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Rick Riordan is a member of that very small fraternity of writers who seems to have been gathering an ever-larger collection of accolades almost from the first time that he set pen to paper. He has been awarded all three of the mystery genre's highest prizes --- the Shamus, Edgar and Anthony awards --- and sustains the momentum that he has painstakingly built up over the course of his previous five novels with the publication of SOUTHTOWN.
The focus of SOUTHTOWN is a Frankensteinian monster named Will Stirman. Stirman is not an artificial construct; his similarity to Shelley's creation arises from his modification and moral destruction from outside forces. Riordan gives subtle but telling revelations into Stirman's character almost from the opening paragraph of SOUTHTOWN. Stirman, when we are first introduced to him, is a trustee in a maximum-security prison. The opening setting of SOUTHTOWN is rife with tension with the revelation of Stirman's intentions to escape from prison and exact a measure of long-simmering revenge upon those who irrevocably changed his world, those who abruptly took from him his one shot at redemption and all that he held dear.
Tres Navarre, the private investigator introduced in Riordan's first novel BIG RED TEQUILA, is in the path of Stirman's juggernaut only by circumstance. Navarre is employed by Erainya Manos, the head of a struggling San Antonio private investigation firm and the widow of one of the men from whom Stirman is belatedly seeking revenge and retribution. Stirman's other target is Sam Barrera, the head of his own PI firm, which is Manos's main competition. Barrera is sinking into the dark well of dementia and trying unsuccessfully to hide it. Locked within his memory is the secret that is both catalyst and key to Stirman's vendetta.
While Navarre is the connection point for many of the characters involved, he almost seems here to be a guest in his own book, surrounded by a cast of fascinating characters who are by turns blessed and flawed in great and terrible ways; they are ultimately more interesting than he is. This is initially a bit disconcerting, but Riordan's craftsmanship is such that one quickly gets used to the idea that it is Stirman, not Navarre, who is ultimately the focal point of SOUTHTOWN. Riordan painstakingly builds to an apocalyptic climax that explodes on several fronts, all of which ultimately lead to an enigmatic but oddly satisfying ending.
Riordan touches occasionally into territory mined, but by no means depleted, by James Lee Burke and Stephen Hunter; readers of both these authors will find much to enjoy with Riordan as well. Riordan demonstrates with SOUTHTOWN that the accolades he has received were not by default; he is here to stay.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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