Customer Reviews

Anonymous Rex : A Detective Story

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is the first book in the Dinosaur Mafia series, in terms of publication date, but the 2nd one if you take the events of the books chronologically. The truly amazing thing about these books - in which the dinosaurs have NOT gone extinct, at least not all of them, but have evolved to a smaller size and live side-by-side with humans - with the help of a lot of latex, glue and straps to disguise them - is that while you are reading them you just go with it, because it is written so convincingly. This story is mostly about Vincent Rubio, a detective and the main character of all the Dinosaur Mafia books. Rubio's partner and mentor Watson has been killed - supposedly in a hit-and-run by a taxi in New York while taking part in a mysterious investigation. Rubio has gone on a serious bender with the basil (dinosaurs can't get drunk by drinking alcohol - their recreation of choice is with herbs, which get them "high") and is refusing to buy the story about what happened with Watson and as a result has just about burned all his bridges and lost most of his business. Things are looking really bleak when he gets thrown a bone by one of the big companies in town - which seems to lead right back to the case that Watson was investigating when he was killed. Although this story is a bit dark, it provides quite a number of laugh-out-loud moments as well. At its base, this story is a well crafted detective yarn. See Anonymous Rex/Casual Rex omnibus for my review of both books.

The premise is simple. Dinosaurs did not die out 65-million years ago. They continued to evolve and become more intelligent (as well as smaller). About 1 in 20 people is actually a dinosaur in disguise. Vincent Rubio, a private investigator almost at the end of his rope is a velociraptor.

Just as everything is at its worst for Vincent, a large PI firm offers him a simple insurance case; check if a nightclub fire was natural or planned. But Vincent doesn't like taking the easy way out. So when some clues point towards similar ground to the case that caused him all of his trouble, Vincent has to plunge forward.

The case is an interesting one involving the death of a very rich dinosaur, the death of Vincent's partner, and more infidelities than you can wag a tale at. This is all told in a classic hard-boiled detective tale. Fans of Marlowe or Spillane will love the mystery.

Garcia does a very good job of creating a plausible world but does not hit the reader over the head with the details. The details leak out in small amounts as they are necessary. But these details are not held as a sudden revelation to solve the mystery.

I really enjoyed this one and look forward to the further, and previous, adventures of velociraptor PI Vincent Rubio.

I read this book some time ago, but I am backfilling some of my reviews.

Some books I buy based on the dust cover notes. This was one of those books. I am normally not much of a reader of detective novels unless they are very good. But the idea of a detective who was actually a dinosaur living disguised as a human was too intriguing to put down.

I ended up loving it. Garcia gets it just right. He captures the tone of classic detective novels perfectly, but with tongue-in-cheek. Very few books make me laugh out loud, but this one did. He creates an intricate backstory of the secret world of dinosaurs that you really want to believe in. But it is more than just a gimmick. Garcia also has a suspenseful detective story woven in. I highly recommend this book to anyone whether they like the detective genre or not. I believe Eric Garcia will go on to great things beyond the dinosaurs.

I wanted to like this book more because it has a lot going for it. It's a nice concept (completely ridiculous, but so what?), and the writing is good. Unfortunately, it just didn't keep me hooked all the way through.

I think my problem was the dinos are so thoroughly integrated into human society that there's very little conflict. That's not a big deal, but the story itself just didn't catch me either. There were definitely some cool parts, and the end of it is pretty solid. But the fantasy elements don't seem as essential as they should be. This could almost be a conventional mystery, which isn't bad, but I caught myself wondering why we were even bothering with dinos, except near the very end of the story.

I also think Garcia's writing is a little too "Jokey". He is funny, but it often seems forced. As if the writer is directing the plot toward a funny "bit" rather than a satisfying scene. Often the jokes, cute at first, go on way too long.

I can't really fault this book much. I liked it more than I hated it. But, overall, didn't do much for me.

I picked this book up because I thought that NOTHING could be as strange as this cover description sounded. Apparently, I was wrong. As an English teacher, I thought I'd read it all, but this is about a 9.5 on the odd-o-meter. A fun pastiche, guilty pleasure, and social commentary all in one!Take it to the pool and enjoy, enjoy.

Vincent Rubio is a down on his luck Los Angeles detetctive. Creditors are knocking on his door, he's mourning the death of his beloved partner and fighting an addiction to basil...Vincent Rubio is a velociraptor disguised as a human. I have to admit when I saw this book in my local bookstore I was both intrigued and skeptical. A secret society of dinosaurs living among humans?!? C'mon. But Eric Garcia pulls this unique concept off convincingly with wit, charm and sly humor, at the same time giving us a highly original, geniune detective story that you won't be able to put down!!

Forget everything you know about dinosaurs. Not only did they not become extinct 65 million years ago, they currently make up about 5% of the "human" population. Rather than stomp all of us humans out of existence eons ago, they decided just to live in our world secretly, donning complex human guises and protecting their continued existence exceedingly carefully. You'd be amazed at just how many celebrities and power brokers are actually dinosaurs in disguise. All they want is to keep their secret, find the time and opportunity to really be themselves every now and again, and maybe get a good buzz on with basil or certain other herbs if and when the urge strikes. They live by two golden rules: never let a human learn their secret (and kill any who do) and never, ever, ever engage in interspecies relations with a human.

With Anonymous Rex, author Eric Garcia first brought this strange new world to life, garnering critical acclaim and a cult following for his efforts. He is a brilliantly wicked author, packing loads of comedy into noir-ish tales of dinosaur private investigator Vincent Rubio. Poor Vince has had a rough nine months. It all started when his partner Ernie was run over by a taxi in New York; Vince went a little nuts after that, broke a lot of rules and at least one nose during his investigation of the accident, and got himself declared dinosaur non grata in both New York and back home in Los Angeles. He is in an emotional and financial tailspin now, nursing a major basil addiction and basically trying to find a reason to keep on keeping on. With little left to his name, he finally gets a case thrown his way, an insurance job investigating a fire at a local dino club. As luck would have it, the club owner had important contacts in New York, and before you can say Velociraptor, Vince is back in the Big Apple conducting interviews for a case that may well have some relation to his old partner's death.

This thing gets pretty involved, as a simple case of possible arson soon leads Vince into a conspiracy of dinosaur-sized proportions involving human-dinosaur genetic experimentation (not to mention human-dinosaur relations of a much more personal nature). That is a serious no-no in the Dinosaur Council's notebooks. Slowly but surely, Vince starts assembling the pieces of the puzzle, but progress doesn't come without setbacks - a couple of attempts on his life, some inconvenient deaths of informants and friends, a serious lack of funds, and even a dangerous relationship with a singularly appealing human female. Danger is Vince's middle name, however, and in time he breaks out of his emotional funk, manages to stay away from basil long enough to clear his head, and relentlessly pursues a solution to a surprisingly complex mystery.

The book is written in first person, in the classic style of ye olde detective mysteries from the golden age of Dashiell Hammett and Sam Spade. And make no mistake - aside from the unique dinosaur angle and the constant showcase of sarcastic wit and genuinely funny writing, Garcia knows how to construct and tell a good mystery. Anonymous Rex is a thoroughly engaging read from start to finish. There's an edge to this story, a fair share of surprises along the way, and all sorts of social commentary you can read into things or simply ignore. If you've been yearning for something different, Vincent Rubio, P.I., is on the case, and the game's afoot.

Other reviewers have summarized the plot. The book is intelligently ROTFL. You can't sustain that level of fantasy if you're not very, very good, and the social satire is deliciously subtle. I plan to devour the rest of Garcia's ouevre' as soon as possible.

Saw this book at the bookstore, and once I read the inside of the jacket, I knew I had to buy it!! Here I am, a mere 5 hours after starting the book, completely finished. I had to know how it ended. At times, you almost forgot that it was anything other than an engaging murder mystery. The twists and turns of the plot are wonderful to behold, and the character development was phenomenal. If I have any complaints, it's that the concept of famous humans actually being something other than human is so, well, Men in Black. However, Garcia does not dwell on these revelations, so they are no more than a distraction. I am buying the follow up novel ASAP! If you are in the market for a fun read, and just happen to love the Discovery Channels build a dinosaur section, then this is the book for you!!

At one level, classic hard-boiled detective novel: Vincent Rubio is a down-on-his luck private eye in LA, his partner was killed nine months ago (traffic accident *they say*), his car's been repossessed, he's into substance abuse, the whole drill. He's given one last chance assignment, to look into a suspicious nightclub fire. The investigation takes him to New York, into a mess involving jet-set financiers, forbidden medical experiments, and the death of Vincent's partner. There's even a sexy torch singer in a nightclub. Classic stuff, well written, true to genre. But there's another level.

Vincent is a velociraptor. See, the dinosaurs faked their extinction, and live and walk among us wearing latex masks and complex body-harness disguises. Not a plausible conceit at all, of course, but certainly original! And it makes for a wonderful metaphor for racism, or homophobia, or other themes of The Masks We Wear and who should/shouldn't have sex with whom.

It does bug me that Garcia misspells "Coelophysis" throughout, but I was a serious dinosaur geek as a kid and now a copyeditor in adult life, so it's just me.