Read: Leather Maiden by Joe R. Lansdale, 2008, 9780375414527.
Quite good. Good enough I put off reading it since I wanted the story to last.
Cason Statler is a journalist suffering from PTSD after Army tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. Cason signed up after 9/11 and felt like he got baited and switched in going to Iraq. He drinks too much and has been hanging out in Oklahoma with a sociopath he became pals with in Iraq.
Cason goes on a bender the night before a job interview at his hometown paper. Cason gets hired anyway - the editor is hiring based on product not appearance - and starts his job as a weekly columnist. Searching through his predecessor's notes he reads a story about an incredibly pretty college student who has gone missing. Cason is intrigued, he researches, he writes, he gets a DVD delivered to him showing his college professor brother pouring the pork to the missing girl.
Cason investigates further and finds out about a sexual blackmail plot, a group of "urban explorers" who sneak into local buildings, more missing girls, sociopathic carnies, his co-worker's vagina, and skinned bodies.
A good thriller with great touches of Lansdale's crude humor. I think Lansdale does dialogue real well.
Items of note: 1) I've only read 3-4 Lansdale books but I think Lansdale likes to use carnies for weird characters and use racists as bad guys. 2) There are several sociopaths in the book and Cason's Army buddy is one of them. Army Buddy is clearly unhinged in several ways and Lansdale is succinct when showing how dangerous and unpredictable the guy can be. 3) A character comparing Missing College Girl Sociopath to the pod people from Invasion of the Body Snatchers was kind of funny.
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