Mission Road (Tres Navarre) [Kindle Edition]

Rick Riordan (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The past collides explosively with the present in Edgar-winner Riordan's relatively weak sixth Tres Navarre novel (after 2004's Southtown) when Navarre's boyhood friend, reformed criminal Ralph Arguello, appears on his doorstep wearing a blood-soaked guayabera barely one step ahead of the San Antonio police. The cops believe Arguello's wife, cold case detective Ana DeLeon, is about to name her husband as the prime suspect in the 18-year-old unsolved murder of Franklin White, son of a local organized crime boss—and, more incredibly, that Arguello shot her to slow down the investigation. Arguello convinces Navarre he's being set up, and the two of them struggle to evade a citywide manhunt and discover the real killer's identity. Riordan jump-cuts between the present and the mid-1980s to tell the story of White's murder and to provide background for the main characters, including Ana's mother Lucia, one of the city's first female cops. While the parallel narrative adds much needed depth, it dampens the pace and momentum. But the book's biggest flaw is the sitcom-like familiarity of the characters, including Navarre himself—the self-deprecating, wise-cracking PI who could only exist as a fictional trope.
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From Booklist

Tres Navarre might get top billing, but Riordan's latest San Antonio crime story really stars Maia Lee, the PI's cool, compassionate girlfriend. When the wisecracking Navarre's best friend is wrongly accused of shooting his cop wife, Tres goes on the lam with him to track down the real killer. But because Maia's not a police target, she has a much freer hand to crack the case. So she employs her own considerable investigative skills to work through a cold-case murder file involving the shot officer's mother, who happened to be the SAPD's first decorated woman officer. Between brief calls to Maia, Tres and his pal flee from one dangerous situation to another as the dragnet tightens. A satisfying exploration of passion's dark powers, the story moves along at a cracking pace. And although Riordan seems to telegraph the plot payoff almost from the outset, he ends up delivering several nifty twists. What had seemed to be merely an entertaining crime novel reveals itself as a clever mystery, too. Frank Sennett
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 293 KB
• Print Length: 352 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0553583263
• Publisher: Bantam (June 28, 2005)
• Sold by: Random House Digital, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B000FCK78S
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #109,158 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

More About the Author

Rick Riordan is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, the Kane Chronicles, and the Heroes of Olympus. He is also the author of the multi-award-winning Tres Navarre mystery series for adults.

For fifteen years, Rick taught English and history at public and private middle schools in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Texas. In 2002, Saint Mary's Hall honored him with the school's first Master Teacher Award.

While teaching full time, Riordan began writing mystery novels for grownups. His Tres Navarre series went on to win the top three national awards in the mystery genre - the Edgar, the Anthony and the Shamus. Riordan turned to children's fiction when he started The Lightning Thief as a bedtime story for his oldest son.

Today over 30 million copies of his Percy Jackson, Kane Chronicles, and Heroes of Olympus books are in print in the United States, and rights have been sold into more than 35 countries. Rick is also the author of The 39 Clues: The Maze of Bones, another #1 New York Times bestseller. In 2011, Rick received the Children's Choice Book Award for Author of the Year.

Rick Riordan now writes full-time. He lives in San Antonio with his wife and two sons.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A complex, well-told drama, July 15, 2005

By 

Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mission Road (Hardcover)

One of my personal benchmarks for good writing has to do with the backlot of the story, if you will. If I find, while reading a tale, that the narrative makes me want to jump into the car and drive to the city where the novel is set --- book in hand, of course --- then the author has pushed my buttons.

Accordingly, Rick Riordan is on my list of must-read authors. His novels, featuring San Antonio-based private investigator Tex Navarre, make me yearn for the city of St. Anthony, a place to which I have never been. Riordan sets up a deceptively simple plot and makes the most of every single element, resulting in a riveting, attention-grabbing narrative that once begun is impossible to put down. Most significantly, however, Riordan has created a body of work that subtly paints a mural of words and images, combining the best and worst elements of both cultures. His latest book is no exception.

MISSION ROAD finds Navarre, the ultimate stand-up guy, involved with a childhood friend who is on the run, wanted for a crime he did not commit. Ralph Arguello has a shady past that has cast a long shadow into his present. The owner of a chain of legitimate pawnshops, his underworld connections don't seem to have affected his marriage to a respected San Antonio policewoman. Newly evaluated DNA evidence, however, appears to tie Arguello to a murder committed two decades previously. The victim, Frankie White, an old acquaintance of Navarre's and Arguello's, was rumored to be connected to a series of rapes and murders that terrorized the San Antonio community in the late 1980s. But Arguello is on the run not because of his possible involvement in White's long-unsolved murder, but because of a more immediate problem: Ana, Arguello's wife, has been found shot, perhaps mortally wounded, in their kitchen, and all signs point to Arguello as the murderer.

Navarre literally is the only person who Arguello can trust. Thus, Navarre is drawn into a deadly crossfire between the police and San Antonio's criminal element, which wants Arguello gone for its own reasons. Attorney Maia Lee, Navarre's love interest, also is put into the mix when she reluctantly begins investigating the charges, new and old, against Arguello, if only to keep Navarre safe. Her investigation not only uncovers a web of deception that stretches two decades into the past but also puts her in danger at a time when she and Navarre are approaching a potential crossroads in their relationship.

Riordan's critical acclaim has grown at a pace a bit faster than that of his commercial status, a state of affairs that hopefully will change with MISSION ROAD. Riordan does a masterful job of capturing the flavor and exotica of San Antonio while presenting what at first blush appears to be a simple A-B-C whodunit and transforming it into a complex, well-told drama that does not finish giving up all of its secrets until the very last page. MISSION ROAD demonstrates why Riordan and Navarre are deserving of the marquee status that they undoubtedly will attain one day.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A return to form, and more, July 14, 2005

By 

Andrew S. Rogers (Stamford, Connecticut) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mission Road (Hardcover)

The first time I opened this book, I was fifty pages in before I looked up again. Around page 75, I decided maybe I should get back to work. It was a little past page 100 before I finally did.

The next day -- today -- I finished the book. And what a ride it was.

I haven't decided quite yet whether this is the best Tres Navarre book. But what I'm sure of is that it's much better than "Southtown," which I found unsatisfying. Part of it may be that now I'm more used to Rick Riordan's shift to third-person narration, with only the chapters focusing on Tres' himself told in first person. As a result of this change, this story, like "Southtown," has a lot less Tres in it than the earlier volumes did. And because Tres is such a well-drawn character, I missed that focus on him here like I did in "Southtown."

The difference is that "Mission Road" is a much stronger story than "Southtown," and one that hits even closer to home for our hero. Whereas "Southtown" felt rushed and even a little superficial, "Mission Road" reminded me of "Cold Springs," Riordan's non-Tres novel, in its intensity and (as the professional reviewers would say) blistering pace. Not having to frame everything from Tres' point of view has allowed Riordan to create an especially powerful story -- one that gets right down to business and moves very quickly. No wonder I was so drawn in.

There's one other thing I really like about the Tres Navarre stories. Whereas some mystery series are like episodic TV shows, where once the problem-of-the-day is resolved, everything goes back to the *status quo ante*, these books aren't like that. Each novel has led to changes in Tres' life -- some relatively small, but others (as in "Southtown") quite significant. Without giving anything away, I think I can say the changes that happen in "Mission Road" are some of the biggest yet. While this book would be a good introduction to someone who's never read Rick Riordan before, I think people who have read all the previous books in the series will get a lot more emotional impact out of what happens here.

"Southtown" left me unsatisfied and wanting more. "Mission Road" left me drained -- an unusual response for me -- but satisfied. And, of course, wanting more.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Winner from Rick Riordan, September 6, 2005

By 

Lisa B. (Sewickley, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mission Road (Hardcover)

I discovered this author about 6 months ago, have read all of the Tres Navarre series and loved every one. Mission Road is just the latest of winners. I won't rehash the plot nor reveal the ending, but it's one of the reasons I love Riordan's writing -- just when you think you're winding down to the ending of the story . . . BAM!, you're in for a surprise.