Read @ Joe’s

Title: First Chance (2026) Author: Kasey Lansdale Publisher: Blackstone Publishing Book jacket: Chance Kirby isn’t new to detective work, but starting over in Hopeful, Texas is a big step. Determined to leave behind her father and stepmother’s shadow and carve out a future of her own, she opens a small PI agency expecting missing heirlooms and small disputes. What she gets is anything but. Joe says: First Chance isn’t a perfect debut but it is an entertaining one. Kasey Lansdale tips her hat to classic detective fiction and dry rubs every chapter with a criminally unique flavor.

Every detective has to earn their first case.

Every writer has to survive their first novel.

Kasey Lansdale gets to do both at once.

That’s a risky hand to play. Fortunately, with First Chance Lansdale isn’t trying to reinvent the private eye. Instead, Lansdale tips her hat to classic detective fiction, pours herself a tall glass of sweet tea, and dry rubs every chapter with a criminally unique flavor.

Chance Kirby sets out to forge her own path from the family business (something Lansdale can, perhaps, personally relate to). Her first assignment is anything but glamorous. Months after Patience Weaver’s body is discovered abandoned, the official investigation has grown colder than yesterday’s brisket. Patience’s sister, Darla, isn’t buying it. She believes the killer is still walking free and is waiting to strike again. Chance wades into East Texas waters full of softball games, McDonald’s take-out, hunky cops, and enough misdirection that would keep the Stars’ blue line busy.

Yet in all that, Lansdale also sidesteps many of the familiar serial-killer clichés. There are no supervillains leaving crossword-puzzle clues. No detectives making impossible leaps of logic after staring at a corkboard covered in red string. First Chance plays things straighter than a West Texas highway. Investigations involve interviews. Waiting. Wrong turns. More waiting. The occasional stake out. And then even more waiting. 

Such non-events makes for a refreshingly realistic procedural. Yet this is also where the novel occasionally spins its tires.

Real investigations are slow. Crime fiction doesn’t have to be.

There are stretches where the narrative settles into a rhythm of conversations, coffee, and contemplation before finally remembering somebody ought to stir the roux. There are beats that feel more TLC and less TCM Noir Alley. A few well-placed side investigations or smaller mysteries, the kind Raymond Chandler used to toss into a story to be used like kindling, could have kept the momentum burning a little hotter. 

Still, when Lansdale finally steps on the gas… hang on. That’s when blood drips. Secrets unravel. Dirt gets kicked up. 

Yes, there are first-novel growing pains. Some of the world-building lingers too long. Occasionally the narration tells when it could simply show. A few scenes could lose a paragraph or two. But for a first novel? First Chance isn’t a perfect debut but it is an entertaining one.

Running parallel with the plot, Lansdale makes East Texas its own character, one that’s strong with a humidity that sticks to your shirt. She also builds up the refreshingly human relationship between Chance and Police Chief Izzy Lopez. They tease. They trust. They challenge one another. In this regard, Lansdale lets her own voice swagger onto every page. 

If Chance Kirby’s first investigation is this entertaining, imagine what she’ll be like after a few more miles on those dusty Texas roads.

I’d happily ride shotgun for Case No. 2.

---

Thanks to Blackstone Publishing – as well as Kasey herself – for the chance to saddle up with First Chance.