In this debut novel, Tres returns to San Antonio after having fled ten years previously after the murder of his father. He returns to wrestle with his past and to find the truth behind his father's death. In the process, he uncovers a conspiracy that involves families he's known all his life, forcing him to weigh love, loyalty, and compassion against the truth.


A rip-roarin' good time!   April 1, 2000
 10 out of 11 found this review helpful

Big Red Tequila is one of the funniest, smartest, slickest books I've read in a long time. Riordan does a fabulous job of imbuing his work with the sights, smells and sounds of San Antonio, and his characters seem incredibly real and multi-dimensional (even the bad guys!). The dialog crackles with wit and little details like the enchilada-eating cat and the half-brother with a passion for Jimmy Buffet's music just add to the entertainment. While the actual "mystery" in this book is perfectly adequate, to me it was almost secondary. I found the real fun was tagging along with Tres as he criss-crossed the city of San Antonio from La Villita to Monte Verde to the most exclusive neighborhoods with their gated entrances (which, of course, he always managed to talk his way into). I can't wait to read the rest of the series. Highly recommended!


This Texan loved it!   March 17, 2000
 8 out of 9 found this review helpful

What a hoot this was to read. As a Texan, I especially appreciated the "laid back" flavor of this charming and "out there" book. Tres Navarre has enough cowboy in him to be charming and enough intellectual ability to be much more than a cartoonish hero! Imagine a PhD in English who loves cats with peculiar eating habits and spikes his Big Red with good tequila...hard to fathom but tons of fun. Tres gets himself in so much trouble trying to figure out who killed his sheriff-father ten years earlier, but he has a tremendous support system including his aging but gorgeous beatnik mother and his savvy lawyer ex-girlfriend from California. Tres is a complicated man. As soon as I finished this book, I grabbed up The Widower's Two-Step and devoured it as well. Can't wait to read the Last King of Texas. I only noticed a couple of things that didn't ring true, like the mis-spelling of the name of a prominent Texas family from the King Ranch. The Klaybergs referred were actually the Kleburgs, but then maybe Riordan changed the spelling intentionally--don't know--and it doesn't change anything of significance in the story. This was a good read. I recommend Tres Navarre and his friends to everyone with a taste for fun and adventure.


Big, read, and intoxicating.   June 5, 2001
 7 out of 7 found this review helpful

It's a big book...lots of pages, lots of characters, and lots of Texas lore and description. Lots of action, too...fights and bullets and druggings and cracked bones and teeth. And a complicated plot, with motives tripping all over each other.

Like the setting, this novel is so big it's almost overwhelming. So here's how you read it: one beautifully constructed sentence at a time! Go slow, savor the descriptions and the characters and the twisty plots.

It's a big book, and a fine one. I recommend it.