Lansdale’s style is raunchy and riotous, cut loose by Hap and Leonard, a couple of tough guys in East Texas with good intentions and smart mouths.  If you are interested in his latest, Vanilla Ride, then you might also enjoy these readalikes: 

A Drink Before the War by Dennis Lehane

Patrick Kenzie and Angela Genarro are a couple of gritty private investigators who grew up and grew tough in blue-collar Dorchester, MA. The duo are confronted by a cadre of powerful Boston politicos offering big money to locate a missing cleaning woman. As the investigation unfolds, the partners are soon drawn into the deadly crossfire among warring political factions.  Like it or not, they’re headed for a deadly crossfire in a case that’s not just about right and wrong—it’s all-out war.

The Diehard: A Detective Sergeant Mulheisen Mystery by Jon A. Jackson

The Diehard begins in Indian Village, an exclusive enclave in Mulheisen’s crumbling Detroit precinct, when a gorgeous young heiress is shot and stabbed, apparently during a robbery, and expires on a neighbor’s doorstep. Her husband was the only executive of Fidelity Trust Insurance to escape blame for an embezzlement scandal worth some $20 million. But what is the connection, where is the money, and who is the suntanned stranger who is tracking down the same leads, one step ahead of Mulheisen?

The Mangrove Coast by Randy Wayne White

Doc Ford, marine biologist and former government intelligence agent, temporarily abandons his research to rescue the wife of a dead war buddy.  His buddy’s daughter calls to tell Ford that her mother has disappeared in South America without a trace, in the company of an unsavory companion, and her money’s gone, too. Doc agrees to help, and finds himself in Colombia, then in Panama, on the trail of a man more genuinely evil than any he has ever encountered. 6th book in the Doc Ford series.

Grand Theft by Timothy Watts

His profitable career as a high-end automobile thief abruptly thwarted when he is set up for the murder of a Philadelphia mob boss, Teddy Clyde finds himself struggling for survival while working to outmaneuver a mobster with a grudge, an assistant U.S. attorney, two arms dealers, and a beautiful investigative journalist.

Basket Case by Carl Hiaasen

While researching a death notice, Jack Tagger - a down-on-his-luck investigative reporter relegated to writing obits - stumbles by accident upon an actual news story: former rocker Jimmy Stoma has drowned while diving in the Bahamas. Sensing foul play, Jack is soon tracking down Jimmy’s not-so-grieving widow. When things turn violent and Jack suddenly has to defend himself with a giant frozen lizard, he enlists the help of his sportswriter friend Juan Rodriguez and teenage club scene veteran Carla Candilla to try to find out why someone is killing off has-been sleaze rockers.