Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Sheridan Public Library | Riordan Tres Navarre v.3 | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Silver Falls Library | FIC RIORDAN | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
"When a controversial English professor is found dead, shot twice in the chest with a .45, Tres Navarre - P.I. and erstwhile Berkeley Ph.D. - is the only local academic crazy enough to accept the emergency opening at the University of Texas at San Antonio." "Police assure Tres they already have a suspect, a stone cold killer who's just returned from a stint in a Mexican jail and is suspected of murdering a Texas amusement-park kingpin years before. While the police wrap up the open-and-shut case, all Tres has to do is teach three classes, grade on a curve ... and walk in a dead man's shoes. It should be an easy assignment." "But one thing Tres Navarre doesn't do is easy. When the evidence in the case starts looking a little too perfect, when the killing doesn't stop, Tres takes on some extracurricular research into the heart of an assassin. He quickly becomes embroiled in a nasty tangle of family secrets, backstabbing squabbles for control of a million-dollar amusement ride business, and a high-stakes game of gangster honor on the darkest streets of San Antonio's West Side. Behind it all - the specter of a murdered man who once proclaimed himself the King of the South Texas carnivals."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Author Notes
Rick Riordan was born on June 5, 1964, in San Antonio, Texas. After graduating from the University of Texas at Austin with a double major in English and history, he taught in public and private middle schools for many years.
He writes several children's series including Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Kane Chronicles, and The Heroes of Olympus, Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, and The Trials of Apollo. He also writes the Tres Navarre mystery series for adults. He has won Edgar, Anthony, and Shamus Awards for his mystery novels. .
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In a terrific sequel to The Widower's Two-Step, which won the 1999 Edgar for Best Original Paperback, the third Tres Navarre mystery finds the academic-turned-PI reluctant to accept a chair in medieval studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio, a chair whose last two tenants have met with violent deaths. But when a bomb goes off in the dean's office nearly killing him and two others, he instantly accepts the assignment. Tres quickly finds out that the second victim's father, Jeremiah Brandon, a ruthless amusement-park ride manufacturer known as the "King of the Carnivals," was also murdered years before. The prime suspect then was Jeremiah's former employee, gang member Zeta Sanchez, who believed that the predatory Jeremiah was sleeping with his wife, but Sanchez was never apprehended. Suddenly it is reported that, after years on the run (and in a Mexican jail), he has been spotted in the region. Tagging along with the San Antonio police, Tres finds himself in the middle of a violent shoot-out during which Sanchez is arrested; now he is also the number one suspect in the murder of Jeremiah's son. Not surprisingly, Sanchez vigorously protests his innocence. All this happens in just the first 40 pages of this fast-paced and highly entertaining novel, as Tres finds himself drawn into the complex vortex of the Brandon family's ugly past. With the help of beautiful yet tough homicide detective Ana DeLeon (a potential romantic interest) and other, less than savory, friends from the wrong side of the law, the wisecracking Tres untangles an intricate web of murderous family rivalries, missing persons and heroin traffic--all the while evoking with bright color the interplay of San Antonio's Latino and Anglo cultures and the joys of Tex-Mex cuisine. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
When Tres Navarre, a private eye with a Ph.D. in medieval literature from UC Berkeley, is invited to take over the late Prof. Aaron Brandon's classes halfway through the semester at the University of Texas in San Antonio, his mother is delighted that he'll be working in a nice safe job. But five minutes after Tres sits down in Brandon's chair, a pipe bomb blows the office apart. In investigating the attack, Tres and the detectives at his agency get drawn into an ugly mystery surrounding Aaron's father, Jeremiah Brandon, who made his fortune building and repairing carnival rides. The ``King of the South Texas Carnival Business,'' as Jeremiah called himself, also made a career of exploiting his Latino employees and their wives, and relentlessly bullying his two sons. Jeremiah was shot dead with bullets from a gold-plated revolver that makes a reappearance, along with its owner, in his son's murder. In his hardcover debut, Tres must sort out old family and gangland allegiances'including connections to his own deceased father, a county sheriff'in a plot in which blood ties strangle and friends are sold out for a kilo of heroin. A series of gunfights and brawls leave Tres's colleague comatose, his father's old friend shot, the professor's widow and young son in danger, and Tres himself kidnaped and drugged. As Tres battles drug dealers, gangs, and the police to rescue the weak, discover the truth, and give the innocent a second chance, Riordan's writing sparkles with evocative descriptions and enough tough talk to make a college dean back down.
Booklist Review
Readers who don't know Riordan's Tres Navarre novels are in for a wonderful surprise. This third entry in the series marks the hardcover debut for the author of The Widower's Two-Step, which won the 1999 Edgar for best original paperback. San Antonio PI Navarre is tough when he has to be but sensitive enough to take time after a hard night to fix his cat a Friskies burrito. (He's also an English prof on the side.) As if a first-rate protagonist weren't enough, Riordan surrounds him with one of the best batches of supporting characters in the genre: his Greek boss, Erainya, and her precocious (but never obnoxious) 5-year-old son, Jem, just to name two. When a pair of college professors are murdered, Navarre takes on their classes--and their enemies. Riordan mixes humor, pathos, violence, and love with great skill. Seamless plotting, a vivid setting, multidimensional characters--this series has it all. Texas is a hotbed of engaging mystery heroes, and Navarre can hold his own with any of them, from A. W. Gray's Bino Phillips to Joe R. Lansdale's Hap Collins and Leonard Pine. As satisfying as an icy cold margarita on a steamy Texas night. --Jenny McLarin
Library Journal Review
Jackson "Tres" Navarre, San Antonio P.I. and Berkeley Ph.D., returns in this third and, so far, best installment of a promising series (following Big Red Tequila and Widower's Two-Step). Here, Tres is allowed to indulge in both of his career interests. After a controversial professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio is murdered, Tres takes his place and investigates while attempting to prove himself as a teacher. Not surprisingly, the explanation behind the murder is not as simple as it first appears. Riordan weaves a tight tale, capturing the spirit of south Texas and imbuing Tres with his own peculiar flavor--evidence that his style is maturing. This is certain to please fans of the first two Navarre novels and win new ones as well. Recommended for popular fiction collections.--Craig L. Shufelt, Lane P.L., Hamilton, OH (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.