Hot and Sweaty Rex: A Dinosaur Mafia Mystery (Dinosaur Mafia Mysteries) [Hardcover]

Eric Garcia (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2, 2004 | Series: Dinosaur Mafia Mysteries

Vincent Rubio, the most hard-boiled reptile detective ever, is back on the case in the third installment of Eric Garcia’s cult mystery series about dinosaurs who are still alive and committing crimes in L.A. Rubio’s latest assignment: the dinosaur mafia.

As fans of Anonymous Rex and Casual Rex already know, the dinosaurs faked their extinction and live among us, disguising themselves as humans in elaborately designed latex costumes. Anyone could be a dinosaur. Your podiatrist. The crotchety old man who lives next door. Julia Roberts, it is well known, is actually a Stegosaur. When the head of the Raptor mafia asks Vincent Rubio to perform a service, he has no choice but to head for Miami to investigate a team of Hadrosaurs who are muscling in on Raptor territory. It’s dangerous business. Make the wrong move and your tail gets chopped off.

Eric Garcia’s third Rex novel is a wildly entertaining mystery and an instant classic of dinosaur mafia fiction—further proof that this gifted author really knows where the bones are buried.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In Garcia's third irresistible Rex novel (after 2001's Casual Rex), dinosaur PI Vincent Rubio is manipulated into working for one of the main families of dinosaur organized crime. The assignment takes him to Miami, where he collides with another dino mafia family, this one headed by a childhood friend. The story line is familiarâ€"an uneasy working agreement is broken, with much bloodshed, when one family plants an informer inside the other organizationâ€"but strongly told. Two aspects distinguish this series. One is the outrageous premise that dinosaurs aren't really extinct, but instead move freely about our world, wearing intricate disguises that make them indistinguishable from humans. You can't stop smiling, even through scenes of murder and torture. The other is the brilliant dinosaur allegories that skewer modern society, from Tupperware parties, rules for recycling and wrinkle cream to gun violence, alcoholism, drug addiction and unrelenting racial antagonism. Funny, poignant, dramatic, satiric, brutal and tender, the dinosaur world is a marvelous place to visit. This is sure to appeal to anyone with a fine sense of the absurd who appreciates good writing.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

PI Vincent Rubio may sound like a Sam Spade clone, but he's really a dinosaur, a Raptor, part of a large (pun intended) reptilian community, which, thanks to modern technology and a good deal of latex, coexists with humanity. Unless there's a slip-up, humans remain none the wiser. So closely aligned to human society has this community become that it even has its own warring Mafia factions, two of which think Vincent is part of their confederation. Complicating things further is the fact that an old childhood Hadrosaur buddy appears to be a Florida Mafia don. Garcia has enormous fun spoofing both classic detective novels and the Sopranos, entertainingly replicating the TV "family's" oddball concept of loyalty as well as their appetite for violence. Readers unfamiliar with the "herbaholic" investigator--now in his third adventure--may be a little confused at the outset, but it won't take them long to fall into Garcia's marvelously detailed, kooky world. Stephanie Zvirin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Villard (March 2, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375505237
• ISBN-13: 978-0375505232
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,941,763 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mammals, Beware!, April 8, 2004

By 

Louis N. Gruber "Author of Jay" (Lexington, SC United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hot and Sweaty Rex: A Dinosaur Mafia Mystery (Dinosaur Mafia Mysteries) (Hardcover)

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

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vincent's back!, March 8, 2004

By 

Jason Friedling (Palmdale, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hot and Sweaty Rex: A Dinosaur Mafia Mystery (Dinosaur Mafia Mysteries) (Hardcover)

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!!!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars fab new find, June 14, 2004

By 

Esther Rabinowitz (Boston, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hot and Sweaty Rex: A Dinosaur Mafia Mystery (Dinosaur Mafia Mysteries) (Hardcover)

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.