrator and protagonist is Ed Edwards, a used car salesman who gets involved with the beautiful wife of one of the car dealer's customers, Frank Craig, who bought a used Cadillac. When Frank quits making payments, Ed is sent to repossess the car. Frank is out of town in the Cadillac but his wife Nancy is there and immediately Ed is in a torrid affair with her. Later Nancy shows signs of abuse by Frank and convinces Ed to kill Frank to collect on an insurance policy. Ed sees this as an opportunity to get out of the used car business and as a path to a better life. Well do things go as planned? And is Nancy what she claims to be?
Other reviewers have compared this novel to James M. Cain and his novel Double Indemnity. I feel that it also may have used Cain's The Postman Always Rings Twice as a template. In any event, I thought this was a pretty good noir novel with murder, lust, greed, and racism mixed in. Ed is actually half black but is passing for white and gets involved with blacks from the poor side of town who have no rights in mid-twentieth century Texas. This probably isn't Lansdale's best novel but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
