Anonymous Rex: A Detective Story - Softcover

Garcia, Eric

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0425178218 ISBN 13: 9780425178218

Publisher: Berkley Books, 2001

Synopsis

A People Beach Book of the Week

"Very funny." -Dave Barry

"Startling and clever...hilarious and chilling." -T.C. Boyle

"All the elements of a cult classic." -Entertainment Weekly

"Great." -Orlando Sentinel

"Fast, funny, and smoothly written." -Seattle Times

"A detective thriller featuring a velociraptor PI and a secret society of dinosaurs disguised as humans?...Awesomely funny....Vincent Rubio has a washed-up Los Angeles detective agency, lousy credit, and a dead partner--on top of an addiction to basil and a hard time keeping his tail tucked away in his latex human suit. A routine arson investigation promises to get him back on his (clawed) feet, until the case sends him to New York, the scene of his partner's suspicious death by runaway taxi. Witty, fast-paced detective work makes for a good mystery, but the story's sly, seamlessly conceived dinosaur underworld contains all the elements of a cult classic. Grade: A." -Entertainment Weekly

"Debut novelist Eric Garcia pulls off this parallel dino world to a T (rex). [His] descriptions are delicious...inventive and imaginative. He cleverly avoids what could have been a one-joke book with charm, sly humor and a terrific narrative pace." -USA Today

"What would the world be like if the dinosaurs hadn't gone extinct? As this very funny book shows, for one thing, L.A. would be even weirder than it is now." -Dave Barry

"First-time novelist Eric Garcia pulls it off, keeping the laughs frequent and the plot intriguing. After a few chapters, it seems downright logical to believe we're surrounded by a cast out of Jurassic Park. Apart from showing off a splendidly warped imagination, Garcia provides a solid mystery." -People

"Garcia has come up with an imaginative twist to the detective fiction genre." -Daily Variety

"Audacious and imaginative. You might not believe any of this 30 seconds after you close the covers, but while it's going on you're going to be dazzled by Garcia's energy and chutzpah." -Publishers Weekly

"Garcia plays it almost completely straight, respecting all noir traditions, and comes up with lovely touches." -Chicago Tribune

"A 'noir-asaurus' of a novel, bellowing for attention, the first and only of its breed in the dinosaur detective genre. Garcia has written something so strange, so bizarre, that he's to be admired just for the attempt. And he not only pulls it off, he also actually makes you wonder why someone hasn't thought of it before. Garcia's tough guy deadpan is perfect for navigating his outrageous lost world, and the easy, familiar tone is probably what makes the premise so simple to swallow. Garcia talks the talk, and more importantly, he smirks in all the right places." -The Miami Herald

"Vincent Rubio, the protagonist of this first-person--er, first-dino narrative is so likeable, the story handled with such deftness, that it actually, incredibly works. Spider Robinson meets Sam Spade. The writing is sardonic and strong in the hard-boiled tradition, and laced with jokes about the history humans think they know: Oliver Cromwell was a Brontosaur, and 'Capone and Eliot Ness were just two Diplodoci with a grudge to settle.'" -The Richmond Times Dispatch

"Anonymous Rex leaps out of its gumshoe formula fast enough to break the genre barrier. Imagine a hard-boiled detective novel crossed with magical realism. Think film noir with great special effects. Think fabulous read. Well p...

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 five 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:

"If a novel, by definition, is new, rare, and strange, then Eric Garcia's Anonymous Rex is the most novel novel I've ever read. The central conceit is so startling and clever and the prose so fluid and assured, the reader doesn't even have time to blink. By turns hilarious and chilling, this is a terrific, joyful read." --T. C. Boyle

"Think you've seen it all? You're wrong. You've never read anything like Anonymous Rex. An incredible idea--brilliantly executed. Anonymous Rex is a true original, crackling with imagination, and more fun than growing your own goatee. And did I mention the interspecies sex?" --Brad Meltzer

About this edition

• Publisher: Berkley Books
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0425178218
• ISBN 13: 9780425178218
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336