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Hector Lassiter #7
Head Games
A dark comedy, historical tale of crime writer, Hector Lassiter is handed a carpet bag containing the long missing head of Mexican general Francisco "Pancho" Villa.
300 pages, Hardcover
First published September 15, 2007
11 people are currently reading
214 people want to read
About the author
Craig McDonald
68 books46 followersEdgar/Anthony-nominee Craig McDonald is an award-winning novelist, editor and journalist. His internationally acclaimed Hector Lassiter series includes "One True Sentence," "Forever's Just Pretend," "Toros & Torsos," "The Great Pretender," "Roll the Credits," "The Running Kind," "Print the Legend," "Three Chords & the Truth," "Write From Wrong," and "Head Games," which was a finalist for the Edgar, Anthony, Gumshoe and Crimespree Magazine awards for best first novel. It is being adapted as a graphic novel by First Second for release in 2015.
A standalone thriller about illegal immigration, "El Gavilan," was published in autumn 2011 to starred reviews and was also selected for several year's best lists.
A new series of direct-to-eBook thrillers featuring crime novelist Chris Lyon was launched in 2012; the series features crossovers by characters from the Hector Lassiter series; Hector himself appears in "Angels of Darkness."
A standalone thriller about illegal immigration, "El Gavilan," was published in autumn 2011 to starred reviews and was also selected for several year's best lists.
A new series of direct-to-eBook thrillers featuring crime novelist Chris Lyon was launched in 2012; the series features crossovers by characters from the Hector Lassiter series; Hector himself appears in "Angels of Darkness."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
October 2, 2020
EXHAUSTING.
I'm giving this action thriller 4 stars but I'm inclined to knock it down a star.
It's overly long winded with a cast of "celebrities" ranging from Hemingway to Welles to the Bush family.
Lots of action, witty repartee, right wing vitriol and attempted Gonzo centered around historical events.
I thought I'd never reach the final page.
I'm this (...) close to knocking this down to 3 stars.
It was a punishing read.
Want to read
January 11, 2017This is number 150 of 250 signed and numbered copies signed and dated by Craig McDonald.
January 26, 2024
You start a book like Head Games, set as it is in the fifties, and you wonder if it has to go so hard on period details like casual homophobia, and so often at that. The first novel written in Craig McDonald's Hector Lassiter series, although the seventh chronologically, starts well. People die indiscriminately, life is cheap, and women are accommodating without being doormats ... but then we get that little sting of poison.
The argument goes that homophobia was period accurate, but so was sexism and racism, and Lassiter is actually fairly enlightened on both of those counts. It wouldn't kill him, or McDonald, to not be like this - but that's what we've got ... and, fortunately, we can sort of get over it.
Because the thing is Head Games is ultimately a rollicking caper with a hardboiled protagonist in the form of hard drinking pulp novelist, screenwriter, and name dropper extraordinaire Hector Lassiter. Possibly McDonald wasn't planning a series at the time, or he might not have gone so hard on cramming Welles, Dietrich, and Hemingway in so soon, or set the novel so close to the end of Lassiter's life, but that's just the way it is.
Head Games is the sort of novel that you pick up for its name and concept combo: Lassiter goes on the road with a journalist and an actress with the purported skull of Pancho Villa, trying to protect it from falling into the hands of various fraternity members, treasure hunters, and the Bush family (that Bush family). Apart from the glaring flaw in Lassiter's character, he's a good lead and he carries the novel well. Some versions are paired with the short story in which he was introduced, which dovetails with the conclusion of the novel itself - the light contradictions that don't jive with Lassiter character make one question its canonicity, but it's helpful to have to hand.
McDonald wrote himself into several corners with Head Games, so one may want to forgive him for any retcons that have to be made along the way. There is a degree of forgiveness that you have to engage in to be able to stomach Head Games in its entirety, but if you can get past that sticking point it goes down very easily indeed.
The argument goes that homophobia was period accurate, but so was sexism and racism, and Lassiter is actually fairly enlightened on both of those counts. It wouldn't kill him, or McDonald, to not be like this - but that's what we've got ... and, fortunately, we can sort of get over it.
Because the thing is Head Games is ultimately a rollicking caper with a hardboiled protagonist in the form of hard drinking pulp novelist, screenwriter, and name dropper extraordinaire Hector Lassiter. Possibly McDonald wasn't planning a series at the time, or he might not have gone so hard on cramming Welles, Dietrich, and Hemingway in so soon, or set the novel so close to the end of Lassiter's life, but that's just the way it is.
Head Games is the sort of novel that you pick up for its name and concept combo: Lassiter goes on the road with a journalist and an actress with the purported skull of Pancho Villa, trying to protect it from falling into the hands of various fraternity members, treasure hunters, and the Bush family (that Bush family). Apart from the glaring flaw in Lassiter's character, he's a good lead and he carries the novel well. Some versions are paired with the short story in which he was introduced, which dovetails with the conclusion of the novel itself - the light contradictions that don't jive with Lassiter character make one question its canonicity, but it's helpful to have to hand.
McDonald wrote himself into several corners with Head Games, so one may want to forgive him for any retcons that have to be made along the way. There is a degree of forgiveness that you have to engage in to be able to stomach Head Games in its entirety, but if you can get past that sticking point it goes down very easily indeed.
January 2, 2010
Pure pulp. Fun, but ultimately so pulpy that it often borders on the ridiculous. So when it attempts to capture actual human emotion, it is hard to take it seriously.
One of my main problems with a lot of the new "pulp" and neo-noir books is that they are trying to be "pulp" and it shows. Most of the pulp writers of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s were not trying to write pulp, they were writing to the limits of their talent within a genre. Often producing great books, more often not.
It's almost as if the modern writers are slumming and purposely dumbing down their books, rather than trying for more. As if "pulp" is an excuse for writing without depth. For all the pastiche and homage, are they adding anything to the genre beyond more harsh language and more graphic violence?
This is not an indictment of HEAD GAMES, which really is a fun read. However with its era and reference to real historical figures (Orson Welles, Prescott Bush, and many more), it sometimes comes off as pulp James Ellroy-light (who is pretty pulpy himself).
HEAD GAMES hits the ground running and the first half is breakneck, but somewhere in the middle it slows down and tries to be a character piece, ending with what feels like a 70-page epilogue.
For all my nitpicking above, this is a strong first novel. I have another novel by McDonald on my shelf and I'm very much looking forward to reading his two books of interviews with crime writers.
One of my main problems with a lot of the new "pulp" and neo-noir books is that they are trying to be "pulp" and it shows. Most of the pulp writers of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s were not trying to write pulp, they were writing to the limits of their talent within a genre. Often producing great books, more often not.
It's almost as if the modern writers are slumming and purposely dumbing down their books, rather than trying for more. As if "pulp" is an excuse for writing without depth. For all the pastiche and homage, are they adding anything to the genre beyond more harsh language and more graphic violence?
This is not an indictment of HEAD GAMES, which really is a fun read. However with its era and reference to real historical figures (Orson Welles, Prescott Bush, and many more), it sometimes comes off as pulp James Ellroy-light (who is pretty pulpy himself).
HEAD GAMES hits the ground running and the first half is breakneck, but somewhere in the middle it slows down and tries to be a character piece, ending with what feels like a 70-page epilogue.
For all my nitpicking above, this is a strong first novel. I have another novel by McDonald on my shelf and I'm very much looking forward to reading his two books of interviews with crime writers.
May 18, 2008
Head, head, who's got the head?
Ok, it really is a book about people chasing other people who may or may not have Pancho Villa's head. It really is, no kidding. And with that absurd premise Craig McDonald has written a book that actually works as a boisterous, thrill filled action adventure that is a blast to read.
The legend of Villa's head being stolen by Harvard's Skull and Bones Society has been documented throughout the years. It was brought up during the Presidential campaign because rumor had it that Preston Bush- yup, of those Bushes- was involved at the time. McDonald uses these myths to form the basis for the aptly titled Head Games. He creates a hard boiled crime writer, his newbie interviewer, a beautiful Mexican girl and throws them into the middle of the fight for possession of Villa's decapitated head (now a skull.) It is filled with car chases, lots of blood and a little love.
Head Games is a novel with a strong plot, characters who are characters and plenty of action. Lines like "But talking about your plans is the surest way to make God laugh " prove McDonald's writing prowess. This also shows one of the book's strengths- it sense of humor. McDonald never takes his characters seriously, he lets them run amok with just enough leash on them to prevent them from getting totally out of hand. His crime writer, Lassiter, hangs out with the big wigs of the 1950s- Hemingway, Dietrich and Welles are all brought into the scene. The plot thread that has Lassiter not speaking to Hemingway over a past argument adds a fun touch of fictitious realism. The pile of bodies grows, the number of enemies is ever increasing and the chase seems never ending. And characters from history traipse through the pages, recapturing their forgotten place in our little remembered past.
The other surprising strength of the book is its ending, Book 2. It has its end of the adventure, culminating climax that is expected. But the continuation of the story through the years to the book's and the story's actual ending is a charming twist. It adds pathos and emotion to the over all appeal and depth to the book. Unexpected yet appreciated.
Bleak House has again found an author and his book that is just off the norm into the creative and diverse. Head Games is a serous bit of black hearted tomfoolery that entertains and diverts.
Ok, it really is a book about people chasing other people who may or may not have Pancho Villa's head. It really is, no kidding. And with that absurd premise Craig McDonald has written a book that actually works as a boisterous, thrill filled action adventure that is a blast to read.
The legend of Villa's head being stolen by Harvard's Skull and Bones Society has been documented throughout the years. It was brought up during the Presidential campaign because rumor had it that Preston Bush- yup, of those Bushes- was involved at the time. McDonald uses these myths to form the basis for the aptly titled Head Games. He creates a hard boiled crime writer, his newbie interviewer, a beautiful Mexican girl and throws them into the middle of the fight for possession of Villa's decapitated head (now a skull.) It is filled with car chases, lots of blood and a little love.
Head Games is a novel with a strong plot, characters who are characters and plenty of action. Lines like "But talking about your plans is the surest way to make God laugh " prove McDonald's writing prowess. This also shows one of the book's strengths- it sense of humor. McDonald never takes his characters seriously, he lets them run amok with just enough leash on them to prevent them from getting totally out of hand. His crime writer, Lassiter, hangs out with the big wigs of the 1950s- Hemingway, Dietrich and Welles are all brought into the scene. The plot thread that has Lassiter not speaking to Hemingway over a past argument adds a fun touch of fictitious realism. The pile of bodies grows, the number of enemies is ever increasing and the chase seems never ending. And characters from history traipse through the pages, recapturing their forgotten place in our little remembered past.
The other surprising strength of the book is its ending, Book 2. It has its end of the adventure, culminating climax that is expected. But the continuation of the story through the years to the book's and the story's actual ending is a charming twist. It adds pathos and emotion to the over all appeal and depth to the book. Unexpected yet appreciated.
Bleak House has again found an author and his book that is just off the norm into the creative and diverse. Head Games is a serous bit of black hearted tomfoolery that entertains and diverts.
September 10, 2009
Typical effort to make money (and win popularity) off Bashing Bush. Sad commentary of the current envoronment where fiction rewrites history for personal gain. When the author lowered himself to base descriptions of the Bush family,esp puerile name calling for the efforts of a war hero, I stopped reading. When will this theme work its way out of its system?
May 21, 2008
It started out pretty fast paced, but I didn't think it carried it's weight through the whole novel. I'm not a big fan of using historical characters in fiction either.
July 28, 2010
Cartoonish, antic take on James Crumley/James Carlos Blake A mix of historical figures and fictional like Waldrop, Kim Newman, and Ellroy. Perverse way to start a series. The ending pays off.
December 31, 2017
Ernest Hemingway would have made a heck of an action hero if he weren't actually a real person. Author Craig McDonald takes that general idea and runs with it in Head Games, a novel that introduces a Hemingwayesque writer hero named Hector Lassiter who walked much the same ground that Hemingway did during the 1950's. Hemingway himself doesn't appear in the book (although narrator Lassiter refers on several occasions to a stormy love/hate relationship to Papa Ernest), but several real life celebrities do figure into a story that's largely an entertaining historical fiction romp.
Head Games is the same general type of novel as Max Allan Collins' Nathan Heller series of mysteries, in which a fictional investigator rubs shoulders with real life historical celebrities and winds up involved in famous events. Hector Lassiter is a moderately successful pulp fiction writer in the Raymond Chandler mold. Head Games is actually the first Lassiter novel author McDonald wrote, although it takes place largely in the 1950’s when Lassiter is in his late 50’s (McDonald has since written several other books featuring a younger Lassiter). For that reason, this book is a good place for readers to start in order to get an understanding of the character.
Head Games is based on an actual real life mystery that has never been solved. A few years after the death of Pancho Villa, his corpse was dug up and the head cut off and stolen (to this date, it has never been recovered). Rumors have abounded over the years that the skull eventually wound up in the archives of Yale’s mysterious Skull and Bones Society, having been purchased by U.S. Senator Prescott Bush (father of George H.W., grandfather of George W). Head Games takes that urban legend and runs with it. The book begins in Mexico with Lassiter coming into possession of the skull from a rather shady acquaintance who acquired it under rather shady circumstances. As soon as he acquires the skull, however, Lassiter literally comes under fire from a whole lot of people, including former Mexican revolutionaries, several groups of Yale frat boys, and some shadowy government types.
Head Games can best be classified as an action thriller, and, as such, it’s a bit routine, although that may be because it represents the author’s first effort in the genre. The book features a series of shootouts and fistfights and one extended car/helicopter pursuit that winds up in Mexico. Other authors have done a better job with this type of material over the years. However, as a piece of faux history, Head Games is a highly entertaining and accomplished read. The central mystery (of which I was unaware) is fascinating, and many of the people rumored to have been involved put in an appearance, including Prescott Bush and his grandson George W.
The author has the most fun with a section in which Lassiter takes time to visit the set of Orson Welles’s classic film noir Touch of Evil to help Welles punch up some dialogue for the film and, along the way, revisit an old girlfriend named Marlene Dietrich. He also enjoys penning fictional reviews of Lassiter’s novels and a magazine profile of Lassiter, both of which the narrator then proceeds to criticize. And, in typical hardboiled style, Lassiter proves to have a bit of a cynical, sarcastic with he displays on several occasions.
But Head Games is more than a light-hearted romp through an alternative history. It’s an examination of growing old, the one thing that Lassiter most fears (as another character notes). As the book progresses, Lassiter finds himself increasingly betrayed by his body failing him, as a result of numerous past excesses in his life. In fact, in one of the book’s major action scenes, Lassiter, armed with a sniper rifle, finds himself unable to sight his target because of increasingly blurry vision. The result is a most unusual variation of what might otherwise have been a typical action shootout.
Craig McDonald was an accomplished journalist before writing Head Games, and his skill is evident throughout the book in a number of passages both serious and tongue-in-cheek. He was still experiencing some growing pains as a thriller writer (one section in the middle of the book that describes what happened to the skull forty years earlier runs on far too long), but he displays a sure hand in both the more serious passages in the book and Lassiter’s interactions with some screen legends. The result is a book that fans of a variety of genres can enjoy. Head Games is literary fun and games of a high order.
Head Games is the same general type of novel as Max Allan Collins' Nathan Heller series of mysteries, in which a fictional investigator rubs shoulders with real life historical celebrities and winds up involved in famous events. Hector Lassiter is a moderately successful pulp fiction writer in the Raymond Chandler mold. Head Games is actually the first Lassiter novel author McDonald wrote, although it takes place largely in the 1950’s when Lassiter is in his late 50’s (McDonald has since written several other books featuring a younger Lassiter). For that reason, this book is a good place for readers to start in order to get an understanding of the character.
Head Games is based on an actual real life mystery that has never been solved. A few years after the death of Pancho Villa, his corpse was dug up and the head cut off and stolen (to this date, it has never been recovered). Rumors have abounded over the years that the skull eventually wound up in the archives of Yale’s mysterious Skull and Bones Society, having been purchased by U.S. Senator Prescott Bush (father of George H.W., grandfather of George W). Head Games takes that urban legend and runs with it. The book begins in Mexico with Lassiter coming into possession of the skull from a rather shady acquaintance who acquired it under rather shady circumstances. As soon as he acquires the skull, however, Lassiter literally comes under fire from a whole lot of people, including former Mexican revolutionaries, several groups of Yale frat boys, and some shadowy government types.
Head Games can best be classified as an action thriller, and, as such, it’s a bit routine, although that may be because it represents the author’s first effort in the genre. The book features a series of shootouts and fistfights and one extended car/helicopter pursuit that winds up in Mexico. Other authors have done a better job with this type of material over the years. However, as a piece of faux history, Head Games is a highly entertaining and accomplished read. The central mystery (of which I was unaware) is fascinating, and many of the people rumored to have been involved put in an appearance, including Prescott Bush and his grandson George W.
The author has the most fun with a section in which Lassiter takes time to visit the set of Orson Welles’s classic film noir Touch of Evil to help Welles punch up some dialogue for the film and, along the way, revisit an old girlfriend named Marlene Dietrich. He also enjoys penning fictional reviews of Lassiter’s novels and a magazine profile of Lassiter, both of which the narrator then proceeds to criticize. And, in typical hardboiled style, Lassiter proves to have a bit of a cynical, sarcastic with he displays on several occasions.
But Head Games is more than a light-hearted romp through an alternative history. It’s an examination of growing old, the one thing that Lassiter most fears (as another character notes). As the book progresses, Lassiter finds himself increasingly betrayed by his body failing him, as a result of numerous past excesses in his life. In fact, in one of the book’s major action scenes, Lassiter, armed with a sniper rifle, finds himself unable to sight his target because of increasingly blurry vision. The result is a most unusual variation of what might otherwise have been a typical action shootout.
Craig McDonald was an accomplished journalist before writing Head Games, and his skill is evident throughout the book in a number of passages both serious and tongue-in-cheek. He was still experiencing some growing pains as a thriller writer (one section in the middle of the book that describes what happened to the skull forty years earlier runs on far too long), but he displays a sure hand in both the more serious passages in the book and Lassiter’s interactions with some screen legends. The result is a book that fans of a variety of genres can enjoy. Head Games is literary fun and games of a high order.
June 17, 2023
Bueno intente leerlo completo pero no pude. No me agradan ninguno de los personajes, hay descripciones innecesarias, me pareció aburrido, algunos eventos me parecían absurdos, es más, parecía que estaba leyendo un libro de esos vaqueritos de mi abuelo, siempre tuve esa sensación, no se si fue por las descripciones, por ejemplo: "...Era un modelo 49 clásico. muy achaparrado, de un tono morado digno de un proxeneta..." o "Bud utilizaba una corbata negra, decorada con una imagen de una prostituta de pechos generosos... Prendí fuego a los enormes pechos de la chica que tiraba los dados..." y además, "-...Es un maldito maricón muerde almohadas.". Decidí abandonarlo porque podría leer algo de mi gusto.
July 17, 2021
Head Games has a great opening but it dissolves in the middle where an overly long recount is given in a dialog that lasts 3 chapters and is told so badly, it's hard to decipher what actually happened. Also, as like other first novels, I think McDonald's ending is like a movie where you keep telling yourself "the ending was a half hour ago, why is it still going?" I did enjoy a lot of the action and the graphic layout for the book including use of "news" clippings was pretty cool. However, I'm not sure if I'll check out any more novels by Craig McDonald and stick to his short stories.
October 1, 2022
las escenas de acción están muy buenas y creo que los personajes son un poco entrañables pero hay escenas muy largas o q al final no aportan nada a la trama. Igual si lo lees medio por arriba te va a gustar
May 10, 2022
Over the top
August 25, 2022
Man, it starts so good. Eventually it gets majorly bogged down by long winded explanations.
May 6, 2025
Stealing Pancho Villa’s head. Rough, noire, name drops famous people. Glad I listened to it, but don’t need any more.
didn-t-finish
November 3, 2025I'm less than 15 minutes into the audiobook and I think our narrator has said c***sucker more than enough times for the rest of the book. I think I'll stop here.
February 19, 2016
Mysterious Book Report No. 51
John Dwaine McKenna
Memorial day weekend is by tradition the start of summer, and the beginning of vacation season. It’s when we look forward to ice cream, baseball and garage sales . . . as well as “lazy hazy days,” halter tops, short shorts, sandals and flowers blooming for three months or more. A lot of us think it’s the best time of the year . . . when we hop in the car and go places to see things. And that’s why I’m kicking off the summer reading season with one of the most kick-ass road trip novels I’ve read since Jack Kerouac.
The novel is Head Games by Craig McDonald.
It was nominated for an Edgar in 2008, for Best First Novel, (more about the Edgar’s in next weeks MBR) and is “Equal parts road novel, crime caper and historical fiction; a black comedy and wistful ballad of lost America rooted in borderland myth and history.” That quote from the liner notes. Book one is subtitled, 1957: The Land of Hope and Dreams, and the first sentence reads : “We were sitting in a backroom of a cantina on the outskirts of Ciudad Juarez, three drinks in, when Bill Wade reached into the dusty duffel bag he had tucked under the table and plunked down the Mexican generals head.”
The head is that of Doroteo Arango; known to all the world as Generalissimo Francisco “Pancho” Villa, the charismatic leader of the peasant army who nearly won the Mexican Civil War in the first quarter of the twentieth century. Yeah, that guy . . . Pancho Villa. A huge bounty is being offered for the head by Prescott Bush, the director of the CIA, a member of the infamous, and secret, Skull and Bones society at Yale University, the father of George Herbert Walker Bush, and grandfather of George W. Bush. Yeah. Those Bush’s. That plan is opposed by about ten-thousand Mexican criminals, drug loads and their murderous, crazy, armed-to-the-teeth thugs, all of whom are bent on keeping the icon in Mexico. Within a few pages of the first sentence, an all-out machine-gun and pistol fight takes place that leaves almost all the participants dead, and the narrator/protagonist Hector Lassiter fleeing for his life, running for the border in his ’57 Chevy Belaire, with two carloads of unidentified hostiles in close pursuit. The chase, and the gun battles, run from Texas, to California, to New Haven Connecticut and back to Texas as everyone tries to get the head. This one will leave you on the edge of your seat gasping for air and calling for more while laughing your butt off. It’s fast and furious and fun in equal measures.
John Dwaine McKenna
Memorial day weekend is by tradition the start of summer, and the beginning of vacation season. It’s when we look forward to ice cream, baseball and garage sales . . . as well as “lazy hazy days,” halter tops, short shorts, sandals and flowers blooming for three months or more. A lot of us think it’s the best time of the year . . . when we hop in the car and go places to see things. And that’s why I’m kicking off the summer reading season with one of the most kick-ass road trip novels I’ve read since Jack Kerouac.
The novel is Head Games by Craig McDonald.
It was nominated for an Edgar in 2008, for Best First Novel, (more about the Edgar’s in next weeks MBR) and is “Equal parts road novel, crime caper and historical fiction; a black comedy and wistful ballad of lost America rooted in borderland myth and history.” That quote from the liner notes. Book one is subtitled, 1957: The Land of Hope and Dreams, and the first sentence reads : “We were sitting in a backroom of a cantina on the outskirts of Ciudad Juarez, three drinks in, when Bill Wade reached into the dusty duffel bag he had tucked under the table and plunked down the Mexican generals head.”
The head is that of Doroteo Arango; known to all the world as Generalissimo Francisco “Pancho” Villa, the charismatic leader of the peasant army who nearly won the Mexican Civil War in the first quarter of the twentieth century. Yeah, that guy . . . Pancho Villa. A huge bounty is being offered for the head by Prescott Bush, the director of the CIA, a member of the infamous, and secret, Skull and Bones society at Yale University, the father of George Herbert Walker Bush, and grandfather of George W. Bush. Yeah. Those Bush’s. That plan is opposed by about ten-thousand Mexican criminals, drug loads and their murderous, crazy, armed-to-the-teeth thugs, all of whom are bent on keeping the icon in Mexico. Within a few pages of the first sentence, an all-out machine-gun and pistol fight takes place that leaves almost all the participants dead, and the narrator/protagonist Hector Lassiter fleeing for his life, running for the border in his ’57 Chevy Belaire, with two carloads of unidentified hostiles in close pursuit. The chase, and the gun battles, run from Texas, to California, to New Haven Connecticut and back to Texas as everyone tries to get the head. This one will leave you on the edge of your seat gasping for air and calling for more while laughing your butt off. It’s fast and furious and fun in equal measures.
December 29, 2016
Hector Lassiter is a pulp crime writer, a novelist and a screenwriter (who tends to get more anonymous "script doctor" duty than screen credit.) He lives the pulp life - too many cigarettes, too much booze, too many women and Mexican whores. And he gets embroiled in capers and crimes. This time, he's caught up in a shell game of skulls - one of which was on the shoulders of Pancho Villa. The skull is worth money, if delivery can be made running the gauntlet of FBI, CIA, Skull & Bones society frat boys and Mexican bandits. Beyond that, the skull might be the key to a lost treasure hoard of the Mexican Revolution, putting desperate, violent men on Lassiter's tail.
Lassiter is a fictional construct who McDonald weaves through real history and personalities. Old Mexican Revolutionaries, old mercenaries, Hollywood greats. Lassiter has a very real, gruff voice. This novel just zips along. The veracity balances the outlandish every step of the way.
Noir. Road trip. Crime caper. Black comedy. Western.
It's all that and more. The whole definitely exceeds the sum of its parts.
I will be reading more entries from the Hector Lassiter series.
Lassiter is a fictional construct who McDonald weaves through real history and personalities. Old Mexican Revolutionaries, old mercenaries, Hollywood greats. Lassiter has a very real, gruff voice. This novel just zips along. The veracity balances the outlandish every step of the way.
Noir. Road trip. Crime caper. Black comedy. Western.
It's all that and more. The whole definitely exceeds the sum of its parts.
I will be reading more entries from the Hector Lassiter series.
May 7, 2010
A fun little crime novel set in 1957 about a macho pulp writer named Hector Lassiter with the severed mummified head of Pancho Villa in his car trunk. He's on the run from several rival factions, each angling to get the head or the treasure map it's supposed to contain. With a myopic poet and a hot mexican chick in tow, he crosses paths with Orson Welles, drinks gallons of hard liquor and leaves a pile of dead bodies in his wake. The whole sordid tale is vaguely based in historical fact which somehow made the book better. For reasons no one can explain, Pancho Villa's head was actually stolen and never recovered. This is a good first novel but the writer has a pretty heavy Hemingway obsession. The book is loaded with conversations about the man and mentions him seemingly every few pages. I had no problem with this, but I could see how some could get annoyed with it. Head Games could easily be turned into a pretty kick ass movie with the right casting and director. This one is well worth the time, especially the ending which was unconventional but worked for me.
May 6, 2012
This was a book of two halves for me. The first half was a dark, screwball noir, with a strong plot and a suite of interesting characters, both fictional and real. Indeed, the book contains a number of real characters and is rooted in the real myths surrounding Villa’s missing head. McDonald provides a rich and colourful back story for Lassiter, with a good degree of depth and complexity to his personality. The story has a good sense of place, historical context, and the right kind of feel as a literary pulp noir story as Lassiter would have written it. It hummed along like a well tuned engine. The second half of the book, however, seemed to run out of pace and ideas, with the last quarter in particular becoming bitty, with a faltering pace and staccato story line. If the second half could have kept the same pace and feel of the first half, this would have unquestionably been a five star read. The unevenness, however, pulled it back into the pack. More than enough here though for me to seek out other McDonald books.
July 16, 2008
This book is nominated for an Anthony Award for best first novel. It starts out a bit weird. I'm only 30 pages in. It has some pretty stiff competition with the Sakey and Chercover books. This is one of the oddest books I've read. It just didn't call to me. The main character is a pulp fiction writer in 1957, I believe, who comes into possession of the head of Pancho Villa, and people are trying to take it from him. There are appearances by real people of the time, Orson Wells and Marlene Dietrich, and talk of Hemmingway, and at the end none other than George W. Bush. I did find that part a bit humorous. Still, it wasn't the style of book I enjoy. Just not to my taste. Granted, it is nominated for an Anthony Award for best first novel, so obviously it appeals to many!
December 7, 2008
From the opening scene in a Mexican cantina to the final highway scene, Head Games is at times thrilling and at times poignant. It provides great characters, a fun, wacky plot, and lots of action.
It's 1957 and the head of Pancho Villa is coveted by Prescott Bush and the Yale secret society: Skull and Bones. It's also wanted by a passel of Mexican hoodlums because of a secret the skull possesses. Caught in the middle and causing maximium destruction wherever they go are Hector Lassiter, a pulp fiction author and acquaintance of Orsen Welles, Papa Hemingway and Marlena Deitrich, and a writer and poet Bud Fiske, who is writing an article on Lassiter.
Great storytelling in a wonderful debut. I'll be looking for his second.
It's 1957 and the head of Pancho Villa is coveted by Prescott Bush and the Yale secret society: Skull and Bones. It's also wanted by a passel of Mexican hoodlums because of a secret the skull possesses. Caught in the middle and causing maximium destruction wherever they go are Hector Lassiter, a pulp fiction author and acquaintance of Orsen Welles, Papa Hemingway and Marlena Deitrich, and a writer and poet Bud Fiske, who is writing an article on Lassiter.
Great storytelling in a wonderful debut. I'll be looking for his second.
December 22, 2016
WOW! Definitely not for the faint of heart by any stretch of the imagination. Takes place in the late '50's, Lassiter writes pulp fiction and is in the middle of being interviewed for a magazine when the beginning of all hell breaking loose happens.
Everything spirals from there. Gritty, grim, bleak, adventure, blood, severed heads.....McDonald weaves actual personalities into the story: Orson Welles, Marlene Dietrich, Ernest Hemingway, Prescott Bush [that Bush family] sprinkled throughout. Hollywood reigns, with the head of Pancho Villa at the center.
Rough listening, but an excellent story.
Definitely recommend.
Everything spirals from there. Gritty, grim, bleak, adventure, blood, severed heads.....McDonald weaves actual personalities into the story: Orson Welles, Marlene Dietrich, Ernest Hemingway, Prescott Bush [that Bush family] sprinkled throughout. Hollywood reigns, with the head of Pancho Villa at the center.
Rough listening, but an excellent story.
Definitely recommend.
January 9, 2012
Tries much too hard for a Mickey Spillane type of atmosphere with a tough, sardonic detective on the run from bad guys--and a few good guys. Escalating firepower in confrontations beginning with a ornamental bull fighting spear through the eye to hundreds of rounds from sub-machine guns. All the running, driving and shooting exhausted me by page 120 so I gave up, flipping to the last page to see who was still alive.
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December 16, 2015Loved It
Craig McDonald has written nine books so far featuring his series " hero" Hector Lassiter a pulp novelist, friend to many historical personages of the mid twentieth century and all around adventurer( maybe a cross between the cult author James Crumley and the hard boiled actor Lee Marvin). This pulp adventure, which includes cameos by Orson Welles, Marlene Dietrich and George Bush, senior and junior, is just plain fun and cool. Buying them all. You should too.
Craig McDonald has written nine books so far featuring his series " hero" Hector Lassiter a pulp novelist, friend to many historical personages of the mid twentieth century and all around adventurer( maybe a cross between the cult author James Crumley and the hard boiled actor Lee Marvin). This pulp adventure, which includes cameos by Orson Welles, Marlene Dietrich and George Bush, senior and junior, is just plain fun and cool. Buying them all. You should too.
October 3, 2008
Equal parts road novel,caper,and historical fiction, this book is about a hard drinking crime writer in the early 40's in Mexico making his way to california with the head of Pancho Villa in the trunk of his car......a good time
September 26, 2011
Liked it OK; the first in the series I read (the 4th book) was much better so I'm glad I read that one first--I don't know if I would have thought it worthwhile to read the others if I'd done them in order. (Still will go back for the second--if I can find it--and the third.)
March 13, 2012
A fun read. It follows the detective noir style of the mid-twentieth century and reads like the pulp books that it emulates. It even includes the Bush family (yea, the most famous one) and the 'Skull and Bones Society.' This does add a bit of odd dark humor to the narrative.
October 6, 2012
This might have made a better movie. The storyline wasn't bad, but the writing was and the metaphors were repetitive. And apparently the only insult used in 1957 southwest America was "cocksucker,' which got old really fast.
March 20, 2008
Craig McDonald does a great job with his first novel. Gutsy, political tones, heads all over the place! Absurd travels of Hector Lassiter, with an interesting twist at the end.
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