The Widower's Two-Step [Mass Market Paperback]

Rick Riordan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 4, 1998

Tres Navarre has just hours of apprenticeship time to serve before he can go for his P.I. license. Staking out a musician suspected of stealing a demo tape should be a piece of pan dulce. But his attention wanders just long enough for fiddle player Julie Kearnes to be gunned down before his eyes. He should just back away and let the cops investigate, but backing away has never been Tres's strong point.

The missing demo and Julie's murder are just two of the problems besetting Miranda Daniels, a pint-sized singer with Texas-sized talent. She's the prize in a tug-of-war between two music hotshots who want to manage her career. One has a habit of making bad things happen to people he doesn't like. The other has just vanished without a trace. As Tres looks into the dirty dealings surrounding Miranda, it becomes clear he's stepped into a rattlesnakes' nest of greed, double cross, and murder—and he may be the next to be snakebit.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"Riordan writes so well about the people and topography of his Texas hometown that he quickly marks the territory as his own."
--Chicago Tribune

*"The characters are well-defined and original, the dialogue is tough and sharp, and narrator Tres's wry observations make him even more simpatico than the first time around. Riordan showed real talent in Big Red Tequila, but here, he's relaxed enough to make it look easy."
--Publishers Weekly, *starred review

From the Inside Flap

Tres Navarre has just hours of apprenticeship time to serve before he can go for his P.I. license. Staking out a musician suspected of stealing a demo tape should be a piece of pan dulce. But his attention wanders just long enough for fiddle player Julie Kearnes to be gunned down before his eyes. He should just back away and let the cops investigate, but backing away has never been Tres's strong point.

The missing demo and Julie's murder are just two of the problems besetting Miranda Daniels, a pint-sized singer with Texas-sized talent. She's the prize in a tug-of-war between two music hotshots who want to manage her career. One has a habit of making bad things happen to people he doesn't like. The other has just vanished without a trace. As Tres looks into the dirty dealings surrounding Miranda, it becomes clear he's stepped into a rattlesnakes' nest of greed, double cross, and murder--and he may be the next to be snakebit.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (May 4, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553576453
• ISBN-13: 978-0553576450
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 1.1 x 6.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #146,029 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Tres Navarre and his friends still have me hooked!, March 17, 2000

By 

K. Barrett "katibar" (Valley Mills, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Widower's Two-Step (Mass Market Paperback)

Immediately after finishing Big Red Tequila which I loved, I dived right into this continuing saga of Tres Navarre, his cat, his mom, his friends and his adversaries! Too much fun...I don't know much about the music business, but I do know about being an English major and teaching. Rick Riordan understands it, too. As he writes more and more about Tres Navarre, the reader gains even more understanding of this very self-sufficient but vulnerable character. Tres is all bound up in his past, but unafraid to face the present. He didn't have as much opportunity to use his tai che skills in this book...maybe the bad guys have heard about his prowess in the martial arts and just give him more space. It's fun to experience Tres as he interacts with friends from high school who have chosen questionable career paths--but they all seem to have particular talents that Tres can take advantage of as he works to solve whatever mystery has captured his attention. Everyone in this book has vulnerabilities so they are very believable characters. The plots twists and turns and keeps the reader wondering just how much more can happen. I loved this book. I can hardly wait for the Last King of Texas...it will be fun to see what happens to Tres and Robert Johnson, the cat. I know one thing--it will be thrilling and it will be fun!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Starts slow, speeds up, but can't quite equal the first book, October 19, 2001

By 

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

This review is from: The Widower's Two-Step (Mass Market Paperback)

In this second book in Rick Riordan's Tres Navarre series, PI-in-training Tres gets off to a bad start when the person he is tailing dies before his eyes (murder? suicide?). From there, our hero finds himself pulled into the worlds of drug dealing, family politics, and -- most deadly of all -- country music.

This title, like 'The Last King of Texas' (the third book in the series) starts off with a literal bang. But I found both 'Big Red Tequila' and 'Last King' easier stories to get into than this one was. Once the story starts moving, 'Widower's Two-Step' bears all the hallmarks of the Tres Navarre series: a plot that twists and turns, lots of characters (most with complex and hidden motivations), dramatic fights and confrontations, and truckloads of South Texas character. This book also introduces the Manos Detective Agency -- the employees of which have become regular characters in the Navarre series.

Devotees of the series will definitely want to read this title. I would recommend newcomers start with the first book ('Big Red Tequila') instead of dropping into the middle of the series, like I did. But even on its own merits, this interesting and atmospheric mystery is definitely worth a read or two.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Texas Two Step, July 1, 2000

By 

John J. Raspanti (Manteca, Ca USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Widower's Two-Step (Mass Market Paperback)

The Widowers Two Step is everything you could want in a mystery. The hero, practicing P.I. ' Tres Navarre' is one funny guy, some of his encounters with various 'Texans' are laugh out funny. Using Texas as a backdrop, each page comes alive as Tres moves about the state investigating and getting into peoples hair.

The story Tres finds himself involved in concerns a missing demo, a demo so important that people are prepared to kill for it. The paces quickens as the missing demo leads to some more and more dire situations.

Author Rick Riordan's dialogue crackles, Tres's 'friends' are truely memorable, and his enemies uniquely sinister.

Tres is cut from the same cloth as Robert Crias 'Elvis Cole' and a long lost relative of Chandler's 'Phillip Marlow'. He's a hero with a heart of gold, a loner looking for something more.

Believe the hype this guy can write!

Highly Recommended