Vinnie's Head

by Marc Lecard

Book Overview

Small-time Long Island criminal, Johnnie LoDuco, after giving up a promising career as a smut peddler, gets involved with some friends who rob a convenience store, get caught because they are too stoned to make a getaway, and then pin all the blame on him. And when his childhood buddy Vinnie bails him out of jail, he agrees to partake in a scam Vinnie has put together that will make them all rich. The only problem is: while out fishing one day Johnnie...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 031237867X
• ISBN13: 9780312378677
• Release Date: March 2008
• Publisher: Minotaur Books
• Length: 338 Pages
• Weight: 0.76 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.3" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Watch out, Hiaasen and Dorsey

I'm a huge fan of Carl Hiaasen and Tim Dorsey and I have to say that Lecard's "Vinnie's Head" is just as good (and definitely better than Hiassen's last novel "Nature Girl"). "Vinnie's Head" is side-splitting funny - a great comic "mystery", definitely a great, light, funny read for anyone who's looking to escape reality for a few hours. Well written, great narrative style, and most important - funny as hell! It's Lecard's first book (very impressive!) - I sure hope that he writes a few more (if Serge Storms can survive several novels, why not Johnnie LoDuco?)

drop dead funny

not to get your hopes too high, but this is about the funniest book i have ever read. i can't wait until this man writes his next book. even the violence is funny. plus there is a twisty turny plot, romance of sorts, and great atmospheric descriptions of a certain sociosphere of long island. great book.

Amazingly funny

This is a story about a character called Johnnie LoDuco who is a jinx and gets into all sorts of trouble for things he didn't do and at every turn when you think what else can go wrong, he gets into deeper trouble. This is close to slap stick comedy on paper.

Johnnie LoDuco, a very small-time (and largely unsuccessful) criminal from Long Island, finds Vinnie

Marc Lecard is a hoot. I don't know where he gets his ideas, but it has to be from a place where the buses don't run. A former resident of Long Island, Lecard now resides in Northern California, which explains --- at least in part --- where the characters in his darkly comic debut novel come from. But the ideas? Yikes! VINNIE'S HEAD is about just that: Vinnie's head. Johnnie LoDuco, a very small-time (and largely unsuccessful) criminal from Long Island, finds Vinnie's head while fishing. The head in question belongs to the improbably named Vinnie McCloskey-Schmidt, who is in the process of involving his childhood friend Johnnie in a credit card sweep scam that will make them rich beyond their wildest dreams (or so Vinnie promises). But when LoDuco reels Vinnie's head in on the end of a fishing line --- without the rest of Vinnie to go along with it --- all bets are off. In fact, it's worse than that. Everyone is now after him --- mob guys, Vinnie's girlfriend, the police --- and he has no port to escape the storm. Actually, that's not quite accurate. He does find two people: one is a slum goddess working in a video store, and the other is a gent named Bogdan. Bogdan is a crucial character --- he pretty much steals the book away --- but Lecard waits until readers are more than two-thirds of the way through the story before introducing him. A lesser writer would have brought in such a character more towards the beginning, but Lecard interjects Bogdan perfectly here, making him a major player in the conclusion. What ultimately results is at the end of a road that gets stranger and stranger with each and every mile. VINNIE'S HEAD isn't so much funny as it is wacky. There are times where you want to reach into the page and smack LoDuco for being stupid or cowardly, but he's just lovable enough that you hold yourself in check and forgive him. On top of that, almost everyone in this book is worse than he is, so he gets your love --- or at least some of it --- by default. This entertaining debut has enough characters --- in every sense of the word --- to fill five novels, and I have the feeling we're going to see a few of them in the future. At the very least, however, I want to see more work from Lecard. --- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

An over-the-top, darkly comic debut

Seamlessly interweaving humor into a crime novel is no easy trick. Few authors can pull it off, and fewer still can do it successfully with their first novel. Marc Lecard has done it, however, with "Vinnie's Head", as darkly humorous and entertaining a novel as you'll likely read this year. Johnnie LoDuco tries his best, but he isn't a very successful criminal. He's been accused of a robbery he didn't even commit, and has been forced to go on the lam. That's when his luck really turns bad. While fishing on Long Island Sound, he inadvertently catches the severed head of Vinnie McCloskey-Schmidt, his best friend and partner in crime. That discovery sets off a madcap series of adventures, which have Johnnie being chased by a motley crew of mobsters, bent cops and a serial killer who really loves his Mommy. The whole thing would be ridiculous if it weren't so well done and so damn hilarious. "Vinnie's Head" is not for every taste, but it's definitely for people who like their crime funny, brutal and over-the-top. Lecard is a true find.