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Headless
Headless, an exhilarating murder-mystery by the elusive K. D., probes the sordid secrets and sinister deeds of powerful financiers who use Caribbean firms to conceal their fortunes. The novel begins with workaday author John Barlow agreeing to ghostwrite a novel about secretive tax havens. Barlow assumes the job will be a no-brainer. But then his eccentric employers, Swedish conceptualist artist duo Goldin+Senneby, ask him to investigate Headless Ltd., a shadowy company with possible links to the French philosopher, Georges Bataille, known for his obsession with human sacrifice. Barlow travels to Nassau, Bahamas, the glitzy mecca of offshore finance, and begins to uncover a byzantine plot. He soon realizes he is not alone. An enigmatic, ruthless woman is also seeking the truth about Headless—and, it seems, about Barlow. One day the ghostwriter is happily posting to his travel blog, the next he’s implicated in the decapitation of a police officer. Barlow becomes consumed by a dark world of covert capitalism and secret societies. The more he grasps at the threads of reason and common sense, the more madness threatens to engulf him.
Headless was written in the course of seven years, during which time K. D. utilized actors, investigators, and hired hands to orchestrate events that advanced the novel’s plot. These real-world elements of the novel transpired or were presented as excerpts at readings, auctions, industry events, exhibitions, conferences, and London Zoo. “K. D. has created a masterwork of metaphysical detective fiction,” writes artist Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster. “Headless is a coded, clandestine novel that nevertheless makes for breathless reading until the last page.” Joseph O’Neill, author of The Dog and Netherland, calls Headless “a mysterious and brilliant gesture of fictional investigation.” Alexander Provan’s afterword to Headless, “Headless Commercial Thriller,” was also published in Triple Canopy’s eighteenth issue, Active Rot.
Headless was written in the course of seven years, during which time K. D. utilized actors, investigators, and hired hands to orchestrate events that advanced the novel’s plot. These real-world elements of the novel transpired or were presented as excerpts at readings, auctions, industry events, exhibitions, conferences, and London Zoo. “K. D. has created a masterwork of metaphysical detective fiction,” writes artist Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster. “Headless is a coded, clandestine novel that nevertheless makes for breathless reading until the last page.” Joseph O’Neill, author of The Dog and Netherland, calls Headless “a mysterious and brilliant gesture of fictional investigation.” Alexander Provan’s afterword to Headless, “Headless Commercial Thriller,” was also published in Triple Canopy’s eighteenth issue, Active Rot.
348 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 23, 2015
Is it to this book's credit or deficit that it really does conform surprisingly faithfully to its (off-referenced within) Dan Brown model? The fact that we're dealing with mysterious Bataille-founded secret societies rather than rogue Catholics or whatever immediately makes all of the pseudo-history and philosophy digests surrounding the basic murder mystery here much more immediately intriguing and palattable, but does little to alleviate the effectively airport-bookstore thriller devices and prose. But are these expectations being enacted with a purely unnecessary fidelity, or skillfully detourned into something quite other? If other, what other?
The other immediately-in-evidence thing going on here is the deep, top-down ambiguous authorship, which extends to the point where who actually wrote the actual book being read is far from certain, and further confused by apparent extratextual games that further confuse fiction and reality. Since the overarching questions that includes the authorial identity are really WHAT IS THIS and WHAT IS GOING ON HERE (and which are really much more interesting than the spurious murder plotline, which even the plot itself tends to disdain), this could be considered the actual prime content of the novel, and the mass-market format just a clever window dressing.
As for who actually wrote this, and what it actually is, the novel itself offers many possibilities, including verifiably real artists and authors who can only have been complicit in some way for their identities to be so integral to the story. But the deepest-level instigator of the project suggested within the plotline is also the least plausible of them all as far as extra-textual existence -- and if she's the author than the suggestion is that the entire novel to be an attempt to flush out the story's most paranoid underpinnings into the arenas of reality. None of these people are attached to the initials on the physical book cover, of course. Or could it all be the work of Alexander Provan, who wrote the weirdly over-explanatory introduction and published this via Triple Canopy? He, by merit of appearing outside the work, almost seems most likely. None of which is at all conclusive, and maybe not all that justifiably interesting, but it is quite unlike anything that has attempted these kinds of conflations in the past.
BEFORE: It seems like any discussion surrounding this book is effectively part of the book, even the launch/reading I dropped in on. And so authorial uncertainty is that much more top-down and... uncertain... than is typical for this sort of thing. But since it's a mass market noir (or posing as such (not really(?!))) it's perfect vacation reading on my overnight flight.
The other immediately-in-evidence thing going on here is the deep, top-down ambiguous authorship, which extends to the point where who actually wrote the actual book being read is far from certain, and further confused by apparent extratextual games that further confuse fiction and reality. Since the overarching questions that includes the authorial identity are really WHAT IS THIS and WHAT IS GOING ON HERE (and which are really much more interesting than the spurious murder plotline, which even the plot itself tends to disdain), this could be considered the actual prime content of the novel, and the mass-market format just a clever window dressing.
As for who actually wrote this, and what it actually is, the novel itself offers many possibilities, including verifiably real artists and authors who can only have been complicit in some way for their identities to be so integral to the story. But the deepest-level instigator of the project suggested within the plotline is also the least plausible of them all as far as extra-textual existence -- and if she's the author than the suggestion is that the entire novel to be an attempt to flush out the story's most paranoid underpinnings into the arenas of reality. None of these people are attached to the initials on the physical book cover, of course. Or could it all be the work of Alexander Provan, who wrote the weirdly over-explanatory introduction and published this via Triple Canopy? He, by merit of appearing outside the work, almost seems most likely. None of which is at all conclusive, and maybe not all that justifiably interesting, but it is quite unlike anything that has attempted these kinds of conflations in the past.
BEFORE: It seems like any discussion surrounding this book is effectively part of the book, even the launch/reading I dropped in on. And so authorial uncertainty is that much more top-down and... uncertain... than is typical for this sort of thing. But since it's a mass market noir (or posing as such (not really(?!))) it's perfect vacation reading on my overnight flight.
March 26, 2015
This book has to be seen in a bigger context: the book is about the writing of the book, the whole process, within the project 'Headless' by Goldin+Senneby. A lot of things have really happened: different lectures and exhibitions have really been there, and there is a blog about Barlow's travel to the Bahamas on Travelblog.org. K.D. has masterfully mixed fact with fiction, up to the point where you can't draw the line between them. The writing itself is quite alright, but not splendid: apparently it has been edited and large chunks rewritten in order for the story to make sense (it is in itself a murder mystery, but the writer had no idea who the murderer was untill the end of the story).
All in all, a very interesting project and novel that should be intensely studied before it is understood.
All in all, a very interesting project and novel that should be intensely studied before it is understood.
September 12, 2017
Many levels of meta! Regarding secret societies where the folks 'in charge' are shrouded and obfuscated - this includes mysterious shell corporations in tax avoidance jurisdictions. But also a sort of mystery novel. Maybe a hard book to find but look via 'triple canopy' website.
August 21, 2025
A heady yarn!
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January 11, 2026I didn’t end up liking it. Too many loose cables with no overall ‘concluding’ end. Too bad as it started off pretty well.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews