Casual Rex

Anonymous Rex #2

by Eric Garcia

Narrator Vincent Rubio is a cold-blooded LA PI - a velociraptor. Louise, ex-wife of partner Ernie, smells delicious. To rescue Louise's younger brother Rupert from a dangerous dino cult going back to "casual" naked undress, the detectives masquerade as members. Leader Circe is a stunning beauty with a dizzying scent. What secrets lie on the Hawaiian island retreat?

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Fantasy, Dinosaurs, Humor, Mystery Thriller, Speculative Fiction

337 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Eric 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.

Reviews

[Anne Patkau · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Improvisation is the modus operandi when you work with Ernie Watson" p 3. Door alarm blares as LA PI Vince Rubio narrates breaking into Louise's home with her new husband for his marriage license. No reasons given, so high-wire beginning and x-rated shocks seem forced, artificial -- lead me away from sequel.

"You ready to crash this party" mumbles Vince, "already knowing from years of experience what his response will be."
"So long as I don't have to dress up."
"Don't worry. We're going casual" p 174 [my bold].
Ernie hates to dress up for parties, teases "kid". On this case they'll go very casual. Naked to dinosaur skins. Personal scents are everything imaginable, fascinating.

In a world where dinosaurs hide inside human 'guise', Vince narrates infiltrating cult to retrieve Rupert Simmons, lost brother of Ernie's divorced wife Louise. Newbies "Progress" toward natural dinosaur state. A few days after deprogrammed by drawling Southern Beauregard 'Bo', lad is dead by suicide.

After finding a pattern of certified suicides, the partners investigate more. Leader Raal vanished years ago. International Progressives are big business.

Suicides are fake. Bo deprograms all in different disguises. Dinos nearby are murdered, same 20s age, size, stuffed into guise, fool whoever finds them. Rupert is very bad, yet deprogrammed for real suffers no punishment. Is that Louise's rich influence. Unjust.

"But you've got no pockets."
"Correct."
"Do I want to know where you hid it?"
"No, you do not" p 256.
Humor mostly base, "slashing at my throat .. gaping jaw" p 264 "ducking and weaving, bobbing and hopping, Muhammamad with a vengeance" p 265 alternate. He pants from chase, and hormones. He chews herbs to get high, often.

"Ignoring Circe .. is like ignoring a polka-dotted elephant doing a samba through the Russian Tea Room" p 131. Charismatic Circe overloads Vince with hallucinatory scents. She is the ideal, comfortable in her dino skin. He imagines running free in forest and mutual x-rated passion.

Why is Vince so sure body in Hollywood mansion is dead? Couldn't old lady dumped into fire have been drugged, asleep, hibernating?

Oher cases are 'adult'. Landlord Minsky wants prostitute girlfriend who stole his privates. She prefers the Mussolini custom crafted mechanisms to the midget.

I dislike secrets, hope in future guises are tossed. Issues of 'being yourself" get scrambled even more. Vince has drag queen pal Jules who sculpts parts for fellow dinos. Jules and his dressed-up gang are unlikely cavalry.

"Aloha, native Hawaiian girls. This is one Velociraptor who is ready to get leid" p 149. On island retreat, everyone strips to dinosaur beneath. Meals are raw: eggs in shell for breakfast, whole pig for supper. "Rare. Raw .. disgusting" p 192. Silly twins Buzz and Wendell are caught guiding the detectives to the forbidden side.

"Not yet . . . Not yet . . . It better be yet already" p 168. Somehow we are ahead, know Vince is wrong. Wrong to trust lusty Kala. Wrong to think twins' combat in the Ring is "a joke" p 248. Wrong to trust Bo alone near tar pits.

Kala is Circe, for one hot night. In silly episode, Vince grabs Kala guise in haste. Not so silly when Ernie grabs Rubio guise. "Seeing yourself shot is a different matter entirely" p 280.

Angry bears massacre twins. Ring survivors are somehow drugged to stay animalistic, herded in compound on far island side. Bo is Raal, conspires to stock guns, plans to kill all humans, take over world.

Vince hibernates "not breathing" p 304 over "twenty-four" p 313 hours to survive after Raal pushes him into tar pit. When Raal tries to crawl up Circe's body away from fire, she drops and takes him down too. She was innocent, did not know about final stage.

[James Steele · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a prequel to the first book. Vincent’s partner, Ernie, is still alive, and the case they’re assigned to is pretty simple: find some missing dinosaur and bring him home to mommy.

The case uncovers a conspiracy that takes them to a private island where dinosaurs can lounge around without their human disguises. It puts on the appearance of a cult of a back-to-basics retreat for dinosaurs. A calm place wherein everyone can hang their human guises on a hook and be dinosaurs at last.

Until someone dies. Now Vincent and Ernie are suspicious and get down to doing what they do best: snoop. They discover this is not a just a group of dinosaurs who want to recover a lost heritage like any harmless new age group. There's a rebellion at hand, and it has the power to affect the whole world.

Although the mystery this time is not as mind blowing as in the first book because we’ve seen cults like this before in other movies, TV shows and books, but the delightful humor, absurdly believable world-building and memorable characters kept me turning the pages. It’s a good follow-up, though not a great one.

I did a book/movie comparison on my blog. Check it out.

[Jennww2ns · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe it wasn't as well crafted as the first one or maybe the novelty wore off but I just couldn't dredge up a whole lot of enthusiasm for this one. It was more "shrug my shoulders" good than "vigorously nod my head" good.

[Debra · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is such a fun series, with its serious moments. Great plot for this one. I'm looking forward to the next one!

[Kenya Starflight · Rating 3 out of 5]

Word to potential readers -- this is NOT a sequel to Anonymous Rex despite being advertised as #2 in the series. Rather, it's a prequel, albeit one that will definitely make more sense if you've read "Anonymous Rex" first. Going into this book knowing this fact will help clear up some confusion among readers of the former book, who might be wondering why a certain character confirmed as dead in the first book is running around in this one or why certain characters aren't acting the way they did in the previous volume. All that said... while "Casual Rex" is an enjoyable read, and quite funny and clever, I didn't enjoy it as much as the first volume.

Vincent and Ernie are private detectives working in San Francisco... and they happen to also be dinosaurs in disguise, a Velociraptor and a Carnotaur respectively. For in this world, dinosaurs didn't truly go extinct -- they live among humans, albeit in thick disguises to keep their secret from being exposed to the humans. The duo bicker, tease one another, but always have each other's backs as well... and a good thing too, because their most recent case involves a dead relative of Ernie's ex-wife, and a cult of Progressives who believe dinosaurs are better off shedding their guises and going back to their roots as the dominant creatures of Earth. And as the two detectives jet off to Hawaii to investigate this cult and its sensual, charismatic leader Circe, they find themselves pulled into a web of intrigue that could shake both dinosaur and human worlds to their foundations...

Author Eric Garcia perfectly captures the hard-boiled detective aesthetic in this novel, giving us a voice that wouldn't be out of place in an updated Humphrey Bogart film. Vincent is a snarky, self-depreciating soul who isn't above making fun of himself (or his partner), and is able to find some humor in just about any situation, no matter how life-threatening. He lacks the weary tone of the previous book here as well, making for a bit more of an upbeat read than in "Anonymous Rex"... though that can also lead to a little cringe as one realizes just what he's in for in the next book...

I will say that the story of this book didn't draw me in like that of "Anonymous Rex" -- it moved more slowly, and was more caught up in the minutia of the cult than in any pressing mystery. And the fact that this one is a prequel sort of drains it of a lot of suspense -- you know that Vincent, at least, has to survive to see the next book, so it's a little silly to expect something to happen to him in THIS book. Also, while I was able to suspend my disbelief and roll with the idea of dinosaurs disguising themselves as humans in the last book, this one incorporated enough goofs in the science to break my suspension of disbelief beyond repair -- dinosaurs having external ears, species theorized to be staunch herbivores eating meat and small animals, etc. I can go along with a silly idea if the book is entertaining enough, but here it became too hard to ignore some of the flaws in the logic.

"Casual Rex" was an enjoyable read, an exciting mystery involving cults, drugs, tropical islands, and dinosaur drag queens that kept me reading to the end. But it's just flawed and slow-moving enough that it didn't capture my interest the same way that "Anonymous Rex" did. And while I know there's only one book left in the series (Hot and Sweaty Rex), I'm not sure I'm invested enough in said series to move on to the final book. We'll see how I feel after I've had time to process this one a little more...

[David]

Speculative fiction. The underlying premise is that intelligent dinosaurs (of a smaller size) live among humans, but wear disguises to look like humans. And they have jobs like humans (although often oriented to interacting with or for other dinos.) Readers who care more about plausibility may find various aspects which are flawed.

The protagonist / narrator is a private investigator. He and his partner aren't famous nor specialize in unusual cases. As the story progresses, the detective is neither especially talented nor humorously untalented. (He does narrate his view of thoughts and observations which can have some humor.) I didn't feel he fit any of the detective character types I'm familiar with in fiction.

The central case in the book follows from a (dino) sister asking the detectives to get her brother out of a cult-like group of dinos (which says dinos should try to be more like dinosaurs and leave behind more of their human-like behaviors and lifestyles.) As the book moves towards the end, we see a few more significant failures in his understanding of the case. But shortly after that, we hear him explaining to a cult figure that he knows all about it. The finale of the book is a large fight in the cult building.

Readers who enjoy trying to figure out a mystery as they read may find this interesting.

[Suzette Banick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book took me longer than it should have to finish. Not because of bad writing, but because of life. Life sucks. This book doesn't. The concept of it is outlandish and comical, but it works, which is the important part.
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rest of this contains slight spoilers
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There were a few parts I had issues with, not about the writing or concepts, but because of the sense of rape involved. The idea that Circe could essentially date-rape Vincent with her scent was disturbing to me. As was the very fact that a female as intelligent as Circe failed to realize that her benefactor (Raal I think he was called) essentially kidnapped her from the orphanage. She didn't seem to find it unusual that an adult would take a girl out of an orphanage in the middle of the night without permission. As a child, I can possibly see, as an adult, I find it odd that she wouldn't look back at that incident at least a little suspiciously. Then, after that is revealed, the date-rape and the kidnapping are never mentioned again.

But a good book, nonetheless.

[Roberta · Rating 2 out of 5]

Editor: This sex scene needs to be rewritten. I know that the whole premise of the book is outrageous but shit... just shit...
Author:Blue-pencil the part that doesn't work for you and that's where I'll make the narrator really high on weed or something.

Everything that was new and different about dinosaurs roaming the earth dressed as human in the first book isn't new anymore. And the author has apparently already run out of material since he is already mining the character's backstory for this prequel to Anonymous Rex. The thing that is actually better in this book is that Vincent and Ernie working together are better than Vincent working solo.

Ok, I know this is nitpicking but on page 281, for the second time, Vincent says "far from the maddening crowd." Using it once is a a middle-school-level play on words but using it again is just dumb.

[Jason Schmidt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Um, holy cow - this book should not work: dinosaurs wearing human outfits and masks, in a world in which dinosaurs still exist, but humans are unaware, brainwashing, cult activity, seasoning drug use, dinosaur sex, all wrapped up in the trappings of a Dashiell Hammett PI story. I kept waiting for the story to collapse under its own weight and oddness, but it didn’t. This was thoroughly entertaining with some great twists, moments that shocked me, characters (yes, dinosaurs) that I loved, solid action beats, some really subversive humor, and just brilliant, creative idea after brilliant creative idea. This is not something that I would have thought I would like, but I found the merging of dinosaurs in disguise with the private eye genre to work amazingly well. I am psyched to read the next book in this trilogy.

[Leah · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

[Ashley Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good but the big case closing moment kind of came up suddenly. There was all this build up for a quick reveal. Very interesting concept. Would want to read another in the series.

[FicusFan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a prequel to Anonymous Rex but was published second. I read the other book so long ago that I don't remember a lot about it. I do remember that I thought it was very funny and wacky and loved the idea of dinosaurs stuffing themselves (with lots of corsetry help) into latex people suits to pass for humans. Yes, they never died out, they evolved and went into hiding. The stories are set in modern day Los Angeles and use a hardboiled detective approach to tell a mystery.

The main character is Vincent Rubio, PI a velociraptor. He and his partner, Ernie Watson, another dinosaur, are investigating a cult that seem to kill those who leave it. The subtext seems to be a satire on Scientology and those groups who manufacture their heritage, and insist that one and all venerate it as complete truth.

I liked this book, but not nearly as much as the first. I don't know if the conceit is a one hit wonder, or the book isn't up to previous standards. It isn't badly written, and the setting and characters are well done. The dinosaur-centric elements are also done well, and fleshed out so that it all works.

The story is perhaps the problem. It seems to be a bit slow, and a bit disconnected in terms of setting up the mystery and then solving it. Its not terrible, but one of those books that you get a way into it, hoping it will grab you, but all you really want is for it to be over.

I have the final book in the series ( Hot and Sweaty Rex ) to read, and will do so soon, but only to get the whole thing done.

[Rob Kitchin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Casual Rex is a hardboiled PI tale with a twist -- the PIs are dinosaurs dressed in human costumes and they mostly deal with cases related to their brethren. Like the ancestors of humans, a handful of dinosaur species survived the major extinction event 65 million years ago that wiped most of them out. Over time they reduced in size and decided the easiest way to survive was to pass themselves off as humans, wearing realistic suits involving lots of straps and buckles. It’s a premise that kind of works as long as you don’t press on it all -- a whole series of logical questions would quickly bring the whole edifice down. The way Garcia keeps the illusion intact is to play the story pretty much straight-up, at least for the first half of the tale. Vincent and Ernie are two LA PIs, acting like fictional LA PIs alia dozens of such Chandler-inspired tales, albeit their clients tend to be other disguised dinosaurs. By centring the case around a cult, the Progressives, that advocate that dinosaurs shed their human guises, Garcia allows the premise to be explored a bit, though he still plays it quite straight. Indeed, the story is more quirky than funny, with the humour element quite underplayed until near the end and the final showdown. It took me some time to get in fully vested in the story, and it is only once it shifts to location to Hawaii that it really finds its groove. Overall, an interesting and entertaining tale that gets better as it progresses.

[Joyce · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 1999, Eric Garcia made his mark with one of the most striking mystery debuts of the year, Anonymous Rex, hailed as a dino-mite detective yarn by People, inventive and imaginative by USA Today, and a fresh and antic comic thriller by The Seattle Times. Now, with Casual Rex, the sharpest dinosaur-detective in Los Angeles is back, funnier and grittier than ever, for the next tale in this acclaimed series. Vincent Rubio is a private eye, working the angles in Los Angeles with his partner, Ernie. They've got the usual problems bills, bum cases, woman troubles. But being dinosaurs is not a problem, as long as their latex disguises fit properly. Not all dinosaurs agree. Some have joined a mysterious back-to-basics movement led by a beautiful and beguiling Velociraptor to help dinosaurs find themselves, let their tails hang out, and roam about as they really are. When a member of this cult dies under suspicious circumstances, Vincent and Ernie must investigate, while simultaneously handling the case of the missing Mussolini the theft of a rare and priceless prosthetic penis treasured in the dinosaur community. With Casual Rex, Eric Garcia takes readers even more deeply into this warped underworld and succeeds in making it all believable. The result is a novel that is as hilarious and entertaining as it is original.

[Hetal · Rating 3 out of 5]

It didn't quite grab me the way most of my favorite books do. When I start reading a book that I really enjoy, there is this almost addictive quality about it, something that drives my mind wild with thoughts of the book, plot lines, characters, etc., to the point where I am thinking about the book when I should be thinking about other things.

Nevertheless, it's a good casual read, maybe one of those "I take it on vacation with me" type things that you can pick up, drop, pick up again a few months later. It is pretty much just a mystery novel, but there is the dinosaur twist to things that occasionally has a large part of the plot and othertimes gets forgotten about. But with that said, it was a pretty good mystery plot even without the dinosaur component, and the dinosaur component just served to add a little extra to the story. It reads fast, not too confusing if you forget about it and the characters for a few months. Overall worth reading. In my movie theater analogy--worth seeing in the theater, but with the discounted tickets from AAA that let you see the movie 3 weeks after it came out.

[Ketan Shah]

Another instalment of this offbeat detective series. Dinosaurs never became extinct,they live among us in human guise. Vincent Rubio is a velociraptor private detective who becomes embroiled in a back to nature dinosaur cult that's not as benign as it appears. Like the previous novel ,Anonymous Rex,this works well on many levels.As a a noir detective story,it hit's all the right beats with a likeable protagonist ,a femme fatale and a lot of double dealing along the way. At the same time,the insights into the hidden dinosaur society are fascinating as well. Not many writers would be able to take such an oddball idea and make it work but Eric Garcia does a great job.Very highly recommended.If you enjoyed this,you might like Jonathan Lethem's Motherless Brooklyn,about a Tourretic detective.The LA setting and noir feel of Frank Miller's Sin
City comics might also appeal.On a slight tangent ,Jeff Lindsay's Darkly Dreaming Dexter ,with it's serial killer protaganist trying to pass off as a regular guy may also be of interest.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very quirky book, indeed. This book, and its successor, Anonymous Rex, are classic Raymond Chandler-inspired private-eye stories with a twist. And that is that the detective is a dinosaur (yes, I am afraid that is the premise. . . )in a human costume.

Sooooo, the books meander through fairly good detective stories with alot of style and humor---but also alot of dino lore since the dinosaur protagonist is part of a hidden society (about 10% of the book world's population are dinos)

I think the second book was more fun for me than the first because I accepted the dino premise and didn't get bogged down by it. Apparently this was a tv show or series on the sci-fi channel---that might have been fun to see.

Books would be a fun airplane or vacation read--.

[Azra · Rating 4 out of 5]

How have I gone so long without reading this book? Mystery, private investigators, dinos, humor...it's all here. It was the perfect thing to read on a cold, snowy day.

I love how the author came up with a way to have dinos and humans existing in the world. The thing about herbal...enhancements was a fun touch as well. There is even a bit reminiscent of the movie MIB, where it was revealed that many of the stars of Hollywood are dinos, as well as many in the art world. Even Richard Simmons is outed with his Richard Simmons Sweatin' With the Stegosaur videos.

I also give points for not being able to figure who did what halfway through the book. I hate it when that happens.

Yes, this was a fun read. I'm definitely going to read the other titles by this author.

[Sabrina Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The premise is absolutely ridiculous but an original take on the classic 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 actually the prequel to Anonymous Rex. I re-read these every so often when my other reading gets a bit heavy.

[Fred · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a good casual read. Although the book didn't grab me and suck me in and the characters were only so-so, the writing style was humorous and lighthearted. I'd take a book like this to the beach or on a plane, and it perfectly fit my book clubs dino/crime theme for the month.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who would think a series of books about a velociraptor private investigator dressed in a human 'guise' would make for such an entertaining read (and a story that's not that hard to get into)? Vincent Rubio is a dino PI who is quite entertaining, flaws and all.

[Sharon]

A series of satires of "hard-boiled detective" fiction. The premise? Dinosaurs faked their own extinction and are now living disguised as humans. There is even a dinosaur mafia.

[Greggd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good fun, not sure how the whole series holds up, but I liked this one

[Angie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whats better than a detective story? A detective story starring dinosaurs that have to pretend they are humans. Number three in the series.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A classic detective story with an audacious and quite successful twist. Great narrator, wonderful characters, fast paced story.

[Amy Sjoquist · Rating 1 out of 5]

Tried to read. Didn't get into it.

[Corielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it! Snarky, weird and wonderful.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm absurdly entertained by the Rex books -- ridiculous fun.

[Squeaky · Rating 3 out of 5]

This isn't fiction, is it?

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

fun