Heads You Lose

Lisa Lutz · David Hayward

Apr 2011 · Sold by Penguin

About this ebook

Dave, I just finished the first chapter of a new novel-a real crime novel with a dead body and all-and I thought of you...

Paul and Lacey Hansen are pot-growing, twentysomething siblings sharing a modest rambler of a home in rural Northern California. When they find a headless corpse on their property they can't exactly call 911, so they simply move the body to another location. Let somebody else find it. Instead, the corpse reappears on their land. Clearly, someone is sending them a message, and it's getting riper by the day. But that's only half of the story...

Enter authors Lisa Lutz and David Hayward-former real-life partners (professionally and personally) who have agreed to reunite for a tag- team mystery novel written in alternating chapters. One little problem: they disagree on pretty much every detail of how their novel should unfold. While the body count rises in Paul and Lacey's wildly unpredictable fictional world, so too does the intensity of Lisa and David's rivalry. The result is a literary brawl like no other, and a murder mystery every bit as unanticipated (and bloody).

Ratings and reviews

Lisa Lutz and her former boyfriend, poet David Howard co-wrote this novel and write alternate chapters. Between the chapters we have their comments on the chapter and novel's development. This gives good insight into the authors' thoughts. Paul and Lacey Hansen live in their parents' home in California after their parents died during a vacation. With college costs and a bleak job market, they began growing and selling pot to discriminating markets, such as people with chronic pain and the employees and residents of an assisted living home. One day they find a decapitated body on their front yard. They can't call police because of the pot growing on their property so they dispose of the body along a hiking path at a local rest stop. Thinking the'd heard the last of it and expecting to learn of someone finding the body, Lacey is startled to find the body back on her lawn the next day. It's almost like a scene from A Weekend at Bernies. The story takes many turns and twists as Lacey and Paul attempt to solve the crime themselves. Lacey is a humorous character in the vein of Janet Evanovich's wonderful Stephanie Plum. She bungles her way around attempting to find everyone's alibi. Suspects continue to wind up dead and even the authors argue about what should come next.

This book was great fun to read! The author notes throughout and the story itself, lent a unique air to this book! I gave it a five because I read it in a evening, and that's rare for me, I enjoyed it that much! Both characters in the story are fun, brother and sister, running a pot farm, a nice, non-violent pot farm, until they find a body on the property and that changes everything. Did the story of their parents have anything to do with this body, or is this a whole new problem? The siblings start doubting a lot of things as this story plays out! Thank you Ms. Lutz and Mr. Hayward!

Her stories hilarious

About the author

Lisa Lutz is the New York Times bestselling author of the Spellman comedic crime novels. Since 2007, the Spellman series has received Edgar, Anthony, and Macavity nominations, and each title has been a selection of the Indie Next List. Lutz lives in San Francisco.

David Hayward is a writer and editor in Northern California. His poetry has won a Pushcart Prize and has appeared in Harper's and other magazines. Hayward has an MFA in poetry from the University of California, Irvine. This is his first novel.