Hot and Sweaty Rex : A Dinosaur Mafia Mystery

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Summary: fab new find
Review: I picked this up on a whim, intrigued by the title. Suffice to say that the first two Vincent Rubio books are now high on the queue. The thing is, even taking away the hilarious and bizarrely plausible dinosaur aspects, this is a terrific, tightly-plotted con-game novel.

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Summary: Vincent's back!
Review: I'm a big fan of the Rex series so I had to get this book as soon as it came out and I read it in about a day and a half. This one is darker than the other Rex books but just as funny CANT WAIT FOR THE TV SHOW!!!

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Summary: Mammals, Beware!
Review: In case you haven't heard, Eric Garcia has created his own literary genre--the dinosaur detective novel. In fact he's created his own world--a world in which dinosaurs are not extinct, but coexist uneasily among us, cleverly disguised as humans. This would be hard for most authors to pull off, but Garcia does it skillfully, with zest and humor.

Vincent Rubio is the hard-boiled, fast-talking, marginally successful private investigator (and secret velociraptor)--well known to previous Rex readers--who gets himself in the middle of a war between two Mafia families (yes dinosaurs have their own Mafia). Will he be able to extricate himself? alive? What about his childhood best friend who turns out to be a mafia boss? What about his old girlfriend? And who is the secret informer? Well, things get complicated indeed and you will just have to read the book to find out what happens.

Author Eric Garcia has taken this improbable dinosaur concept and turned it into three entertaining novels. He writes with flair and gusto, with snappy urban slang, and strangely believable characters. Of course he doesn't have much respect for us "mammals," but hey--it's fiction--isn't it? Hot and Sweaty is a little darker, more violent than the previous Rex books. Still, it's fun to read, and I recommend it.
Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber