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.
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
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
