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Summary: An easy to read mystery with Texas spice
Review: A friend gave me this book as a gift and I had it hidden away until I recently found it. I'm very glad I did. This book contains interesting characters (you would swear you know some of them), a good plot, a taste of San Antonio, Texas, with a hint of Jimmy Buffett to give it good flavor. I especially liked the nicknames the lead character gave to strangers. This was a very enjoyable book.
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Summary: Robert Johnson Is Terrific
Review: Any author who can create a enchilada eating cat named Robert Johnson captures my interest immediately. I smiled throughout this book and laughed out loud several times. I hope Tres keeps sticking his nose where it doesn't belong for many more books to come.
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Summary: Sizzling in San Antonio
Review: As I read this book I thought it must be an old hand writing under a pen name. It was very well done! As a native of San Antonio the setting took place in my neighborhood and that added to the realism. A great first effort.
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Summary: It can't be this easy to win an Edgar!
Review: Aside from the cat, there's not an original thing about Tres Navarre. Too many characters, too much plot, too little action. I didn't care if he found the girl or not,if he found his fathers killers or not. I just finished the thing and I still don't understand why these people did half the things they did. If the ending was suppossed to make me gasp, it made me yawn instead. Tres keep visiting the same people over and over again and comes away emptyhanded. If it's this easy to win mystery awards I might start writing my own. In the meantime I'll stick with, Dennis Lehane, Robert Crais, Robert Parker etc.
Rating:
Summary: It can't be this easy to win an Edgar!
Review: Aside from the cat, there's not an original thing about Tres Navarre. Too many characters, too much plot, too little action. I didn't care if he found the girl or not,if he found his fathers killers or not. I just finished the thing and I still don't understand why these people did half the things they did. If the ending was suppossed to make me gasp, it made me yawn instead. Tres keep visiting the same people over and over again and comes away emptyhanded. If it's this easy to win mystery awards I might start writing my own. In the meantime I'll stick with, Dennis Lehane, Robert Crais, Robert Parker etc.
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Summary: Award announcement
Review: BIG RED TEQUILA has been nominated by the Anthony Award Committee for Best Original Paperback.
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Summary: A rip-roarin' good time!
Review: Big Red Tequila is one of the funniest, smartest, slickest books I've read in a long time. Riordan does a fabulous job of imbuing his work with the sights, smells and sounds of San Antonio, and his characters seem incredibly real and multi-dimensional (even the bad guys!). The dialog crackles with wit and little details like the enchilada-eating cat and the half-brother with a passion for Jimmy Buffet's music just add to the entertainment. While the actual "mystery" in this book is perfectly adequate, to me it was almost secondary. I found the real fun was tagging along with Tres as he criss-crossed the city of San Antonio from La Villita to Monte Verde to the most exclusive neighborhoods with their gated entrances (which, of course, he always managed to talk his way into). I can't wait to read the rest of the series. Highly recommended!
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Summary: Prodigal returns to Texas
Review: Fans of Harlan Coben's Myron Bolitar series are likely to find another quasi-hero to root for in the Tres Navarre series. They are both late twentysomething white guys who can't quite shed their family and roots. The locations are different but both are players in the plots.Normally I don't care for Texas settings in novel (it's a Colorado thing) but this one works. Much of that has to do with Navarre's having spent ten years in the Bay Area (where the writer, Riordan, a Texas native, lives). It's a nice mixture of cravings for Peet's coffee while drinking Big Red soda cut with tequila. Navarre is a pretty likeable guy - and is the first guy shamus with a cat that I can recall. The mystery is only worth three stars as it is a bit muddled and has a few too many players. Still, a fun read and I'm looking forward to the second book in the series, The Widower's Two Step. It should also be noted that the book won Anthony and Shamus awards as well as making the Washington Post year-end list.
Rating:
Summary: Prodigal returns to Texas
Review: Fans of Harlan Coben's Myron Bolitar series are likely to find another quasi-hero to root for in the Tres Navarre series. They are both late twentysomething white guys who can't quite shed their family and roots. The locations are different but both are players in the plots. Normally I don't care for Texas settings in novel (it's a Colorado thing) but this one works. Much of that has to do with Navarre's having spent ten years in the Bay Area (where the writer, Riordan, a Texas native, lives). It's a nice mixture of cravings for Peet's coffee while drinking Big Red soda cut with tequila. Navarre is a pretty likeable guy - and is the first guy shamus with a cat that I can recall. The mystery is only worth three stars as it is a bit muddled and has a few too many players. Still, a fun read and I'm looking forward to the second book in the series, The Widower's Two Step. It should also be noted that the book won Anthony and Shamus awards as well as making the Washington Post year-end list.
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Summary: Trav McGee Reincarnated
Review: For those of you who love the John D. McDonald books starring Travis McGee, let me introduce you to Tres Navarre! The hero of Riordan's first book in the series, Tres reminds me of a young Trav McGee. He has a bit of dark edge to his character (he's lived a lot!), and his smart mouth gets him into trouble, but he's a decent, intelligent man who wants to find the truth and protect the innocent. In that way, he also reminds me of Dave Robichaux in the James Lee Burke Novels. Like McDonald and Burke, Riordan does a great job at presenting a particular culture and location, in this case San Antonio, Texas, and in developing very three-dimensional characters. I can highly recommend this book. In this debut novel, Tres returns to San Antonio after having fled ten years previously after the murder of his father. He returns to wrestle with his past and to find the truth behind his father's death. In the process, he uncovers a conspiracy that involves families he's known all his life, forcing him to weigh love, loyalty, and compassion against the truth.
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