Anonymous Rex

Starred review from June 28, 1999
Jonathan Lethem's 1995 PI spoof, Gun, with Occasional Music, featured a genetically altered, talking kangaroo hit man, but Vincent Rubio, the Los Angeles detective hero of Garcia's audacious and imaginative debut, would have him for lunch. Rubio is a dinosaur--specifically, a Velociraptor, one of those deadly creatures who did so much damage in Jurassic Park. Garcia's outrageous conceit, beautifully supported by research and wit, is that dinosaurs never did become extinct. They secretly evolved and learned to coexist with an unsuspecting human population through an elaborate system of disguises and deceptions. (Those fossils that decorate most museums? Fakes left to fool gullible humans.) With the dinosaur community now about 5% of the human population, including doctors, cops and NFL players (most of them Brontosaurs), there should be plenty of work for a smart PI like Rubio. But ever since his beloved partner's death in a suspicious accident, the Raptor has been on a downslide. He hits the herbs too hard (his drug of choice is basil), and behaves so badly that even the nasty T-Rex who manages a large detective agency ("He had a sheep for breakfast," notes Rubio. "I can make out the fur on his molars") won't give him work. But in the true spirit of the genre, every dino dick gets a chance at redemption. Rubio's comes when he stumbles onto some top secret stuff about highly illegal mating between dinosaurs and humans. You might not believe any of this 30 seconds after you close the covers, and at odd moments the narrative veers into shtick, but while it's going on you're mostly going to be dazzled by Garcia's energy and chutzpah. Agent, Barbara Zitwer Alicea. Author tour.

July 1, 1999
Meet Vincent Rubio, the latest thing in hard-boiled private detectives. He's a dinosaur--it seems they're still among us, disguising themselves as humans. As a private eye, Rubio finds plenty of problems to solve, among them an arson case, the death of his partner, and the need to keep his true identity concealed. This book is as slug-nutty as they come--dinosaurs are known by the scents they exude and have trouble keeping their tails tucked in--but it does follow the time-honored formula for crime-and-detection fiction: intricacy of plot, mystification, unexpectedness, and progress toward a solution. Readers who are willing to meet young newcomer Garcia on his own absurdist terms, who have an appreciation for nonsense, and who do not object to anthropomorphic romps should find this a provocative tease, but it will probably jar the sensibilities of hard-core detective fiction buffs who take their mysteries seriously. Try it if your readers like laughs with their crime. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/15/99.]--A.J. Anderson, GSLIS, Simmons Coll., Boston

Copyright 1999 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2000
-An imaginative and delightful trip into a very original fantasy via the mystery format. The story is told from the viewpoint of Vincent Rubio, a down-on-his-luck gumshoe, his soft core hidden by a cynical, hard-bitten outside. Actually, it's just the reverse: his soft human facade hides a hard-bitten interior. Rubio is a dinosaur. Literally a raptor, he is one of 16 dinosaur species that survived "The Great Showers" 65 million years ago. A whole hidden society exists in his world; dinosaurs scaled down in size and hidden inside complex, latex, human "guises," governed by Councils, recognizing each other by the distinctive odors only dinos can smell. Ankylosaurs tend to be used-car dealers; police, bouncers, and athletes count brontosaurs among their members; compysaurs are whiners; and singer John Fogerty is an ornithomimus. Council rules are absolute: no dino changes his guise identity without permission and any humans ("apes") who learn of their world must die, immediately. There is a mystery going on underneath the explanations of dinosaur lore. A nightclub has burned, a dino is dead, and the disgraced Rubio, who disobeyed Council while investigating his partner's suspicious death, is charged with finding out what happened. The mystery involves cross-race and cross-species breedings, a lounge singer who is not what she appears to be, and plenty of clue gathering. Actually, the story is just background music to the fantastic world created by Garcia. Young adults will love this page-turner that's full of wonder, laughs, and what-ifs.-Carol DeAngelo, Kings Park Library, Burke, VA

Copyright 2000 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 1999
Here's something new from a 26-year-old writer whose quirky sense of humor and outrageous premise give new life to the hard-boiled genre. With a dead-partner complex and a scorched reputation, tough-talking PI Vincent Rubio is down on his luck. He's also hooked on basil, which isn't particularly odd among dinosaurs. Rubio, you see, is a dinosaur, one of many who escaped the dirt cloud of extinction and have been quietly roaming the earth--in human drag--for a very long time. When the investigation of an L.A. fire is dumped in his lap, Rubio gets a chance to shine up his rep, look into his partner's death, and dig into some nasty rumors about interspecies research. The mystery works well enough, and there's plenty of bloody brawling (dinos aren't dainty) and even some sex (dino and human style), but it's the screwball details that make the story: picture dinos stuffed into latex body suits, sniffing out their comrades in disguise, and running around private reptile clubs with their tails hanging out. What a hoot. ((Reviewed July 1999))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1999, American Library Association.)