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Summary: Phillip Marlow as a Dino...Very Funny and Engaging Mystery
Review: What can you say about a book that has a dinosaur for a hero/narrator? And the dinosaur lives in present day Los Angeles, disguised as a human, trying to earn his living as a private detective? And, further more, he is part of a whole dinosaur sub-culture that exists side-by-side with the unknowing human culture? Well, I call it very, very clever and funny!Our hero is dinosaur Vincent Rubio (VelociRaptor,get it?) a private eye whose partner has died (shades of Miles Archer), and whose business is headed straight for the toilet with various bill collectors knocking at the door. The insurance company Vincent works for from time to time gives him an arson case to investigate that, naturally, ends up being tied to the mysterious death of his partner. The story moves from Los Angeles to New York City to back again, all the while giving the reader typical detective story action, and untypical insight into Garcia's alternative world where the dinosaurs did not die out millions of years before the appearance of man on the scene. The reptiles have their own culture and society, have made their own accomodation to the present by going about in elaborate disguises (some of the funniest moments of the book occur when Vincent's current disguise goes haywire and threatens to expose him in more ways than one!), and keep strictly apart from the dominate human culture, which they view with contempt. The book is written in a style that will remind you in a vague way of the noir mysteries of the 1940s and 50s. Vincent Rubio is an appealing character: I finished this book wanting to read the sequel, and was delighted to find out that a new hardcover ("Hot and Sweaty Rex: A Dinosaur Mafia Mystery") had just been released. My only real criticism of the book is that there is not enough "background material" on how the dinosaurs "survived" and evolved into creatures that could develop technology. Not all readers need a backstory; those who do will be spending some of their time filling in the blanks from the information that Garcia gives us in bits and pieces. If you are willing to suspend your disbelief, the dinosaur mystery books will be a real treat for you.
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Summary: Interesting concept, but...
Review: The basic concept behind this book, that dinosaurs survived to the present and willfully evolved to be able to live among humans is original and clever, but the book focuses way to heavily on how they live as humans and ignores the story to a large extent until nearly the end when the author seems to suddenly realize he'll need to end the book and so everything comes together. Much too much time is spent buckling and unbuckling 'guises' and too little on the plot.
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Summary: Interesting Premise, Good PI Mystery
Review: The premise is simple. Dinosaurs did not die out 65-million years ago. They continued to evolve and become more intelligent (as well as smaller). About 1 in 20 people is actually a dinosaur in disguise. Vincent Rubio, a private investigator almost at the end of his rope is a velociraptor. Just as everything is at its worst for Vincent, a large PI firm offers him a simple insurance case; check if a nightclub fire was natural or planned. But Vincent doesn't like taking the easy way out. So when some clues point towards similar ground to the case that caused him all of his trouble, Vincent has to plunge forward. The case is an interesting one involving the death of a very rich dinosaur, the death of Vincent's partner, and more infidelities than you can wag a tale at. This is all told in a classic hard-boiled detective tale. Fans of Marlowe or Spillane will love the mystery. Garcia does a very good job of creating a plausible world but does not hit the reader over the head with the details. The details leak out in small amounts as they are necessary. But these details are not held as a sudden revelation to solve the mystery. I really enjoyed this one and look forward to the further, and previous, adventures of velociraptor PI Vincent Rubio.
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Summary: A fully realized alternate world
Review: The hero of "Anonymous Rex," the novel by Eric Garcia, is a private investigator named Vincent Rubio. But there's a twist to this detective story. Vincent is a dinosaur--a raptor, to be specific. He lives in a world in which dinosaurs never went extinct--instead, they evolved into human-sized intelligent beings. The dinos live intermingled in the human population, wearing ingenious prosthetic disguises that allow them to masquerade as humans. Vincent is contracted to investigate a suspicious fire, and this leads him into a twisted web of murder, deceit, sex, and weird science. Garcia has taken a great concept and used it to create a fun, exciting story. "Anonymous" has something in common with narratives like the Harry Potter saga, which similarly postulates a "hidden" world which coexists with our mundane human world. Despite this common theme, however, Garcia's book is fresh and unique. Garcia creates compelling characters and throws in some intriguing twists. His writing is clever and witty, and he fleshes out this bizarre concept in a rich and satisfying way. Along the way he tackles some "real world" issues such as drug abuse, forbidden sex, social control, and personal identity. This is a wild and wondrous story that leaves me eager for a sequel.
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Summary: big t's awesome review
Review: Saw this book at the bookstore, and once I read the inside of the jacket, I knew I had to buy it!! Here I am, a mere 5 hours after starting the book, completely finished. I had to know how it ended. At times, you almost forgot that it was anything other than an engaging murder mystery. The twists and turns of the plot are wonderful to behold, and the character development was phenomenal. If I have any complaints, it's that the concept of famous humans actually being something other than human is so, well, Men in Black. However, Garcia does not dwell on these revelations, so they are no more than a distraction. I am buying the follow up novel ASAP! If you are in the market for a fun read, and just happen to love the Discovery Channels build a dinosaur section, then this is the book for you!!
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Summary: Dino Noir
Review: As expected, this book was the usual combination of detective yarn and... uh... dino flick? True, the 2 don't seem to combine well but that is where Garcia's book has its greatest success. Some of the elements are laugh out loud funny and to top it all off, its a pretty clever detective story. Certainly great summer reading. growl. You never know who to trust...
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