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| Mission Road | 
 enlarge | Author: Rick Riordan
Publisher: Bantam
Category: Book
List Price: $6.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 186034
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 6.9 x 4.2 x 1.2
ISBN: 0553583263
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780553583267
ASIN: 0553583263
Publication Date: February 28, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Former Library book. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. 100% Money Back Guarantee. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy!
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Product Description
The triple-crown winner of mystery’s most prestigious awards–the Edgar, the Anthony, and the Shamus–Rick Riordan blasted onto the crime scene with one of its freshest and most intriguing protagonists, Tres Navarre. In Mission Road, Navarre returns in a wrenching crime drama in which he must revisit the sins of the past to catch a killer about to get away with murder…again.
San Antonio private investigator Tres Navarre is used to working on the edge–that razor-sharp line between legal and life sentence. But this time he’s stepped straight into a no-man’s-land. When an old friend appears at his door spattered with blood and wanted for attempted homicide, Tres doesn’t have to think twice about where his loyalty lies–or the consequences.
Ralph Arguello is a criminal who put the street life behind him when he married SAPD detective Ana DeLeon. Now Ana’s been gunned down and her fellow cops don’t need to look far to find a prime suspect. For Ana recently reopened the most infamous cold case in SAPD history–the unsolved murder on notorious Mission Road eighteen years before that threw the San Antonio underworld into bloody chaos. Ana was about to bring charges against the suspected killer: her husband, Ralph Arguello.Tres is sure that Ralph didn’t do it–and that he didn’t shoot his wife. But with the police and the Mafia both out for revenge, there’s no one to turn to for help.
Now, armed and dangerous, the targets of a citywide manhunt, Tres and Ralph have just hours to
discover what really happened on Mission Road almost two decades ago. To find the truth, they must set a collision course with the past–and with a secret that will tear their lives apart.
From the Hardcover edition.
Download Description
Rick Riordan is the author of five previous Tres Navarre novels–Big Red Tequila, winner of the Shamus and Anthony Awards; The Widower’s Two-Step, winner of the Edgar Award; The Last King of Texas; The Devil Went Down to Austin; and Southtown. He is also the author of the acclaimed thriller Cold Springs and an upcoming novel for young readers, The Lightning Thief. Riordan lives with his family in San Antonio, Texas.
From the Hardcover edition.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
 A return to form, and more July 15, 2005
9 out of 11 found this review helpful
The first time I opened this book, I was fifty pages in before I looked up again. Around page 75, I decided maybe I should get back to work. It was a little past page 100 before I finally did.
The next day -- today -- I finished the book. And what a ride it was.
I haven't decided quite yet whether this is the best Tres Navarre book. But what I'm sure of is that it's much better than "Southtown," which I found unsatisfying. Part of it may be that now I'm more used to Rick Riordan's shift to third-person narration, with only the chapters focusing on Tres' himself told in first person. As a result of this change, this story, like "Southtown," has a lot less Tres in it than the earlier volumes did. And because Tres is such a well-drawn character, I missed that focus on him here like I did in "Southtown."
The difference is that "Mission Road" is a much stronger story than "Southtown," and one that hits even closer to home for our hero. Whereas "Southtown" felt rushed and even a little superficial, "Mission Road" reminded me of "Cold Springs," Riordan's non-Tres novel, in its intensity and (as the professional reviewers would say) blistering pace. Not having to frame everything from Tres' point of view has allowed Riordan to create an especially powerful story -- one that gets right down to business and moves very quickly. No wonder I was so drawn in.
There's one other thing I really like about the Tres Navarre stories. Whereas some mystery series are like episodic TV shows, where once the problem-of-the-day is resolved, everything goes back to the *status quo ante*, these books aren't like that. Each novel has led to changes in Tres' life -- some relatively small, but others (as in "Southtown") quite significant. Without giving anything away, I think I can say the changes that happen in "Mission Road" are some of the biggest yet. While this book would be a good introduction to someone who's never read Rick Riordan before, I think people who have read all the previous books in the series will get a lot more emotional impact out of what happens here.
"Southtown" left me unsatisfied and wanting more. "Mission Road" left me drained -- an unusual response for me -- but satisfied. And, of course, wanting more.
A complex, well-told drama July 16, 2005
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
One of my personal benchmarks for good writing has to do with the backlot of the story, if you will. If I find, while reading a tale, that the narrative makes me want to jump into the car and drive to the city where the novel is set --- book in hand, of course --- then the author has pushed my buttons.
Accordingly, Rick Riordan is on my list of must-read authors. His novels, featuring San Antonio-based private investigator Tex Navarre, make me yearn for the city of St. Anthony, a place to which I have never been. Riordan sets up a deceptively simple plot and makes the most of every single element, resulting in a riveting, attention-grabbing narrative that once begun is impossible to put down. Most significantly, however, Riordan has created a body of work that subtly paints a mural of words and images, combining the best and worst elements of both cultures. His latest book is no exception.
MISSION ROAD finds Navarre, the ultimate stand-up guy, involved with a childhood friend who is on the run, wanted for a crime he did not commit. Ralph Arguello has a shady past that has cast a long shadow into his present. The owner of a chain of legitimate pawnshops, his underworld connections don't seem to have affected his marriage to a respected San Antonio policewoman. Newly evaluated DNA evidence, however, appears to tie Arguello to a murder committed two decades previously. The victim, Frankie White, an old acquaintance of Navarre's and Arguello's, was rumored to be connected to a series of rapes and murders that terrorized the San Antonio community in the late 1980s. But Arguello is on the run not because of his possible involvement in White's long-unsolved murder, but because of a more immediate problem: Ana, Arguello's wife, has been found shot, perhaps mortally wounded, in their kitchen, and all signs point to Arguello as the murderer.
Navarre literally is the only person who Arguello can trust. Thus, Navarre is drawn into a deadly crossfire between the police and San Antonio's criminal element, which wants Arguello gone for its own reasons. Attorney Maia Lee, Navarre's love interest, also is put into the mix when she reluctantly begins investigating the charges, new and old, against Arguello, if only to keep Navarre safe. Her investigation not only uncovers a web of deception that stretches two decades into the past but also puts her in danger at a time when she and Navarre are approaching a potential crossroads in their relationship.
Riordan's critical acclaim has grown at a pace a bit faster than that of his commercial status, a state of affairs that hopefully will change with MISSION ROAD. Riordan does a masterful job of capturing the flavor and exotica of San Antonio while presenting what at first blush appears to be a simple A-B-C whodunit and transforming it into a complex, well-told drama that does not finish giving up all of its secrets until the very last page. MISSION ROAD demonstrates why Riordan and Navarre are deserving of the marquee status that they undoubtedly will attain one day.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
 Spenser is 1 in 10,000. Make up your mind February 27, 2006
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
This is my first Rick Riordan novel and it is my intention to read them all. It reminds me of Robert Ferrigno's brilliant "Heartbreaker," dark, edgy.
Mr. Riordan is very successful in jumping tenses, and you get a good feel for the other characters. I am unfamiliar with San Antonio so I felt, like GM Ford in Seattle, he was able to use the city like a character as well.
You know the plot. Beautiful but extremely credible cop falls in love and marries criminal. She rotates her shift to the (now) ever popular 'cold case' section and investigates a murder that has earmarks of her husband's tawdry past. And she's about to finger . . ., when she's shot and in a coma.
What I didn't care for is the wisecracking. It seemed to me, again like Ferrigno and Kyle Mills' alter ego, Michael Crow, that Riordan set out to write a dark novel. These are good. There's a huge place for them. Read James Lee Burke.
Dark novels don't do comedy well. You don't wear a baseball hat to a funeral. Crais and Parker and DeMille do smart aleck retorts well. That's their intention. I think Mr. Riordan should stick with the noir. 4 stars. Larry Scantlebury
fun two crime investigation June 29, 2005
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Former criminal Ralph Arguello asks his childhood friend private detective Tres Navarre for help. Apparently, the San Antonio Police Department believe he shot his wife detective Ana Deleon to prevent her from accusing him of killing Franklin White, a crime boss' son, eighteen years ago. Tres believes Ralph who insists he did not kill White or shoot his spouse, because he knows his pal would not shoot the woman he would die for.
While Ana lies comatose and the cops hunt for Ralph, he and Tres begin making inquiries into the White cold case. Tres assumes that Ana had figured out who clubbed the serial killing White to death. That person set up Ralph to take the fall for both crimes especially the present one. Tres knows he must uncover the real culprit before the police catch both of them and throw away the key he as an accessory to Ralph's attempted murder.
In his sixth appearance Tres remains competent and loyal as he works a cold case investigation while eluding a dragnet to arrest his friend for attempted murder and he for an accessory to the crime. The case is intriguing especially the flashbacks to what happened to White, an individual who readers will believe deserved to die and justice was served when he did, but the law sees that differently. Though not quite at the multiple-award winning level of SOUTHTOWN due to several "conveniences" that force Tres and Ralph on the lam. MISSION ROAD is a strong entry that fans will enjoy as the hero must serendipitously investigate two crimes almost two decades apart.
Harriet Klausner
Not the best in the series, but still a good read June 30, 2005
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Sustaining momentum in a series is always difficult, and a little strain shows in this sixth Tres Navarre novel. Thankfully, while Tres' act might wear somewhat thin, his girlfriend Maia Lee is around to pick up the slack.
The premise involves the shooting of cop Ana Deleon, and its relation to a cold case from almost 20 years before. Ralph Arguello, Ana's husband and Tres' friend, is an obvious and likely suspect, so it's up to Tres to help keep him free and to prove his innocence. Given that the case also ties into the White family, San Antonio's largest crime family, Tres must also keep Ralph from their grasp.
While Tres' behavior might seem somewhat old hat to those who have read the other books in the series, Maia emerges as a character equal to Tres. Her actions, both physical and otherwise, help the book through some weak spots. Hopefully, this will keep the series going strong for a while.
As I said in the title, this certainly isn't the best effort of the series - I'd put it somewhere in the middle. But I still think Tres, Maia, and the others have room to grow, and I think the series can sustain itself for a few more novels. Riordan is one of our most undervalued contemporary crime/p.i. writers, and it would be great to see this series grow in popularity.
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