Head Games
Craig McDonald
Reviewed by Barb Radmore
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.