By: Rick Riordan Publisher: Bantam Average Rating: Binding: Mass Market Paperback Label: Bantam Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 352 Publication Date: February 28, 2006 Release Date: February 28, 2006
Product Description: The triple-crown winner of mystery’s most prestigious awards–the Edgar, the Anthony, and the Shamus–Rick Riordan blasted onto the crime scene with one of its freshest and most intriguing protagonists, Tres Navarre. In Mission Road, Navarre returns in a wrenching crime drama in which he must revisit the sins of the past to catch a killer about to get away with murder…again.
San Antonio private investigator Tres Navarre is used to working on the edge–that razor-sharp line between legal and life sentence. But this time he’s stepped straight into a no-man’s-land. When an old friend appears at his door spattered with blood and wanted for attempted homicide, Tres doesn’t have to think twice about where his loyalty lies–or the consequences.
Ralph Arguello is a criminal who put the street life behind him when he married SAPD detective Ana DeLeon. Now Ana’s been gunned down and her fellow cops don’t need to look far to find a prime suspect. For Ana recently reopened the most infamous cold case in SAPD history–the unsolved murder on notorious Mission Road eighteen years before that threw the San Antonio underworld into bloody chaos. Ana was about to bring charges against the suspected killer: her husband, Ralph Arguello.Tres is sure that Ralph didn’t do it–and that he didn’t shoot his wife. But with the police and the Mafia both out for revenge, there’s no one to turn to for help.
Now, armed and dangerous, the targets of a citywide manhunt, Tres and Ralph have just hours to discover what really happened on Mission Road almost two decades ago. To find the truth, they must set a collision course with the past–and with a secret that will tear their lives apart.
Spenser is 1 in 10,000. Make up your mind This is my first Rick Riordan novel and it is my intention to read them all. It reminds me of Robert Ferrigno's brilliant "Heartbreaker," dark, edgy.
Mr. Riordan is very successful in jumping tenses, and you get a good feel for the other characters. I am unfamiliar with San Antonio so I felt, like GM Ford in Seattle, he was able to use the city like a character as well.
You know the plot. Beautiful but extremely credible cop falls in love and marries criminal. She rotates her shift to the (now) ever popular 'cold case' section and investigates a murder that has earmarks of her husband's tawdry past. And she's about to finger . . ., when she's shot and in a coma.
What I didn't care for is the wisecracking. It seemed to me, again like Ferrigno and Kyle Mills' alter ego, Michael Crow, that Riordan set out to write a dark novel. These are good. There's a huge place for them. Read James Lee Burke.
Dark novels don't do comedy well. You don't wear a baseball hat to a funeral. Crais and Parker and DeMille do smart aleck retorts well. That's their intention. I think Mr. Riordan should stick with the noir. 4 stars. Larry Scantlebury
Continuing a superb series Although his peers, such as Lehane, McGarrity, and Connelly certainly deserve their acclaim, I don't understand why Riordan hasn't appeared to receive the same acknowledgement as an accomplished mystery writer. This guy is good! I agree with a previous reviewer that Riordan stumbled a bit with SOUTHTOWN, but he's recovered very nicely with MISSION ROAD. I sometimes wish Riordan would turn books out at a faster clip---I"m always anxious for his next novel---but I suppose the time he takes in crafting his stories is worth the wait
Excellent Rick Riordan can flat out write. I was hooked after reading his first book, "Big Red Tequila." This may be the most "mature" Navarre book to date and will leave you wanting more. I couldn't put this book down and literally flew through it. Now I am left anxiously awaiting his next book. I highly recommend any book by Riordan; keep 'em coming Rick.
Another Winner from Rick Riordan I discovered this author about 6 months ago, have read all of the Tres Navarre series and loved every one. Mission Road is just the latest of winners. I won't rehash the plot nor reveal the ending, but it's one of the reasons I love Riordan's writing -- just when you think you're winding down to the ending of the story . . . BAM!, you're in for a surprise.
Exciting Page Turner! The newest installment in the Tres Nevarre series is an exciting page turning experience. The action in the novel takes place in less than two days - the result is that reading the novel is alot like watching 24 episodes of the Fox show "24". The plot is summarized above - so I will not go into any details on that. The writing in the book is electric, and maintains the wry sense of humor that Riordan has developed throughout the series. The characters, all the way down to Tres' cat, are all well developed. The book is hard to put down: I read the final 200 pages in one sitting. Growing up in San Antonio, I am drawn to the book because it is like a slice of home as well. However, that should not discourage those who are not familiar with south Texas to experience this series.
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