This month, Head Games, my
debut novel and the book that launched the Hector Lassiter series, returns in
some slick new packaging from Betimes Books.
Of all my novels, HG has
traveled the widest, become the most translated, and is now in the final steps
of being transformed into a graphic novel.
The book has been out of print
in the U.S. for a few years, so this is a chance for newcomers to get the novel
between actual soft covers.
Some extras for this version
include a new afterword, the short story “The Last Interview” that was my first
Lassiter work (and one that informs the latter going of Head Games). This
version of Head Games will also include reader discussion questions for book
groups interested in further exploring the novel’s themes.
You can preorder Head Games for
Kindle here. The paperback version will be available in just a few days.
HEAD GAMES WAS:
•
2008 Edgar® Nominee for Best First Novel
• 2008
Anthony Award Finalist
• 2011
Sélection du prix polar Saint-Maur En Poche
• 2008
Gumshoe Award nominee for Best First Novel
•
Head Games shortlisted for 2008 Crimespree Magazine award for Best First Novel
"One
of the great American road novels."
—Heirloom Books
"This
slick caper novel touches chords of myth, history, loss and redemption just
enough so you can hear echoes faintly under the gunfire."
—PUBLISHERS
WEEKLY
ABOUT THE BOOK:
“In
a dusty cantina on the far side of the Rio Grande, larger-than-life and
recently widowed crime writer Hector Lassiter and Bud Fiske, a callow young
poet sent by True Magazine to profile Hector, are handed a carpet bag.
Inside they find the stolen head of Mexican general Francisco ‘Pancho’ Villa—a
long missing relic that may point the way to a fortune in lost treasure or a
blood-and-thunder death...
“In the dank, hallowed
halls of Yale University creep the members of the Skull & Bones, a secret
society shrouded in whispers. They are a fraternity whose members include media
barons, über executives and politicians, including three generations of men
called Bush—and their sanctum sanctorum's trophy cabinet is purportedly packed
with the stolen bones of long-dead luminaries...
“In a '57 Bel Air,
Hector, Bud, and the beautiful Alicia tear through the desert with a trunk full
of human heads. Caught in a crazy crossfire, they lead all manner of
headhunters on a breakneck chase across Lost America. U.S. intelligence
services, murderous frat boys, the soldier of fortune who stole Pancho's head
from its grave, and the specter of a dead Mexican legend all want Villa's head—though
they might settle for Hector's...”
*********************
What some other authors have
said about Head Games:
"Head
Games is terrific, a real discovery, informed by—but never weighed down by—Craig
McDonald's intimate knowledge of pulp fiction, politics, history, literature,
film noir and all manner of frontiers. A truly original debut that leaves one
eager to see what this writer will do next."
—LAURA LIPPMAN, author of What the
Dead Know
"Moves
like a bullet, like a trajectory of magnificent artistry and line-on-line of
almost casual, throwaway description. The beautiful, understated humor running
like a sad song all through the whole novel...I'm beyond impressed."
—KEN BRUEN, author of American Skin
"Reading
Craig McDonald's Head Games was like reliving those wonderful and
exciting, tequila-fired weekend border-town tours of my youth in the '50's. A
different character, vivid and lively, waiting around every new corner of the
artfully twisted plot. The time and place are captured perfectly, and story
never falters as it dashes to the surprising ending. It made me homesick for El
Paso the way it was."
—JAMES CRUMLEY, author of The Last
Good Kiss
"Few
writers can blend a contemporary feel with what drew us to old-style pulp and
original paperbacks: that momentum, that craziness, the thrill of the downhill
slide and crash. Head Games is smart, it's funny, and it moves like a
roach when the lights go on—what's not to love?"
—JAMES SALLIS, author of Drive
"Head
Games is fast, funny, furious, heart wrenching, real smart and totally
unapologetic...a five-star page turning sizzler in a four-star world. Talk
about nailing your debut...Head Games seals the deal and establishes
McDonald as the new badass on the writing block. Kick back with a shot of
Cuervo and a cold Tecate chaser. Enjoy the search for Pancho's missing head in
this fast-paced thriller of lost and sorely missed Americana."
—CHARLIE STELLA, author of Shakedown
"Head
Games is contemporary noir at its finest. Prose that bites like a
guillotine blade. A voice that sings in your skull. And in aging pulpster/adventurer
Hector Lassiter, a hero who's the real deal—morally complex and damned
funny."
—ALLAN
GUTHRIE, author of Hard Man
Selected as one of The San
Francisco Chronicle's Top 10 crime books of the year:
"Craig McDonald, a genuine expert on the history of crime fiction, gives
free rein to all his obsessions in a debut novel that's a berserk 1957-based
caper running roughshod through the politics and pop culture of the latter half
of the 20th century. Strap in, hold on, enjoy the ride."
—EDDIE
MULLER, 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. It's Tom Russell singing ‘Tonight We Ride’ with a gut full of
tequila and a loaded Colt. Craig McDonald knows the tough guy, has created one
of the very finest, a pulp writer called Lassiter who knew Hemingway, Welles
and Dietrich, and who I wish wasn't fucking fictional so I could hunt for his
books. He spits in the eye of the pansy-ass authority hero that has glutted the
crime market, reminiscent of Crumley at his best and with Ellroy's sick
historical verve. Bottom line, McDonald's a talented bastard."
—RAY BANKS, author of
Saturday's Child
"A booze-soaked
tribute to those great gonzo noir writers of days gone by."
—ANTHONY NEIL SMITH,
author of The Drummer
"Yeah, I'm late
catching up to this guy, but damned if this 1950's set tale of a crime writer
carrying the head of a Mexican rebel in a bag across some kind of crazy road
trip didn't set my pulse racing. There's a strange switch at a late stage in
the novel which might divide some readers in the way the ending of No
Country For Old Men did its audience, but for my money it's a bold move
that more or less works exactly as intended. This McDonald guy is definitely
one to keep your eye on."
—RUSSEL D. MCLEAN, author
of THE GOOD SON
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