The Donut Legion

A Novel

By: Joe R. Lansdale

Narrated by: Joe R. Lansdale, Kasey Lansdale, Finlay Stevenson, January LaVoy, Marc Vietor, Greg Littlefield, Brad Sanders

Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

Edgar award-winning author Joe R. Lansdale beams a light on an East Texas town held in the grip of conspiracy.

Charlie Garner has a bad feeling. His ex-wife, Meg, has been missing for over a week and one quick peek into her home shows all her possessions packed up in boxes. Neighbors claim she’s running from bill collectors, but Charlie suspects something more sinister is afoot. Meg was last seen working at the local donut shop, a business run by a shadow group most refer to as ‘The Saucer People’; a space-age, evangelist cult who believe their compound to be the site of an extraterrestrial Second Coming.

Along with his brother, Felix, and beautiful, randy journalist Amelia “Scrappy” Moon, Charlie uncovers strange and frightening details about the compound (read: a massive, doomsday storehouse of weapons, a leashed chimpanzee!) When the body of their key informer is found dead with his arms ripped out of their sockets, Charlie knows he’s in danger but remains dogged in his quest to rescue Meg.

Brimming with colorful characters and Lansdale’s characteristic bounce, this rollicking crime novel examines the insidious rise of fringe groups and those under their sway with black comedy and glints of pathos.

©2023 Joe R. Lansdale (P)2023 Mulholland Books

Critic reviews

"A breathlessly paced, suspenseful novel, revealing the dark underbelly of cults, and people's enduring fascination with the supernatural. Populated by his one-of-a-kind characters, Lansdale, with his signature humor and empathy, peels back the layers of bluster and hype, exposing the seductive and dangerous nature of predatory sects.”—Kathleen Kent, author of THE DIME

"The Donut Legion struck a crazy chord in my heart. Joe Lansdale employs his signature dark humor to shine a supremely strange and unflinchingly honest light on our present-day madness. Known for his colorful characters, Lansdale outdoes himself with this motley crew. Fingers crossed more Garner Brother books are on the way!"—Eli Cranor, author of DON’T KNOW TOUGH

“Joe R. Lansdale’s THE DONUT LEGION centers around a writer searching for his missing ex-wife with the help of his private dick brother and a wannabe journalist, diving headlong into the bowels of a flying-saucer cult and their sketchy donut shop front. It’s a full-tilt blast, shot through with Lansdale’s searching humanism and deft touch. His East Texas brims with weirdness. Vibrant and rowdy and just so much damn fun. I’ve lost faith in a lot of people and things and institutions over the years, but I’ve never lost faith in Lansdale’s books, and this is one of his best yet.”—William Boyle, author of SHOOT THE MOONLIGHT OUT

Great characters, story, mystery

Another East Texas tale from Joe Lansdale with new characters.
I was drawn into the story and characters and the mystery as to what happened to his ex-wife. The Donut Saucer people cult made sense. I normally don't like over the top violence, which you know you will get in a Joe Lansdale book, but he fits it into the story and the characters.
The voices are great for the story. There might be some very minor echoing glitches near the very end, but by then, I was too drawn into the story to care.

Eventful book - not sure what happened with audio

I enjoyed the story and thought most of the reading was good. Starting with chapter 53 or so, Joe R. Lansdale reading the main part sounded as if he was recording now on an iPhone in his kitchen or something. The other parts were more or less the same throughout. Whoever produced this audiobook must've been in a hurry to see it through. Too bad, it would have deserved better.

A real stretch

While amusing, the storyline itself is less than plausible, and the humor often ill-placed relative to the gruesome and violence nature of the content.

A great story!

I always enjoy Joe Lansdales stories! This book is wrapped in adventure, mystery, love, and features some beloved East Texas local places! It was fun to listen to!

Performance production poor.

The story was cute, pretty light and the characters didn’t have a huge amount of depth. A little too cutesy for my taste. I prefer some of his other writing. The sound production was quite awful, each character was obviously in a separate room. Some definitely sounded as though they were reading from a script, too much intonation and slightly stilted. Unfortunately due to the poor performance quality it was too easy to stop believing in the magic of the story. I just ended up wincing inside at the awkwardness of it. Some of the voice actors were great, such as who ever was Grover and the new Sherif, beautiful purring tones, made for audio. Overall it was entertaining but I felt let down and wish I hadn’t spent my credit on this particular book of J.R.Lansdales.

cults, donuts and noir of my!

Not Lansdale’s best but a fun book either way. The only real gripe I had is that the audio recording goes sideways towards the end and sounds like the narrator recorded in an empty office while on his iPhone using the speaker option.

Decent story, ok casting, bad producer

The story was pretty good, and I felt like the casting of the characters voices was good most of the time, except for a few. The biggest problem with his audiobook was that the producer obviously had the narrators separated in time and space. At times it seemed to jerky and halting. Other times characters did not understand the emotions and tone of the conversation. The worst part was probably the last few chapters were. The main narrator was apparently in a echo chamber. It did not match the rest of the book at all. I would recommend re-recording the last few chapters. All in all I enjoyed the book and it was worth the daily deal price.

Excellent Story and Narration

THE DONUT LEGION by Joe R. Lansdale is an excellent, entertaining novel as I have come to expect from all Lansdale releases. What takes this story to the next level is the narration by multiple people including the author, Joe and his daughter, Kasey. Brad Sanders along with four others give this listen many layers. Seven different folks reading one novel and put together seamlessly, what a pleasure!

Great

The Donut Legion is a fun Lansdale thriller. Set in East Texas, this book has everything! After a vision of his ex-wife (a ghost?) and finding her missing, Charlie sets out to find out what happened. The resulting journey involved donut shops opened by the local UFO cult, an alphabet of sexual acts, a very good lawyer, and a chimpanzee (not a monkey). Overall, this book was a lot of fun. I had previously read Moon Lake, and generally found this one to be a bit lighter and comic, while still being exciting. The audiobook is read by a cast including both the author and his daughter. It was enjoyable listening to Joe R. Lansdale read his own story, although the audio quality was not up to the level I’m accustomed to. Some of the dialogue strained believably and almost sounded like a comedic bit in a sitcom rather than a crime fiction novel, but I nevertheless found the listening experience enjoyable.

A good book with a bad recording

Joe Landsdale's story is a fun one. The only problem I have is that some of the recording quality is lacking, especially towards the end. The narrator sounds like he's reading at the bottom of a metal well, distant and tinny with some slight echoes thrown in for good measure. it's a shame because the story is good. it deserved better.