A Bantam Paperback Original (Tres Navarre series #1)
Pub Date: June 1997
ISBN: 0-553-57644-5
ANTHONY AWARD WINNER -- BEST ORIGINAL PAPERBACK, 1997
SHAMUS AWARD WINNER - BEST FIRST P.I. NOVEL, 1997
Tres (pronounced "trace") Navarre is an unlicensed private eye, a tequila drinker, tai chi master and outcast from Academia with a PhD in medieval studies and more than a few degrees from the street. After ten years in San Francisco, Tres comes home to San Antonio, hoping to put to rest old memories of the murder of his father, formerly the Sheriff of Bexar County. But the more Tres asks questions about that long-ago crime, the more he stirs up a hornet's nest of politicians, mobsters, and crooked businessmen, all with secrets to hide and reasons to hate the Navarre family. The chances of survival looked better for the defenders of the Alamo.
"A stand-out! What makes this a truly worthy debut is Riordan's voice. Hard to escape calling it hard-boiled Tex-Mex but that's what it is. The dialogue is terse and the long first person descriptions show an unbeatable flair for detail. You can almost feel the summer storms rolling over South Texas."
-- Publishers Weekly, starred review
"Riordan writes so well about the people and topography of his Texas hometown that he quickly marks the territory as his own."
-- The Chicago Tribune
"You couldn't find a better book to curl up with on the beach, or on the porch of a mountain cabin, or in your backyard hammock. Grab a copy!"
-- The Purloined Letter
"Texas ambience served baking hot. This engaging private eye plainly has an exciting career ahead of him."
-- The Portland Oregonian
La Villita virtual tour The site of Lillian Cambridge's Hecho a Mano Gallery, La Villita is one of the oldest and quaintest sections of San Antonio. The picture above is the Arneson River Theater, where Tres goes for an inadvertent swim.
Blue Star Art Complex. Beau Karnau's last photo show happens here. Blue Star is a hot and happening place for art galleries, artist studios, and San Antonio society to gather, drink, and gossip.
Mi Tierra. The grand dame of San Antonio's Mexican food restaurants, this place is open 24 hours and serves some dynamite food. Lillian and Tres have their first reunion date here.
Bats at the Congress Ave Bridge(Austin) Tres, Maia, and Garrett meet here to discuss a certain high tech problem. Austin is Garrett's home town, and the Congress Avenue bats have become a local institution over the past few years.
WOAI, San Antonio radio station and web site. Download Real Audio and listen to the "Voice of South Texas." Tres finds himself listening to this station, his parents' favorite, while he on stake-out with no company but his VW's AM radio.
Jim Cullum's Landing. This place is an institution on the San Antonio Riverwalk. Jim Cullum has been cranking out the jazz for longer than I've been alive and the band still sounds damn good. This is one of the places Tres and Maia pass by on their night at the Riverwalk.
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