Heads you lose /

I'll start a story, and we'll each add something to forward the action. Remember that game? In this case, it's just two tale spinners: Lutz, who writes the Spellman Files mysteries, and her ex-boyfriend, editor-poet Hayward. Ground rules are laid out in an editor's note: Lutz (lead author) begins and writes all odd-numbered chapters; no previewing or changing each other's work; a coin flip determines who wraps it all up. Can this actually work? Yes and no. Brother and sister, Paul and Lacey Hansen coexist in a state of benign, mutual irritation, running a pot business from their home. Among their clients are folks at the local retirement home and the town doctor. When a headless corpse appears in the Hansens' backyard (twice), Lacey turns into Nancy Drew, while Paul tends plants and hangs out with his girlfriend. It's great to see how the story unfolds, but even better are the snide remarks traded by the authors at the end of each chapter; they almost make up for the unruly plotting and screwy characters. Fun for some, but the unusual structure will limit readership.--Zvirin, Stephanie Copyright 2010 Booklist

In this experimental California improv, Lutz (The Spellman Files) writes odd-numbered chapters and footnoted barbs directed at her coauthor and ex-boyfriend, poet Hayward, whose even-numbered chapters and stiletto-sharp ripostes add a freaky dimension to the collaboration. Grown siblings Lacey and Paul Hansen are scratching out a precarious living from a Northern California clandestine marijuana operation when a reeking headless human body turns up in their backyard, eventually identified as Hart Drexel, detecting barista Lacey's former lover. Because Lutz and Hayward agreed not to discuss or to undo a plot development the other had produced, they create a jittery black-comic narrative complicated by inter-author tensions unveiled in memos exchanged at the end of each chapter. Shifty secondary characters, some charming, some odious, pop in and out of the resulting dizzying plot that comes off like a trendy Left Coast restaurant melange-daringly composed, exotic to contemplate. Author tour. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

With a flip of the coin, Lacey becomes the unlucky Hansen sibling taking out the garbage. Finding the headless body? That makes a dirty job even worse. Paul, Lacey's brother, doesn't care where the head went or who might have left the body in their yard. He wants to keep the police away from their home, site of their modest but still illegal pot-growing business. Mercer, CA, is a small town, but the list of possible victims and perpetrators is long and grows longer as the (heads attached) body count rises. Two original, quirky stories packed into one book? What an awesome bonus for fans of Lutz's Spellman series (The Spellmans Strike Again). One story line tells how Lutz and her ex-boyfriend began writing this novel in alternating chapters, even though they've had a rocky personal relationship over the years. The other is the murder mystery, and readers clearly see how rising tensions between the authors affect their writing. Verdict Clever, witty, and smartly turned out, this novel should be savored from the editor's letter to the final page, or readers will lose out on a big piece of this humorous puzzle. [See Prepub Alert, 10/25/10.]-Stacey Hayman, Rocky River P.L., OH (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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.When she finds a headless corpse on her California farm, Lacey Hansen can't call the cops because they'd see that she and her brother Paul were growing marijuana. Instead, they dump the remains in a suitably remote location before they realize that the dead man was their old schoolmate Darryl Cleveland. Or maybe he wasn't, as Lacey realizes when Darryl turns up alive. Now it looks like the murder victim must be Paul's old friend and mentor, veteran cannabis grower Terry Jakes. At least according to Lutz, whose chapter identifies him as such. But Hayward, unwilling to bid farewell to such a promising character, brings him back to lifehey, didn't Lutz do it?before Lutz emphatically kills him off again when it's her turn. And so it goes and goes, with Lutz demanding in the exchange of notes that end each installment that Hayward develop clues that will solve the mystery, and Hayward observing that Lutz, whose preferred resolution to any untoward complications is to cut the Gordian knot by another murder, must be "the Pol Pot of mystery writing."The surprise here is how little all this whimsical metatextual byplay changes the formula of alarums, excursions, red herrings and other tangents beloved of the genre; it just invites the authors to join the eternally bickering sleuths.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.