Casual Rex
A Novel
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- ¥1,700
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- ¥1,700
発行者による作品情報
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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Vincent Rubio is your typical PI: He's single, drives a Lincoln, has trouble saying no to a good-looking woman and occasionally takes photos of unfaithful husbands with their mistresses for extra cash. The only things separating him from other hard-boiled private eyes are his tail, claws and reptilian hide. In this prequel to the popular Anonymous Rex, Garcia spins another comical scenario involving Vincent and a host of other dinosaurs who never became extinct and have integrated themselves into modern society by covering up with human-looking latex costumes. Once readers get over the initial oddness of the idea, a somewhat normal detective story materializes: Vincent and his partner, Ernie, are hired by Ernie's ex-wife (herself a T. Rex) to rescue her brother Rupert from a cult group he's become involved in. As they immerse themselves in Rupert's recovery, Vincent and Ernie learn more about the cult, a sort of heritage club for dinosaurs who call themselves the Progressives. Further investigation uncovers some shady doings, and the two detectives throw themselves headlong into an inquiry involving the Progressives and other young dinos who've been lured in like Rupert. Meanwhile, in a nutty side story, the dino-shamuses agree to help their landlord get back a certain human body part of his that his girlfriend stole. Garcia keeps the jokes coming, bordering on overwriting but coming out on top to present a tale that's slightly cornball, at times hilarious and unquestionably original--though not as original as the first novel and exuding a faint air of shtick.
