Anonymous Rex - Softcover

Garcia, Eric

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0006513808 ISBN 13: 9780006513803

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2001

Synopsis

A private-eye murder mystery with a difference set in Los Angeles and New York.

Eric Garcia’s hilarious and brilliant debut novel is as noir and hard-boiled as they come, a private-eye murder mystery set in Los Angeles and New York. It’s tough, wisecracking, fast-paced, violent and, occasionally, tender.

So what’s new? Only that the private-eye in question is a dinosaur, prone to overindulging his taste for basil rather than whisky! Like 5% of the world’s population, he has evolved over the ages to be as small as a human, and a master of disguise so that he can survive without the other 95% knowing about him. With his make-up and costume on, he looks like everyone else.

But this case could stretch the human/dino relationship to the limits!

About this title

Review:

For Los Angeles private eye Vincent Rubio, the idea of having a tail means a lot more than being followed. Vincent is a Velociraptor, one of those little dinosaurs who caused so much panic in Jurassic Park. He keeps his tail tightly strapped up in the special latex costume that he wears to make himself look human.

In Eric Garcia's wild but winning first mystery, dinosaurs never did get wiped out--they evolved secretly and now make up about 5 percent of the world's population. There are dinosaur doctors, lawyers, even detectives like Rubio--although he's hit a low point in his own career because of the suspicious death of his beloved partner. Now the distraught Vincent sucks up so much basil that he can't do his job. But when a human who knows the dinosaur's secret is killed during an arson fire at a popular dino disco called the Evolution Club, Rubio's luck begins to change. He starts to snoop, following the trail of a lovely human female to the office of Dr Emil Vallardo, where bizarre experiments are being done on inter-species breeding between humans and dinosaurs. It's all great comic-book fun, full of nice little inside jokes, served up deadpan and with full respect for the private-eye genre which it enlivens. --Dick Adler

Review:

‘You’re mostly going to be dazzled by Garcia’s energy and chutzpah’
Publishers Weekly

‘A whimsical surprisingly logical farce’
Kirkus Reviews

‘The story’s sly, seamlessly conceived dinosaur underworld contains all the elements of a cult classic’
Entertainment Weekly

‘A weird and wonderful cross between a Mickey Spillane crime novel and a dodgy late-night sci-fi series.’
The Big Issue

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0006513808
• ISBN 13: 9780006513803
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288