Gone South by Robert McCammon

 

"What if? Maybe those two words were the first steps out of any swamp."

This is the story of Dan Lambert, a Vietnam veteran, suffering from a bad combination of PTSD, poverty, and a brain tumor. When he accidentally kills a man he must go on the run, heading south he looks for a place he can disappear. He meets a women named Arden, who is desperately and obsessively searching for a faith healer. The two are pursued by the strangest of bounty hunters, parasitic twins Flint and Clint Murtaugh and their apprentice, Elvis impersonator Pelvis Eisley.

I thoroughly enjoyed this from beginning to end. It reads like a mystery, but thriller is probably more accurate a description given that we already know who the killer is. It was a fast-paced adventure through the bayous, being pursued by all manner of strange and morally gray individuals, which brings us to...

The characters. They were so quirky and weird, it made no sense, and yet it worked seamlessly with the plot. A parasitic twin bounty hunter? Who comes up with that? And the villains, they were good, proper villains, with murderous intent, and yet even they were crazy enough to love.

If you're looking for quirky, look no further.