Product Description: Multiple-award-winning author Rick Riordan brings back smart-mouthed Texas P.I. Tres Navarre for his most dangerous case yet. If you think the academic world is deadly dull, you're half right....
When a controversial English professor is found shot to death, Tres Navarre — P.I. and Ph.D. — is the only local academic crazy enough to accept the emergency opening at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Police assure him they already have a suspect, so while they 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 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 — and lands in a high-stakes game of gangster honor on the darkest streets of San Antonio's West Side....
Amazon.com Review: 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'Kelley
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Like Racing Through a Texas Twister
The last two professors of an English Lit class at UTSA (the University of Texas at San Antonio) have wound up dead, the first a victim of a heart attack, the second a victim of lead poisoning, the kind ... Read More
Rating: - San Antonio Can be A Very Violent Place
Set in San Antonio, Texas, The Last King of Texas is the 3rd book in the Tres Navarre series by Rick Riordan and by this point the world of Tres Navarre is humming along very nicely. He is now a fully licensed ... Read More
Rating: - Rick Riordan, work on your gun talk
A decent detective yarn. Tres Navarre is an interesting character with interesting friends. Rick Riordan makes me wonder what they are going to do next which is a good thing.
Rating: - The Last King of Texas
The third effort of author Riordan and his featured lead character Tres Navarre was a bit disappointing to me in comparison with the first two books, Big Red Tequila & Widow's Two Step. I particularly did ... Read More
Rating: - I Enjoyed This Book
I enjoyed this book. I am a huge fan of mysteries, especially mysteries like this one. Rick Riordan is a fine story teller, and he captures the multicultural aspects of contemporary Texas perfectly. The Last King ... Read More
- Like Racing Through a Texas Twister
- Rick Riordan, work on your gun talk