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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
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