Book Review: Head Games

Reviewed By: Pat Reid - RAM

Head Games     Amazon US TPB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada TPB Amazon Canada HC
Craig McDonald
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Historical
Bleak House Books, 2007, 312 pps.

Head Games has an exciting beginning and doesn’t slow down. Hector Lassiter is a crime writer traveling with Bud Fiske, a young journalist, sent by True Magazine to interview Hector. When Bill Wade, an old acquaintance of Hector’s, pulls out a dusty duffel bag containing what he purports to be Pancho Villa’s head it isn’t long before bullets are flying through the cantina and Wade is dead. Hector and Bud make their get-away in a ’57 Bel Air.

Hector is a hard living, hard drinking man who has lived a violent life. He soon has Bud carrying a pistol too. The two start driving across the country to escape the many people chasing them while they figure out how to handle the problem of Poncho’s head. With competing fraternities, Mexican bandits and U. S. intelligence services all in on the chase Hector knows he can collect a big bounty if he can just keep the head in one piece until he gets the money. He is sure that he can get the most from Yale’s Skull and Bones Society but has not yet decided just what approach to use.

Hector and Bud head for Venice where Orson Welles and Marlene Dietrich are making a movie. There they pick up beautiful Alicia who they take along on their travels for her own protection. Welles and Dietrich are just a couple of the famous names you will read about in Head Games.

Head Games is fiction but rooted in historical fact. It is an exciting book and the characters are strong and real. McDonald even touches on the subject of diabetes. Bud suffers from diabetes and suspects Hector does too. Hector is 57 years old and his hard living is finally beginning to catch up with him but not before he solves the Poncho Villa problem.

Pat Reid - RAM

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Pat Reid - RAM