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Loading... Heads You Lose (edition 2012)by Lisa Lutz, David Hayward
Work InformationHeads You Lose by Lisa Lutz
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I thought the premise of two authors (exes) co-writing a mystery (she writes odd chapters; he writes evens) was interesting. Unfortunately, I thought the execution fell *way* short. Maybe it wasn't the resulting story that fell short, so much as the weird “Notes“ sections between chapters (and sometimes comments within chapters), which amounted to passive-aggressive bickering. This was probably meant to be funny. It was really just grating. What a hilarious novel. If anyone has any questions regarding how collaborations work - this is certainly a good look at that. Lisa Lutz and David Hayward trade off on who writes each chapter - and then leave notes for one another throughout the book. The way that Lisa and David work together, and fail to work together, becomes more and more clear as the book begins its slow implosion into hilarity and nonsense. Need I say it doesn't make a great deal of sense? The pleasure in reading this comes in a rather meta way. Characters are tortured and ruined in order to piss off the co-author just a little more - threatening notes and overuse of pretentious turns of phrase are emphasized just to grate a little more. The book is laugh out loud funny, and more than a little vindictive. What's not to love? This is arguably one of the best revenge novels out there. It's a pity that it wasn't exactly intended to be that..
Inspired perhaps by those round-robin collaborations published 75 years ago by England’s Detection Club, Lutz (The Spellmans Strike Again, 2010, etc.) and Hayward add a new twist: The two collaborators, each responsible for alternating chapters, are in sharp disagreement about how the tale should be told..... Two heads are better than one, it turns out, when solving the mystery of a headless corpse. Lisa Lutz, San Francisco author of the best-selling comedic crime novel series that started with "The Spellman Files," teamed up with former boyfriend David Hayward, a poet and editor, to create "Heads You Lose," a collaborative effort that ostensibly reveals as much about the co-authors as the characters. ... It's loads of fun, even for the gimmick-phobic. Just go with it.
Pot-growing siblings Paul and Lacey Hansen must investigate why the headless corpse of Lacey's ex-fiancé turned up on their property, in a metafictional mystery where the authors disagree as to how the story should progress. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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Brother and sister, Paul and Lacey Hansen, find a head on their property. They can't call the cops because they are growing weed in their basement. Lacey recognizes a watch on the arm of the decapitated body and believes it to be an acquaintance. However, when she later sees that person, she is wrong. Paul is usually not reliable, and is involved in some poor business deals. There is some suspicion around their parents' death, as well as the town doc. A very mixed up convoluted mystery.
I did enjoy the comments at the end of the chapters, but the book itself, and the mystery, were out there for me. ( )