by Eric Garcia
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Product Description
"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
Vincent Rubio, a Los Angeles private investigator, is down on his luck: He's out of work. His car's been repossessed. His partner has died under mysterious circumstances. And his tail just won't stay put. Vincent is a dinosaur--a Velociraptor, to be precise. It seems the dinosaurs faked their extinction 65 million years ago and still roam the earth, disguised in convincing latex costumes that help them blend perfectly into human society. A heightened sense of smell allows the dinos to detect one another--Vincent's got an odor like a tasty Cuban cigar.
When Vincent is called to investigate a two-bit case of arson at a hip dino nightclub, he discovers something much more sinister, which lures him back to New York City--the scene of his partner's death and a dangerous nexus of dinosaur and human intermingling.
Will Vincent solve the mystery of his partner's death? Will a gorgeous blond chanteuse discover his true identity, jeopardizing both their lives? Will Vincent be able to conquer his dangerous addiction to basil, or will he wind up in Herba-holics Anonymous? Will he find true love, or resort to crumpled issues of Stegolicious?
Somewhere between Jurassic Park and L.A. Confidential lies Eric Garcia's Anonymous Rex, one of the smartest, wittiest, and most entertaining debuts this side of the Ice Age.
From the Hardcover edition.
Amazon.com 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 5 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 dinosaurs' 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 interspecies 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 it enlivens. --Dick Adler
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Not Free SF Reader, 2008-03-03
Dino meatsuit down and out PI disguise.
No, really. In a humorous private investigator novel the main character is actually a dinosaur. Apparently they didn't die out and they live hidden among us, basically human sized.
They stuff themselves into disguises, use scent etc. so no-one works it out.
Once you can get past that basically Douglas Adams level of farce, you have a pretty fun book.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
 An entertaining story, 2007-01-14
This book is the first book in the Dinosaur Mafia series, in terms of publication date, but the 2nd one if you take the events of the books chronologically. The truly amazing thing about these books - in which the dinosaurs have NOT gone extinct, at least not all of them, but have evolved to a smaller size and live side-by-side with humans - with the help of a lot of latex, glue and straps to disguise them - is that while you are reading them you just go with it, because it is written so convincingly. This story is mostly about Vincent Rubio, a detective and the main character of all the Dinosaur Mafia books. Rubio's partner and mentor Watson has been killed - supposedly in a hit-and-run by a taxi in New York while taking part in a mysterious investigation. Rubio has gone on a serious bender with the basil (dinosaurs can't get drunk by drinking alcohol - their recreation of choice is with herbs, which get them "high") and is refusing to buy the story about what happened with Watson and as a result has just about burned all his bridges and lost most of his business. Things are looking really bleak when he gets thrown a bone by one of the big companies in town - which seems to lead right back to the case that Watson was investigating when he was killed. Although this story is a bit dark, it provides quite a number of laugh-out-loud moments as well. At its base, this story is a well crafted detective yarn. See Anonymous Rex/Casual Rex omnibus for my review of both books.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
A great idea, perfectly executed, 2006-10-01
I read this book some time ago, but I am backfilling some of my reviews.
Some books I buy based on the dust cover notes. This was one of those books. I am normally not much of a reader of detective novels unless they are very good. But the idea of a detective who was actually a dinosaur living disguised as a human was too intriguing to put down.
I ended up loving it. Garcia gets it just right. He captures the tone of classic detective novels perfectly, but with tongue-in-cheek. Very few books make me laugh out loud, but this one did. He creates an intricate backstory of the secret world of dinosaurs that you really want to believe in. But it is more than just a gimmick. Garcia also has a suspenseful detective story woven in. I highly recommend this book to anyone whether they like the detective genre or not. I believe Eric Garcia will go on to great things beyond the dinosaurs.
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
 Half good, half bad, 2006-01-04
The Good:
*The central 'conceit' was written well and incorporated into the novel succesfully (I didn't question anything about it once)
The Bad:
*The supporting characters were terribly written. If they weren't completely personality-less and flat, they were extremely annoying to read. Glenda, in particular, was really irritating...especially her dialogue. Which brings me to my next point:
*The dialogue-there's really not much else to say about it other than it wasn't very good.
*A lot of times I found myself wincing at the forced humor or cliched turn-of-phrases.
*As the central mystery unraveled, I found myself caring less and less. For such a short book, the case developed way too slow and resolved itself way too quickly. Garcia spent a disproportionate amount of time describing the dino life than the case (which was way more interesting, anyways) so the plot suffers.
DESPITE the negative points, I'd read another dino novel by Garcia simply because the conceit of the book is so clever and well-executed.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Neat idea, slow story, 2005-06-21
I wanted to like this book more because it has a lot going for it. It's a nice concept (completely ridiculous, but so what?), and the writing is good. Unfortunately, it just didn't keep me hooked all the way through.
I think my problem was the dinos are so thoroughly integrated into human society that there's very little conflict. That's not a big deal, but the story itself just didn't catch me either. There were definitely some cool parts, and the end of it is pretty solid. But the fantasy elements don't seem as essential as they should be. This could almost be a conventional mystery, which isn't bad, but I caught myself wondering why we were even bothering with dinos, except near the very end of the story.
I also think Garcia's writing is a little too "Jokey". He is funny, but it often seems forced. As if the writer is directing the plot toward a funny "bit" rather than a satisfying scene. Often the jokes, cute at first, go on way too long.
I can't really fault this book much. I liked it more than I hated it. But, overall, didn't do much for me.
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