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Head Games: A Hector Lassiter novel (Hector Lassiter Series Book 7) Kindle Edition

by Craig McDonald (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
3.9 out of 5 stars 37 ratings
Head Games is equal parts road novel, caper and historical fiction: a black comedy and wistful ballad of lost America rooted in borderland myth and history.
Head Games’ narrator is Hector Lassiter, now widowed and feeling his age. When Lassiter recovers Mexican General Pancho Villa’s skull stolen from his grave by an American soldier-of-fortune, within hours of taking possession of it, Lassiter becomes a target of competing fraternities, Mexican bandits and U.S. intelligence services.
The breakneck chase extends across 1957-1970 America — from the cantinas of old Mexico to the Venice, California set of Orson Welles’ noir classic Touch of Evil, to the sanctum sanctorum of Yale’s infamous Skull and Bones Society. The cast of characters includes Orson Welles, Marlene Dietrich, Jack Webb and a young and gone-missing National Guardsman named “George W.”

“Strap in, hold on, enjoy the ride.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“HEAD GAMES is a gravel and mescal cocktail, a one-day burn, a novel of genuine piss and vinegar, the kind of book you thrust on people with the wild eyes and intent of a PCP freak.” —Ray Banks
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  1. Book 7 of 11
    Hector Lassiter
  2. Print length
    303 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Accessibility
    Learn more
  5. Publication date
    February 24, 2015
  6. File size
    2.0 MB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In McDonald's fun, deft debut, set mostly in 1957, Sen. Prescott Bush has sent out the call: bring me the head of Pancho Villa, the late Mexican revolutionary. Aging writer Hector Mason Lassiter, author of pulp novels like The Land of Fear and Dread and Border Town, gets caught in the crossfire between Mexican nationalists and frat boys out to place Villa's head in Yale's Skull and Bones Society trophy case. Along the road to hell, Lassiter picks up a young love interest while dropping in on Orson Welles and Marlene Dietrich on the set of Touch of Evil, but that doesn't slow down the action (it's a tricky thing, firing for flesh wounds with a machine gun at close range). Reminiscent of James Crumley's Milo Milodragovich PI novels but Crumley lite, this slick caper novel touches chords of myth, history, loss and redemption just enough so you can hear echoes faintly under the gunfire. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

It's 1957, and novelist Hec Lassiter—who followed Black Jack Pershing into Mexico to hunt Pancho Villa, befriended Hemingway, worked with Dashiell Hammett, bedded Marlene Dietrich, and helped Orson Welles script his films—is feeling his age. But when an old pal sets Villa's head on the table of a cantina in the Mexican desert, Hec is up for another adventure: delivering the head to Senator Prescott Bush (father of 41, grandfather of 43) so that it can be used in secret ceremonies at Yale's Skull and Bones Society. What follows is an exuberantly over-the-top romp conflating real events with legends and filled with murderous federales, murderous old Villistas, additional decapitations, mercenaries, unhinged Yale frat boys, CIA spooks (also Yalies), and enough gratuitous violence to fill several Steven Seagal films. There's even a cameo from a callow, foul-mouthed Skull and Bones initiate named "George W." Much of Head Games reads like a picaresque adventure, but McDonald's portraits of Welles, Dietrich, and Pancho Villa are beguiling and seem knowing. This one is simply great fun! Gaughan, Thomas

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00SFQEQ92
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Betimes Books
  • Accessibility ‏ : ‎ Learn more
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ February 24, 2015
  • Edition ‏ : ‎ 3rd
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 2.0 MB
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 303 pages
  • Page Flip ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Book 7 of 11 ‏ : ‎ Hector Lassiter
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.9 out of 5 stars 37 ratings

About the author

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Craig McDonald

Craig McDonald

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Craig McDonald is an internationally best-selling novelist. His critically acclaimed Hector Lassiter series includes "Head Games," which was a finalist for the Edgar, Anthony, Gumshoe and Crimespree Magazine awards for best first novel. It was also released as a graphic novel by First Second Books.

Other Lassiter novels include "One True Sentence," "Forever's Just Pretend," "Toros & Torsos," "The Great Pretender," "Roll the Credits," "The Running Kind," "Print the Legend," "Death In The Face" and "Three Chords & the Truth."

A standalone thriller about illegal immigration, "El Gavilan," was published in autumn 2011 to a Publishers Weekly starred review and was selected for many year's best lists.

He is also an award-winning journalist and has published two volumes of author interviews, "Art in the Blood" and "Rogue Males."

In 2022, he launched a new series, this one featuring pulp magazine-style heroine Zana O'Savin in a pastiche of classic pulp fiction heroes such as Doc Savage and The Shadow. These include "The Blood Ogre," "The Mothman Menace," and "The Death Killers."

Customer reviews

3.9 out of 5 stars
37 global ratings

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Customers find the book's plot engaging, with one review describing it as an action-packed tale full of twists and turns. They also enjoy its readability, finding it fun to read.

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PlotReadability
5 customers mention "Plot"5 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the plot of the book, with one describing it as an action-packed tale full of twists and turns, while another notes it's a thriller cum-road book with fictional encounters with larger-than-life personas.

"...McDonald's book, though, is faster paced and more interesting, especially since the reader learns a lot of that period in history that the author..." Read more

"...Dent among his influences, manages to provide an action-packed tale full of twists and turns that never lets up while still delivering multiple..." Read more

"...This pulp adventure, which includes cameos by Orson Welles, Marlene Dietrich and George Bush, senior and junior, is just plain fun and cool...." Read more

"...I enjoyed the antiquated writing style, and the fictional encounters with larger than life personas from the 50's...." Read more

4 customers mention "Readability"4 positive0 negative

Customers find the book fun to read.

"...His name is Ken Bruen and he is an excellent writer of noir thrillers (e.g., THE GUARDS)...." Read more

"...is that the research that had to be done to write this book is worth reading just to get an idea of what was happening at this time in history..." Read more

"This is a fun read - especially if you have some down time by the beach!..." Read more

"...The absurd plot has some historical twists that kept me reading more. This book is out there...far out...." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • H. S. Wedekind
    5.0 out of 5 stars "The night air was like a tonsil-teasing soul kiss...."
    Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2010
    Verified Purchase
    I was first introduced to Craig McDonald's debut novel by an Irishman. His name is Ken Bruen and he is an excellent writer of noir thrillers (e.g., THE GUARDS). Bruen suggested reading HEAD GAMES in a Blog, so I took his suggestion seriously and found Craig McDonald's way with words to be terrific: "The night air was like a tonsil-teasing soul kiss - the rare scent of desert rain carried on the wind and heat lightning roaming the horizon." (p. 23) See what I mean?

    I won't go into the plot of this humorous, action-packed, thriller cum-road book, as others have already written about it. The search for Mexican Bandit/Revolutionary Pancho Villa's severed head had been written about in another thriller, VILLA HEAD: A Chenney Hazzard Mystery, by author R. D. Brown, who dropped off the radarscreen in the 80s after completing this, his second novel (the first was entitled HAZZARD). McDonald's book, though, is faster paced and more interesting, especially since the reader learns a lot of that period in history that the author definitely researched in depth. In no way is it stuffy, though, unlike the history lessons we had to sit through back in high school. (Remember those "old Days" when history was actually taught in school?) Hector Lassiter, given the nickname "Lasso" by on-again/ off-again pal and drinking buddy Ernest Hemingway, (who pops up as a central character..alive and dead...in the next two novels, TOROS & TORSOS and PRINT THE LEGEND, along with movie stars: Rita Hayworth, Orson Welles, and Marlene 'The Kraut' Dietrich). Hec, is a rough and tumble author, and WW1 veteran, who is a lady's/man's man the reader will definitely take a liking to.

    We first meet hard drinking Hector Lassiter in a Ciudad Juarez cantina, in 1957, sitting at a table trying to figure out how to get Pancho Villa's head out of Mexico and split the money some shady someones are willing to pay big bucks and also kill for. Hector describes himself and two compatriots on page 14, "But now the bandit's skull sat under our table between the feet of Eskin 'Bud' Fiske, aspiring, myopic poet and my latest would-be interviewer; Bill Wade, drunkard, soldier-of-fortune and con man; and me, Hector Lassiter, pulp-writer-turned-crime-writer, turned-lately-screenwriter." Shortly after the introduction, the bullets fly. And this is just the beginning!

    It's an entertaining and exciting adventure. I recommend it highly (5 Stars)
    One person found this helpful
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  • Greg Daniel
    4.0 out of 5 stars Writers, Guns, and Skulls! with apologies to Warren Zevon
    Reviewed in the United States on August 17, 2012
    Verified Purchase
    Head Games (a 2008 multiple award nominee) features Hector Lassiter, a two-fisted writer for Black Mask, who lives a gonzo noir existence reminiscent of the Thompson Boys, Jim and Hunter.

    The tale opens in 1957. Lassiter has dragged a young writer, sent to interview him, to a cantina south of the border where an old acquaintance needs his help in dealing with the MacGuffin of the story: Pancho Villa's skull. Their tete-a-tete about Villa's tete is interrupted by a shoot-out with the federales. And then ... things get weird.

    Take a trunkful of skulls, the federales, a secret society, the CIA, Orson Welles, Marlene Dietrich, Ernest Hemingway, the progenitor of a presidential dynasty, and more historical figures, mix liberally with guns, cigarettes, booze, car chases, and an escalating body count and you are just beginning to get an idea of what is in store for you (and Lassiter) in Head Games.

    McDonald, who cites Lester Dent among his influences, manages to provide an action-packed tale full of twists and turns that never lets up while still delivering multiple conspiracies, a history lesson or two, and a look at the onion layers of the writer's mind and tortured soul that hides beneath Lassiter's hard-boiled exterior. He does all of this with a dark humor-tinged full bore voice and style (Lassiter's) that is pure new pulp: a truly modern novel that will remind everyone of what attracted them to the pulps in the first place.

    The character of Lassiter shares traits with Hemingway but seems to be more directly influenced by a couple of other writers that may be familiar to pulp readers, Brett Halliday/Davis Dresser (creator of Mike Shayne) and Jonathan Latimer (creator of Bill Crane). It is the latter influence that adds a slight touch of screwball comedy to this volatile cocktail of tale. It is the former who, like Lassiter, lied about his age to ride with Black Jack Pershing.

    Head Games is the first, but chronologically the second, in a planned series of seven Hector Lassiter novels. Three others, Toros and Torsos, Print the Legend, and One True Sentence are in print with Forever is Just Pretend coming next.
    One person found this helpful
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  • andrew review
    5.0 out of 5 stars Loved It
    Reviewed in the United States on December 16, 2015
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    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.
    One person found this helpful
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  • robert
    1.0 out of 5 stars Language
    Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2013
    Verified Purchase
    Too much foul language. I am too old to accept these words in such abundance even though this is the way people talk in this day and age.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • Dean Liming
    4.0 out of 5 stars Good Read
    Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2009
    Verified Purchase
    HEAD GAMES is the end of life for Hector Lassiter and I was alive in 1945 and I remember 1957 and it was hard believe all this was going on. But I just heard on the radio about the drug fighting going on now 2009 in Mexico. Also heard about Yale University Skull & Bones collecting old Indian chief bones so the HEAD GAMES is not so hard to believe.

    I also read his TOROS & TORSOS later book of a earlier version of Hector Lassiter with other horrible acts of man on man, or should I say woman on man.

    The bottom line is that the research that had to be done to write this book is worth reading just to get an idea of what was happening at this time in history unknown to most of us.
    4 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Noel Mooney
    5.0 out of 5 stars White-knuckled hard-boiled noir
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 28, 2016
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    In Craig McDonald's debut novel, we don't have to read farther than the first sentence to meet our first severed head. This head was once attached to the body of General Pancho Villa, a real-life hero of the Mexican revolution. For various reasons this head is sought by many, from Mexican killers and federales to Senator Prescott Bush (George W's grandfather) who desires it "for dark rituals undertaken by Yale's Skull and Bones society."

    In possession of this head is hard-drinking Hector Lassiter, a noir writer inhabiting a noir novel, who tries to keep his own head attached long enough to take Villa's skull from Mexico to California. Dragged into this is Bud Fiske, young aspiring poet and latest would-be interviewer of Lassiter. Throw in shooting, betrayal, car chases, more shooting, more betrayal, your compulsory femme fatale, Orson Welles, Marlene Dietrich, George W (yes that one), the CIA, and more skulls than you can shake a stick at, light the whole mess on fire and you might get something close to the insanity that is this novel.

    This is a novel of both literal and figurative 'head games'. The action comes think and fast, interspersed with characters real and imagined. If it all seems a little crazy, and it does, it should be noted that many of the plot points in the novel have a basis in fact.

    Readers will have to decide for themselves what is going on towards the end of the book. For me, I think the author is indulging in some 'head games' of his own, but I'll have to buy the next one in the series to find out!
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  • Rob Kitchin
    3.0 out of 5 stars a five star read that runs low on steam
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 6, 2012
    Verified Purchase
    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.
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