Ok, so apparently, due to the end of my semester, I lost complete knowledge of time or space. I was supposed to announce the winner of this wonderful ARC giveaway about 18 days ago. Whoops. So here you go, the winner of this awesome books is: katrinao. Congrats! Hope you love it like I did. Stay tuned for more giveaways... there may be some sort of announcement tomorrow...
Heads You Lose by Lisa Lutz and David Hayward
Published by: Putnam Adult
ARC Provided by Putnam
Publication Date: April 5th, 2011
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
Challenge: Mystery and Suspense 2011
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy
Lacey Hansen is trapped in a dead end life with her brother Paul. Making a living supplying the local colleges and nursing homes with pot is not a way to live. Even Mythmatch, where legendary gods and monsters battle each other on the small screen, is no cure for boredom. But even a dull and inert life can be pushed into action by the arrival of a headless corpse on your doorstep. Due to the proximity of so much pot near a recently deceased body, the siblings decide to dump the body off a hiking trail where it will be found and investigated, far from their home. Because they know this corpse. It's Darryl, Paul's friend and pot irrigation expert. The next day, Lacey views it as her right to investigate a little, it is kind of "their corpse"... but when that investigation turns up Darryl alive and well... well then, who's the corpse? And where did it go? It's not where they left it. But a missing corpse is nowhere near as interesting as a plane exploding at the local airport and the new Doc Egan moving into town with his cute Wilson brothers looks to replace the old Doc Holland, who did leave town awful fast. It's not long before Lacey and Paul wonder when the body will finally be discovered, only to find it back on their front porch... except this time Lacey takes a closer look and realizes it's her ex-fiance Hart. Knowing that if they hide the crime again someone will most likely return the body, Lacey makes the call to inform the police, giving her brother a few minutes to clear out the marijuana plants and stash them with his pot mentor, Terry Jakes.
Now with a police investigation finally underway, Lacey decides that it's time to ramp up her own investigation. Solve the crime, leave the town, it's as easy as that. Only, solving this crime is not going to be easy when everyone has a motive for killing Hart, who, if Lacey is being honest, was quite the lowlife. Throw in a shady bar owner, an even shadier nursing home run by the Babalatos, an endearing or perhaps lethal old man, Sook, land deals, long cons, blackmail, and a stripper with an IQ higher than most members of MENSA, and Lacey doesn't know which suspect is the guilty party. At times it seems even the authors are unsure. With the authors one upping each other and making the stakes higher and the death rate escalate, we are not only waiting to see if Lacey and Paul get out of this crappy little town, but if Lisa and David will be able to get the book finished without killing each other or the entire populace of Mercer California.
Many authors when collaborating have decided to divide the work with alternating chapters. Rachel Cohn and David Levithan come to mind, as well as Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer. But, one assumes, that they at least get along. Lisa and David, while disagreeing on almost every aspect of the book, except the title, have been able to create the funniest collaboration I have yet to read. Openly displaying hostility and willing to eek out a little retribution through calamity and downfall to the other author's favorite characters. With Lisa favoring Lacey and the doddering old Sook and David being Paul and Terry's biggest fan, it's fun reading and anticipating the ways the other author tries to change and manipulate the plot to their characters advantage. From Lisa having to kill a character twice and then his doppelganger as well, to David writing as if for a primary school reader, the banter back and forth is what drives this novel, almost more so than the plot.
I was impressed that they were able to come up with a cohesive and plausible ending, because they made no effort to tailor their own styles to fit together. David has a tendency to overwrite, to use stupidly named made up tv show titles and big words, I had to keep a dictionary handy in his chapters, and even then, sometimes, I was at a lose. As Lisa stated in one of her letters between the chapters, "Why in God's name would you use the words 'subfusc,' 'asperous,' and 'caliginious' in a freaking crime novel? Here's a rule worth following: If the spell-check doesn't recognize the word, don't use it!" To which I have to heartily agree. Because if I have to drag out the dictionary, it pulls me out of the story, no matter how fractured and funny it is. Whereas Lisa is a spare writer with sharp, refined wit, even if David got the biggest laugh out of me with his slur against David Caruso, letting me forgive the superfluous oleaginous. Also, Lisa is wrong, cats do need back stories. In the end, at the close of the day you will be left with a smile, a strong hope that they will be on book tour together, bickering across America, and the desperate need to hear more about their abandoned previous collaboration The Fop.
As you probably all recall, I have a bit of a Lisa Lutz obsession. I just love her clean and witty writing style. Well, this month she finally branches into new territory, the Spellmans being shelved until next spring. But for her new foray into crime she has a partner, David Hayward. Writing in such ways as David Levithan and Rachel Cohn have been known to, it's as if those two writers decided to declare open warfare. Hilarious and entertaining, and yes, this applies to the authors as well. I hope you'll take the time to pick up this book (or win it, hint hint), or see them on tour! I've been eagerly anticipating seeing how they interact in a confined space for an allotted about of time since I read the book. After all, it's not often that you read a list of demands from an author before embarking on tour:
•In airports, let’s pretend we don’t know each other. Obviously, if I’m getting mugged or injure myself, break character. Otherwise, you’re some tall blond guy in a wrinkled shirt (and it will be wrinkled) who happens to be on the same airplane.
•I’ve noticed in the few signing sessions we’ve had that you’re getting fancy with your signature. Knock it off. It doesn’t change the fact that my name is bigger on the cover.
•Even though we’re pretending that we don’t know each other, sometimes bringing a stranger coffee makes you feel better. It’s like one of those pay-it-forward things, which I’m generally not all that big on, but there are some exceptions.
•If I ask you to bring me an apple, don’t then ask me if you can eat it later. Just get another apple.
•No more blue pens. And bring your own. I’m not your pen valet.
•Don’t deplane slowly just to prove you’re more zen than I am. Guess what? I give that to you, yoga boy. You are more zen. You win that one, I give it to you.
•Finally, if tensions still arise, I suggest we resort to Twitter for all communication. I believe we’re less likely to reveal our dark sides in front of the voting public.
So onto the giveaways "official rules"...
The Prize:
An ARC of Heads You Lose (curtesy of Lisa's awesome publishers at Putnam).
The Rules:
1. Open to EVERYONE (for clarification, this means international, but no shipping to space stations or TARDI), just because you haven't been following me all along doesn't mean you don't matter, you just get more entries if you prove you love me by following.
2. Please make sure I have a way to contact you if your name is drawn, either your blogger profile or a link to your website/blog or you could even include your email address with your comment(s) or email me.
3. Contest ends Saturday, April 30th at 11:59PM CST
4. How to enter: Just comment in the space below!
5. And for those addicted to getting extra entries:
+1 for answering the question: Are you for or against cat based mysteries? I thought about asking what you'd do if a corpse showed up in your yard, but that a tad bit gruesome.
+2 for becoming a follower
+10 if you are already a follower
+10 for each time you advertise this contest - blog post, sidebar, twitter (please @MzLizard), etc. (but you only get credit for the first post, so tweet all you like, and I thank you for it, but you'll only get the +10 once). Also please leave a link!
Good luck!
