Everything in Texas is bigger...even murder.

Meet Tres Navarre...tequila drinker, Tai Chi master, unlicensed P.I., with a penchant for Texas-size trouble.

Jackson "Tres" Navarre and his enchilada-eating cat, Robert Johnson, pull into San Antonio and find nothing waiting but trouble. Ten years ago Navarre left town and the memory of his father's murder behind him. Now he's back, looking for answers. Yet the more Tres digs, trying to put his suspicions to rest, the fresher the decade-old crime looks: Mafia connections, construction site payoffs, and slick politicians' games all conspire to ruin his homecoming.

It's obvious Tres has stirred up a hornet's nest of trouble. He gets attacked, shot at, run over by a big blue Thunderbird—and his old girlfriend, the one he wants back, turns up missing. Tres has to rescue the woman, nail his father's murderer, and get the hell out of Dodge before mob-style Texas justice catches up to him. The chances of staying alive looked better for the defenders of the Alamo....
Rick Riordan has loaded his first mystery with lots of genre baggage: this story about a man coming home to San Antonio, Texas, to rescue his old girlfriend and solve the 12-year-old murder of his sheriff father is a virtual homage to James (The Last Good Kiss) Crumley. But Riordan writes so well about the people and topography of his hometown that he very quickly marks the territory as his own. Tres Navarre has put behind him the teenage days when he and his friend Ralph Arguello would cruise through San Antonio, drinking a ferocious mixture of cheap tequila and Big Red cream soda. A University of California Ph.D. in English plus a fascination with t'ai chi ch'uan led Tres naturally enough to work as a private investigator in San Francisco. But one call from the love of his early life--the mysterious and captivating Lillian Cambridge, now trapped in dangerous work and love relationships--and Tres gladly trades his trendy Peet's coffee for the stronger brews of home.

Customer Rating:
Summary: You Can Go Home Again--But It's Murder
Comment: Big Red Tequila introduces Tres Navarre, the unlicensed private investigator, t'ai chi master and English Ph.D. However, in this first book in the series, Tres seems a smaller, humbler figure as he returns home to face the ghosts of his past, including the unsolved murder of his father and the girlfriend he abandoned ten years earlier. He receives a less than Texas-friendly reception as his very presence stirs up memories of the shooting of his father the Sheriff, as well as his decision to cut and run to California. The near universal contempt he encounters from the elders of San Antonio is magnified when his homecoming coincides with the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend. Of course, this disdain and periodic run-ins with thugs (who are no match for his martial arts skills)only serve to deepen his resolve. However, the further he digs, the more he finds out that there are some family secrets which should remain hidden.

San Antonio writer Rick Riordan does an admirable job of turning his sun-drenched hometown into a landscape of Gothic menace. Although this is ostensibly a mystery novel, it has elements of a spaghetti Western as the loner hero must face down menace and treachery on every side. Fortunately, there are comic elements, such as Robert Johnston, the enchilada eating cat and Gary Hales, the nosy landlord with a penchant for watering concrete, which keep the drama from becoming overwhelming.

Well-drawn characters, vivid locales and a twisting plot keep this story exciting to the end.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: First of a Great Series
Comment: I picked up on the Tres Navarre series by Rick Riordan in the middle, with Southtown, which was an incredible novel with indelible characters and a page-turning mystery plot. I had to check out this series from the beginning, and The Big Red Tequila, the first book in the series, didn't disappoint me.

Tres Navarre is returning to his hometown of San Antonio after years in California. Two things draw him back--the longing to find out if a perfect romance from early in his life can be rekindled, and the need to find out who killed his father, a law enforcement officer who was gunned down in front of Tres when he was 13.

I love everything about this book--from the real feel of the setting (I've never been to San Antonio but can hear/smell/feel/taste it from the descriptions) to the dialogue, to the memorable characters who are no where near perfect but still likeable people--except for the bad guys, who are suitably vicious. I even love Tres' insane cat, Robert Johnson.

I went right on to the next book in the series (Widowers Two Step) and liked it just as much. Can't wait to read more of this author!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Designed to be trendy, but boring
Comment: A toughguy who likes Tai Chi - how unpredictable. No, really. Oh, and he has a beautiful but neurotic ex, and then a stable ex, and there's supposed to be drama. And then he investigates some plot retired from old episodes of Dallas twenty years ago. This isn't badly written, and if you haven't seen through Robert Parker yet, maybe you'll still enjoy it, but to me it was predictably "unpredictable" and devoid of any real reading value.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Must Read
Comment: This is Rick Riordan's first novel and it is wonderful. Tres Navarre is introduced (as this is a series) as a PI in San Antonio. This book will delight those who like mystery/thrillers or books that take place in Texas. Riordan is a masterful writer who does an extremely well job of describing his characters and surrounds. Read this book and the ones that follow and you will not be dissappointed.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Start here
Comment: The Average Customer Review is four stars, and I agree. It seems everyone has a detective novel these days, and I would think it would be difficult to create a new character that stands out from the pack. Riordan has done this with Tres Navarre. The next couple Navarre novels get better, so start here.

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