Location : Cleveland, OH
A week ago, I was in the library, picking up the copy of Hammerhead Ranch Motel. As I was perusing the new novels, I saw one set in . . . Orlando. Okay, so that one goes home with me, too.
Head Games, by Thomas B. Cavanagh, centers on Michael Garrity, a retired cop with a "friend," Bob. Bob is Mike's brain tumor, at least that is how Garrity refers to it throughout the novel. Dark sense of humor from the main character. Garrity has a lot of baggage; two ex-wives, a fifteen year old daughter, and the knowledge that his time on Earth is extremely limited. He really doesn't care about much, living alone in a small, cramped apartment. He is basically waiting to die. And then the phone rings, and one of his ex-cop friends offers him a seemingly easy job: Find a missing member of the latest boy band. Figuring that he really doesn't have a lot to do, and an offer of $125,000US to complete the job, it seems like a way to fill some empty days. All he has to do is find the lead singer/star of the boy band and deliver him in time for the world tour. Simple.
Things start to change, quickly. As an ex-cop, Garrity is aware of things that "normal" people don't see, like the car that is tailing him, people that seem out of place in a crowd, that sort of thing. And then there are the phone calls from "a friend of a friend." It doesn't take him long to figure out that there is more going on here than a simple missing person case. Especially when one of his contacts ends up with his body and head in two different places. As he gets closer to the deadline, the pressure starts to mount - from the management company of the band, from the "friend of a friend," from his ex-wives and daughter, and from Bob.
This novel was a very nice change from the chaos of the Dorsey novel. Cavanagh writes about a guy that you really care about. The fact that he has a brain tumor lends a sense of urgency to the job, to his relationships with his family, to the people with which he interacts. People may threaten him, but Garrity always has a trump card, "who cares, I am going to die any way." But Cavanagh writes in a style that makes you want Garrity to care, to tie up the loose ends of his life, to find the boy, to save the day. And he does so at a very nice pace. Very well drawn characters, people that you care about with an unseen force that lends a lot of suspense. These are characters that I would love see again, with or without "Bob." The effects of a brain tumor are handled well and, according to Cavahagh's resources, well researched. It isn't often that you have a main character with a death sentence, at least one that wasn't the result of interactions with another human being. An unusual but extremely good premise. And what about the behind-the-scenes machine that keeps spitting out those Backstreet Boys, N-Sync, O-Town bands? You will have a front-row-center-seat look at that business; where they find the members, what is expected of them, the marketing, the tie-ins.
How did I like it? This is one of the few novels that I could be seen reading at every opportunity. It is that good. In fact, the library is ordering Cavanagh's first novel, Murderland, for me. I have found a new, excellent author (at least to me). Pick this book up, it is definitely worth your time.
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