The Last King of Texas Book + PRICE WATCH * Amazon pricing is not included in price watch

The Last King of Texas Book

For his first two novels featuring PI Tres Navarre, Rick Riordan garnered the Anthony, Shamus, and Edgar Awards--a trio that few seasoned Mystery careerists can claim. In this third, equally entertaining installment, Riordan casts Navarre according to the other piece of his quirky skill set: his Ph.D. in English literature from UC Berkeley. While the worst-case scenario envisioned by most professors at the University of Texas at San Antonio probably involves lost essays or a failed tenure bid, recently the medievalists at UTSA have wound up deader than their favorite language. At first, the deaths seemed like accidents. Dr. Theodore Haimer was forced to take an early retirement when his remarks about "the damn coddled Mexicans at UTSA" found their way into the Express-News. Shortly thereafter, the old man was discovered deceased, his head in a bowl of Apple Jacks, the result of an apparent heart attack. His successor, the young Dr. Aaron Brandon, continued to receive the vituperation and death threats that had followed his predecessor to the grave. Then, halfway into the semester, Brandon was also found dead--murdered. Now, Tres Nevarre is the only man crazy enough to fill the vacant chair of Chaucer studies and murder avoidance at the amiable institution. His first day on the job is the clincher: an exploding package leaves him both scarred and excited for the only academic job he's ever found that rivals Indiana Jones's. Riordan's style blends the hipness of Elmore Leonard with the sardonic humor of Janet Evanovich. And like Evanovich, Riordan draws on the colorful character of his locale--in his case the twangy chili con carnage of San Antonio academic life--to pepper his narrative with a mixture of medieval literature, Tex-Mex dialogue, and Sherlock Holmesian puzzles. While there aren't many more awards for Riordan to conquer, The Last King of Texas will certainly win him some more loyal fans. --Patrick O'KelleyRead More

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  • Product Description

    Tres Navarre has a passion for tequila, a Ph.D. in English literature, and a penchant for trouble. He's the smart-mouthed Texas private eye who raked in the Edgar, Shamus, and Anthony Awards. Now acclaimed author Rick Riordan fires up the accelerator in Tres Navarre's hardcover debut--a ninety-mile-an-hour thriller for fans with a taste for Spenser and Elvis Cole, spiced with habañero-hot Tex-Mex flavor.

    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.

    As fast-paced as the Texas Tornadoes, as funny as Lyle Lovett crossed with Kinky Friedman, as soulful as Willie Nelson, The Last King of Texas is an unforgettable, impossible-to-put-down whirlwind of suspense...in which everyone is guilty of something.

  • 0553801562
  • 9780553801569
  • Rick Riordan
  • 1 February 2000
  • Bantam Dell Pub Group (Trd)
  • Hardcover (Book)
  • 336
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