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Anonymous Rex #3
Hot and Sweaty Rex
Vincent, raptor dinosaur PI, narrates job for LA mob boss Frank Tallarico, tailing rival. Vince needs cash for debts, follows target to Miami with pal Glenda. Hadrosaur mob boss is Jack Dugan, Vince's long-ago pal, now in wheelchair. Vince lost fiancée then too, Noreen Dugan, to mixup. Can Vince be double agent with double loyalties when Dugan camp has a spy?
352 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
3 people are currently reading
209 people want to read
About the author
Eric Garcia
49 books73 followersEric Garcia grew up in Miami, Florida, and attended Cornell University and the University of Southern California, where he majored in creative writing and film. He lives outside Los Angeles with his wife, daughter, and dachshund. He is also developing a series for the Sci Fi channel based on the Rex novels.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
April 27, 2011
If the first two books were comedies with tragic elements, then this is a tragedy with comic elements. It picks up a couple years after Anonymous Rex left off, and there is the feeling that the series has moved up a notch, and that Vincent has matured. He had to after everything he’s been through.
This time he gets involved in the dinosaur mafia, and ends up working for both sides of two warring families, one of whom happens to be an old friend of his.
The back story involved is delivered in two, hard-to-swallow chapters right in the middle of the action, but once I got through them the pace picked right back up. The mystery rivals that of the first book, and the spider web of betrayal is overwhelming. I wouldn’t blame him for going back to basil after this because this case gets personal.
He’s not just investigating something that happened to his partner (as in book 1), or his partner’s ex-wife’s brother (as in book 2). This is about Vincent, and it’s painful for him to confront the mistakes of his past and be denied chance after chance to make up for them. It’s also painful for readers who know and care about him.
The wiseass cynicism gradually fades from the narration, and this creates the feeling that something in Vincent changes--maybe even dies as a result of what happens at the end. It hurt me as much as it hurt him. For his sake, I hope he recovers with his humor in tact. Hell, I hope I recover!
All of a sudden this absurd concept of dinosaurs wearing human disguises demands respect. It sure has mine. I hear there’s a cult following for these books. Count me in.
This time he gets involved in the dinosaur mafia, and ends up working for both sides of two warring families, one of whom happens to be an old friend of his.
The back story involved is delivered in two, hard-to-swallow chapters right in the middle of the action, but once I got through them the pace picked right back up. The mystery rivals that of the first book, and the spider web of betrayal is overwhelming. I wouldn’t blame him for going back to basil after this because this case gets personal.
He’s not just investigating something that happened to his partner (as in book 1), or his partner’s ex-wife’s brother (as in book 2). This is about Vincent, and it’s painful for him to confront the mistakes of his past and be denied chance after chance to make up for them. It’s also painful for readers who know and care about him.
The wiseass cynicism gradually fades from the narration, and this creates the feeling that something in Vincent changes--maybe even dies as a result of what happens at the end. It hurt me as much as it hurt him. For his sake, I hope he recovers with his humor in tact. Hell, I hope I recover!
All of a sudden this absurd concept of dinosaurs wearing human disguises demands respect. It sure has mine. I hear there’s a cult following for these books. Count me in.
April 23, 2015
Violent vengeance gets bloody bad. Vince starts out reluctant, watches crystals dissolve dino tail of horse-race traitor to Frank. If Vince doesn't chop fast, bacteria keeps eating flesh.
Why does Vince find stable of Oriental whores, shared by both mobs, whose tails are chopped off nubs? As Vince actively tortures survivors, pool of potential traitors shrinks. I suspected Noreen's current fiancé Nelson 'Nellie' Hagstrom; girly nickname for Ellen mixes me up. I guessed Audrey, grey-haired lady always whispering to Jack and Noreen was nurse, close.
"Funerals. I go to way too many of these d-n things .. body lies in an oak coffin, the wood burnished to a high shine. Seems a little silly to me; it's just going to get dirty .. Even the most slovenly of shlubs .. gets to say hasta la vista to life in style .. Clearly, the reason you can't take it with you is because the funeral directors can" p 215.
"The air is still, the sounds of the Everglades soft and wild .. Nice place, if you can stand the stink" p 322. Feels real when a basically good guy takes slippery slope to the dark side. Rating up or down depends if you want horror, bloody slide to his own teeth ripping flesh. Pulls up rating with clever originality, sneaky humor, rolling rhythm of phrases.
"Calm before the storm. Every time" p 234. As tension builds inside Vince, so do hurricane winds outside. Ending has sort-of justice. Layers over evil onion peel away? Master villain behind crimes is worst. Spy and punishment are surprises.
If you want, human issues can be projected into plot lines. Prejudice can be between dinosaur vs human or raptor species vs hadrosaur. Can rich pay poor to suffer medical procedures? Where do vulnerable draw lines? What price body parts? Who ends a cycle of retribution?
Typo:
p 131 "old gal kept her jewlery" is jewelry, twice correct on page
Why does Vince find stable of Oriental whores, shared by both mobs, whose tails are chopped off nubs? As Vince actively tortures survivors, pool of potential traitors shrinks. I suspected Noreen's current fiancé Nelson 'Nellie' Hagstrom; girly nickname for Ellen mixes me up. I guessed Audrey, grey-haired lady always whispering to Jack and Noreen was nurse, close.
"Funerals. I go to way too many of these d-n things .. body lies in an oak coffin, the wood burnished to a high shine. Seems a little silly to me; it's just going to get dirty .. Even the most slovenly of shlubs .. gets to say hasta la vista to life in style .. Clearly, the reason you can't take it with you is because the funeral directors can" p 215.
"The air is still, the sounds of the Everglades soft and wild .. Nice place, if you can stand the stink" p 322. Feels real when a basically good guy takes slippery slope to the dark side. Rating up or down depends if you want horror, bloody slide to his own teeth ripping flesh. Pulls up rating with clever originality, sneaky humor, rolling rhythm of phrases.
"Calm before the storm. Every time" p 234. As tension builds inside Vince, so do hurricane winds outside. Ending has sort-of justice. Layers over evil onion peel away? Master villain behind crimes is worst. Spy and punishment are surprises.
If you want, human issues can be projected into plot lines. Prejudice can be between dinosaur vs human or raptor species vs hadrosaur. Can rich pay poor to suffer medical procedures? Where do vulnerable draw lines? What price body parts? Who ends a cycle of retribution?
Typo:
p 131 "old gal kept her jewlery" is jewelry, twice correct on page
January 3, 2015
The seemingly last in a fine and fun (mostly) series. It has it's grim moments, but mostly it's lots of laughs. I mean just look at the title of the book for an example of the tongue in cheek humor throughout this book and series. I wish Garcia would continue with the series, but I don't see anything in the works at all from this author.
Anyway, great PI stories. Highly recommended.
Anyway, great PI stories. Highly recommended.
August 2, 2025
I really rather enjoyed the quirky, dinos in disguise world in the really rather brilliant first two books of this trilogy. This last book moves from the sci-fi hard boiled genre to a mafia based story. The protagonist no longer feels like the same character, the plot is really, really feels cliched (up to the end), and the most unforgiving part is that the fact that the main characters are dinosaurs, really, is relatively inconsequential to the plot. This just did not live up to the highs of the first two books.
November 20, 2023
Little all over the place but good
The jumping around timeline was a bit confusing at times, and then near the end the story seems like reading a report that is a drastic voice shift. By the very end it makes sense and is a good story
The jumping around timeline was a bit confusing at times, and then near the end the story seems like reading a report that is a drastic voice shift. By the very end it makes sense and is a good story
March 26, 2011
The theme or lesson of the book Hot and Sweaty Rex by Eric Garcia is that a close friend’s death can change your beliefs about and out-value business obligations. The way that Garcia presents and supports this theme is through the main character of this book, Vincent Rubio. In this book Vincent, a dinosaur private investigator, is offered $20,000 to tail an important member of a hadrosaur mob in Miami by the rival Tallarico raptor mob. But when Vincent finds out that the boss of the hadrosaur mob is his childhood friend Jack Dugan who is then killed by the mob that Vincent is employed by, he switches sides and becomes a double agent.
At first Vincent is committed to his business obligation to the Tallarico mob. He hasn’t yet changed. His job is to tail a member of the hadrosaur gang, Nelly Hagstrom An example of this in the text is: “Ten minutes after he enters the hotel, Nelly Hagstrom strolls back out of the Regent Beverly Wilshire’s revolving doors and into the limousine. I gun the engine of the Lincoln and pull into traffic behind them, making sure to keep a few cars back.” (page 59) This quote shows that Vincent is serious about his role.
This changes a lot when Vincent finds out that the boss of the hadrosaur mob is his childhood best friend, Jack Dugan. When Jack is killed, Vincent starts being a double agent for his friend’s mob by pretending to work for the Tallaricos, but really working for the Dugans. He decides along with Nelly Hagstrom to capture one of Eddie Tallico’s right hand men, Chaz. An example of this in the text is: “I hit the brakes and slam the car into the park. Chaz is glancing around him, frantically looking around the car, into the darkness, a cat thrown into a box, unsure of where it is or how it got there- The passenger door opens. It’s Hagstrom. ‘Get out,’ he tells Chaz.” This shows how in this part of the book after he found his long lost friend Jack Dugan and then lost him, Vincent put friendship in front of business and money and began working as the inside man for the Dugans. The only pay is vengeance and revenge for Jack’s murder.
Another example of this theme is when Vincent does for the Dugans what they could never do before; lure Eddie Tallarico into the open so they can capture and kill him. I think that the reason that Vincent did this is because Eddie was the one who ordered Jack to be killed. So Vincent felt a need to have him killed to even it out. In the book it says, “Tallarico flinches backward, hands coming up to protect his face, the bar catching him halfway up the forearm, and I hear a sharp crack-something broke. But there’s no time to play amateur osteopath; Eddie’s screaming, going for his gun even as Nelly, not injured in the least jumps out of the chair-.” (p. 308) This shows how to Vincent, revenge for Jack’s murder meant more to him than the fact that he was being paid to be doing the opposite.
Overall, I think that the theme of this book is that a friend’s murder is more important than a business obligation. I really liked how Eric Garcia used the main character to relay the theme, because he made you figure it out yourself; it wasn’t obvious in the least. I had trouble seeing how Eric Garcia’s theme fits into my life, being that none of my close friends have ever been murdered. I have also never been hired to do an actual job. But I’ve had to put friendship over different obligations before, like keeping a secret about other people for a friend, even when those other people wanted me to tell them.
At first Vincent is committed to his business obligation to the Tallarico mob. He hasn’t yet changed. His job is to tail a member of the hadrosaur gang, Nelly Hagstrom An example of this in the text is: “Ten minutes after he enters the hotel, Nelly Hagstrom strolls back out of the Regent Beverly Wilshire’s revolving doors and into the limousine. I gun the engine of the Lincoln and pull into traffic behind them, making sure to keep a few cars back.” (page 59) This quote shows that Vincent is serious about his role.
This changes a lot when Vincent finds out that the boss of the hadrosaur mob is his childhood best friend, Jack Dugan. When Jack is killed, Vincent starts being a double agent for his friend’s mob by pretending to work for the Tallaricos, but really working for the Dugans. He decides along with Nelly Hagstrom to capture one of Eddie Tallico’s right hand men, Chaz. An example of this in the text is: “I hit the brakes and slam the car into the park. Chaz is glancing around him, frantically looking around the car, into the darkness, a cat thrown into a box, unsure of where it is or how it got there- The passenger door opens. It’s Hagstrom. ‘Get out,’ he tells Chaz.” This shows how in this part of the book after he found his long lost friend Jack Dugan and then lost him, Vincent put friendship in front of business and money and began working as the inside man for the Dugans. The only pay is vengeance and revenge for Jack’s murder.
Another example of this theme is when Vincent does for the Dugans what they could never do before; lure Eddie Tallarico into the open so they can capture and kill him. I think that the reason that Vincent did this is because Eddie was the one who ordered Jack to be killed. So Vincent felt a need to have him killed to even it out. In the book it says, “Tallarico flinches backward, hands coming up to protect his face, the bar catching him halfway up the forearm, and I hear a sharp crack-something broke. But there’s no time to play amateur osteopath; Eddie’s screaming, going for his gun even as Nelly, not injured in the least jumps out of the chair-.” (p. 308) This shows how to Vincent, revenge for Jack’s murder meant more to him than the fact that he was being paid to be doing the opposite.
Overall, I think that the theme of this book is that a friend’s murder is more important than a business obligation. I really liked how Eric Garcia used the main character to relay the theme, because he made you figure it out yourself; it wasn’t obvious in the least. I had trouble seeing how Eric Garcia’s theme fits into my life, being that none of my close friends have ever been murdered. I have also never been hired to do an actual job. But I’ve had to put friendship over different obligations before, like keeping a secret about other people for a friend, even when those other people wanted me to tell them.
Want to read
December 28, 2016I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14339849
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14339849
January 4, 2009
The 3rd and final (?) book in the Dino PI series. I have no idea why it seems to be called the Dino Mafia series, because this is the only book in which the Mafia make an appearance.
It was well written, and tightly plotted, if a bit out of new ideas. The books prior to this have had an actual mystery for the main character, Vincent to solve. This book has Vincent sucked into doing low level work for the Mob in LA. He is tailing a big wig from another family. The man leaves LA and goes to Miami and Vincent follows.
In Miami, Vincent along with an old friend who pops up unexpectedly, gets involved in a nasty gang war between two families. One is the Miami branch of the LA gang he is working for, and the other is headed by his best friend from childhood. Vincent and Jack lost touch as teenagers, but they grew up together and were very close. Vincent almost married Jack's sister Noreen. Now Vincent is torn between both groups, trying to sort out whom to be loyal to, and keep himself alive and clean of the dirtier Mafia business.
The only real mystery is how Vincent can meet the demands of each family, while keeping each ignorant of the other's claims on him, and stay alive.
Eventually Vincent has to pick where he belongs, and then he gets just as dirty as the others. There are side stories of his and Jack's childhood, his engagement to Noreen, and glimpses that he was a herb addict even as a young man. Most of the action seems to be happening backwards as memories and background stories. Its not bad, but it doesn't really point in any future direction.
The characters are good, and we get more info about how dinos live in the world, and keep their secrets from humans. There is a good bit of violence and gore. The story explores addiction, lost love, painful memories, loyalty, revenge and forgiveness and personal responsibility.
It was well written, and tightly plotted, if a bit out of new ideas. The books prior to this have had an actual mystery for the main character, Vincent to solve. This book has Vincent sucked into doing low level work for the Mob in LA. He is tailing a big wig from another family. The man leaves LA and goes to Miami and Vincent follows.
In Miami, Vincent along with an old friend who pops up unexpectedly, gets involved in a nasty gang war between two families. One is the Miami branch of the LA gang he is working for, and the other is headed by his best friend from childhood. Vincent and Jack lost touch as teenagers, but they grew up together and were very close. Vincent almost married Jack's sister Noreen. Now Vincent is torn between both groups, trying to sort out whom to be loyal to, and keep himself alive and clean of the dirtier Mafia business.
The only real mystery is how Vincent can meet the demands of each family, while keeping each ignorant of the other's claims on him, and stay alive.
Eventually Vincent has to pick where he belongs, and then he gets just as dirty as the others. There are side stories of his and Jack's childhood, his engagement to Noreen, and glimpses that he was a herb addict even as a young man. Most of the action seems to be happening backwards as memories and background stories. Its not bad, but it doesn't really point in any future direction.
The characters are good, and we get more info about how dinos live in the world, and keep their secrets from humans. There is a good bit of violence and gore. The story explores addiction, lost love, painful memories, loyalty, revenge and forgiveness and personal responsibility.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 15, 2017
very interesting book. Ended very well
May 22, 2007
It greatly saddens me that this is the last of the three books in this dinosaur detective series. I think the mysteries would be compelling even without the dinosaur element, and, really, the fact that the main characters are dinosaurs living secretly among humans was almost tertiary in this particular book, a novel that puts velocirapter PI Vincent Rubio in the midst of warring dinosaur mafias. I didn't figure out whodunnit until the reveal (and I read enough mysteries that I often do) and the book packs an emotional punch, too. It's doubly a shame that these books seem to be out of print (gargantuan efforts went into acquiring this one until I found it on the bargain table at my local B&N).
June 19, 2011
This book picks up where Anonymous Rex / Casual Rex left off; Vincent Rubio - the dinosaur detective - is now off the herbs and looking for action. He does NOT expect to end up working for the enemy . . .
Fans of Eric Garcia and the Dinosaur Mafia already know what to expect. Those who don't - in this world, dinosaurs are NOT extinct, but have adapted to live among us - unseen due to the use of disguises, girdles and lots of glue. What is astounding is that while you are reading the book, you just go with it because Garcia has created this world SO convincingly. Not to be missed by anyone who enjoys darkly funny noir.
Fans of Eric Garcia and the Dinosaur Mafia already know what to expect. Those who don't - in this world, dinosaurs are NOT extinct, but have adapted to live among us - unseen due to the use of disguises, girdles and lots of glue. What is astounding is that while you are reading the book, you just go with it because Garcia has created this world SO convincingly. Not to be missed by anyone who enjoys darkly funny noir.
September 3, 2007
The premise is absolutely ridiculous but an original take on the classis detective story. I got sucked in right away on this one and sought out every book he wrote with this character, who is a dinosaur. Apparently dinosaurs faked their own extinction but actually continue to live among us with elaborate human disguises and all kind of support services to keep their existence hidden. This is the last one and I was so sad. I read them over again sometimes so it is not a complete loss.
June 7, 2016
When I was first assigned this book back in college I was more than skeptical. Wait, dinosaur detectives? Yes. Do not for one instant think that this is a children's book though. With adult humor, innuendos and violence, this is not your typical gumshoe story. It is part of a series but you do not necessarily need to start at the beginning.
Strange...strange book.
Strange...strange book.
January 6, 2009
Very cute book. If it was not for the fact he wove the dino story into it, it would have been an average, not so good, detective story. With the new theme involved, it was quite entertaining and I'd read more if there was a series.
August 1, 2014
To be completely honest, I'd give this one four and a half stars. The action was great, the pace was fantastic, the plot was top-notch. All it lacked was epic-qualities, but that's a personal taste rather than a lack of good storytelling. Definitely worth picking up. ^_^
February 7, 2009
I was really into the first two books so naturally I had to check this book out. It was as good as I thought it was going to be . Worth reading and very entertaining. Funny.
May 27, 2010
Fun, entertaining read.
August 31, 2010
Not as good as the first two dino detective books in the series, but a fun and funny summer read nonetheless.
March 6, 2011
Kinda a dorky book, but still cute
September 21, 2011
This book was much darker than the other two. I found that I didn't laugh as often as in the first two books, and I can't remember the plot clearly like I can with the first two books.
October 16, 2012
3rd book in the series. Combines very light noir with dinosaurs masquerading as humans. Pretty decent mix. Well worth a read especially if you like noir, crime novels, or just something unique.
November 13, 2013
Read my review of book#1
December 1, 2014
I would never read such rubbish, I honestly don't know why I gave this neo-noir crime thriller involving underage dinosaur porn three stars.
Oh yeah, it must be because it's rather fun.
Oh yeah, it must be because it's rather fun.
Want to read
July 19, 2007i have weird tastes
August 2, 2012
An interesting quick read about dinosaurs in the mafia
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews