Headhunting

by Rich Larson

A private eye plagued by hallucinations is hired to retrieve a mummified monk’s head stolen from a cathedral--but why would someone want it?

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Fantasy, Science Fiction

36 pages, ebook

First published August 9, 2023

About the author

Rich Larson was born in Galmi, Niger, has studied in Rhode Island and worked in the south of Spain, and now lives in Ottawa, Canada. Since he began writing in 2011, he’s sold over a hundred stories, the majority of them speculative fiction published in magazines like Asimov’s, Analog, Clarkesworld, F&SF, Lightspeed, and Tor.com.

His work appears in numerous Year’s Best anthologies and has been translated into Chinese, Vietnamese, Polish, French and Italian. Annex, his debut novel and first book of The Violet Wars trilogy, comes out in July 2018 with Orbit Books. Tomorrow Factory, his debut collection, follows in October 2018 with Talos Press.

Besides writing, he enjoys travelling, learning languages, playing soccer, watching basketball, shooting pool, and dancing kizomba.

Reviews

[Fiona Knight · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Nice to know I’m not the only one losing their head,” he tells the mirror. “Maybe we’ll bond over that.”

“Loads better?” his reflection says, raising both bristly eyebrows. “No more episodes? You’re such a bad liar, mate.”

Amir pushes out into the unfinished hallway, where a row of neatly painted black doors floats in bare concrete and electric veinery. He checks the caked construction dust for tracks, specifically the sort left by flippers, but finds none.

Rich Larson never misses. He'll drop you straight into the media res, for sure, but by the end of the story the world has started to make sense (and maybe that's the truly scary part), and I'll have a whole new world that's somehow been unfolded in a very short space of time. Sitting comfortably between genres, this is another excellent short story that means the author will stay on my short list of "read everything he writes as soon as you can get it".

This particular short is free from Tor here: https://www.tor.com/2023/08/09/headhu...

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The prehistoric parasite in a dead monk’s brain is handing out hallucinations, which is somehow less stupid than a dead monk’s ghost doing it.”

This was a chilling, reality bending barrel of monkeys that seems to channel John W. Campbell Jr.'s classic sci-fi/horror crossover novella Who Goes There?. Larson has consistently hit it out of the park now with every story I've read by him. Highly recommended!

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Headhunting” by Rich Larson

Good and creepy, but too creepy for me to really like.

3, I’m going to have nightmares about brain parasites now, stars.

[Heni · Rating 4 out of 5]

The idea of parasitic worms that gives you hallucinations is unsettling. This is not supposed to be creepy but it is. I love Amir too. Great 👍

[Kam Yung Soh · Rating 4 out of 5]

A private detective, who suffers from hallucinations, is assigned to recover the mummified head of a monk stolen from a cathedral. But things take a surreal turn when he tracks down the thief, who is now also suffering from similar hallucinations, only in a more severe form. The clues point to the stolen head. But time is short, for the thief escapes and returns for more of the heads, which may lead to humanity suffering from a shared, horrifying global hallucination.

[Per · Rating 3 out of 5]

https://reactormag.com/headhunting-ri...

[Bethnoir · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short horror story which threw me into a strange world where it was difficult to tell what was real. Felt a bit like a Call of Cthulhu role playing adventure, but I liked the characters and enjoyed the story. Will explore the author further.

[Katherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice little chthonic short story with a little dash of Indiana Jones.

[Alicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the reveal about why he has hallucinations. I didn't mind the God parasite stuff. But the animatronic walrus was a little much for me.

[Benjamin DeHaan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun sf neo-noir mystery tale with all the cinematic fun from Larson we expect.

[Fatima · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars. Love the variety of worlds Rich Larson puts the readers in. This world was cooky, but didn’t do much for me.

[Barry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some nice twists in the very atmospheric story. Thanks for the story, Rich Larson

[umainthewild · Rating 4 out of 5]

This sure was entertaining and well-written but I have already forgotten the details. That's probably on me because I read it while I was distracted.

[Beth N · Rating 3 out of 5]

For those bored of cops vs. robbers, Rich Larson brings you PIs vs. monsters in this imaginative thriller-horror short story.

Full of imagination, fast-paced, terrifying in all the right ways, this is a story that sinks its claws into you and demands to be read in a single sitting. If the overuse of a thesaurus sometimes jars and if it tries too hard to be cool, you can forgive it. The grim, seedy setting and sharp dialogue mean that its efforts pay off.

Fun, freaky and furious. I recommend it. (Just not to your grandmother.)