Anonymous Rex [Paperback]

In Eric Garcia's wild but winning first mystery, dinosaurs never did get wiped out--they evolved secretly and now make up about 5 percent of the world's population. There are dinosaur doctors, lawyers, even detectives like Rubio--although he's hit a low point in his own career because of the suspicious death of his beloved partner. Now the distraught Vincent sucks up so much basil that he can't do his job. But when a human who knows the dinosaur's secret is killed during an arson fire at a popular dino disco called the Evolution Club, Rubio's luck begins to change. He starts to snoop, following the trail of a lovely human female to the office of Dr Emil Vallardo, where bizarre experiments are being done on inter-species breeding between humans and dinosaurs. It's all great comic-book fun, full of nice little inside jokes, served up deadpan and with full respect for the private-eye genre which it enlivens. --Dick Adler

In Eric Garcia's wild but winning first mystery, dinosaurs never did get wiped out--they evolved secretly and now make up about five percent of the world's population. There are dinosaur doctors, lawyers, even detectives like Rubio--although he's hit a low point in his own career because of the suspicious death of his beloved partner. Now the distraught Vincent sucks up so much basil that he can't do his job. But when a human who knows the dinosaur's secret is killed during an arson fire at a popular dino disco called the Evolution Club, Rubio's luck begins to change. He starts to snoop, following the trail of a lovely human female to the office of Dr. Emil Vallardo, where bizarre experiments are being done on inter-species breeding between humans and dinosaurs. It's all great comic book fun, full of nice little inside jokes, served up deadpan and with full respect for the private eye genre which it enlivens. --Dick Adler --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

‘You’re mostly going to be dazzled by Garcia’s energy and chutzpah’
Publishers Weekly

‘A whimsical surprisingly logical farce’
Kirkus Reviews

‘The story’s sly, seamlessly conceived dinosaur underworld contains all the elements of a cult classic’
Entertainment Weekly

‘A weird and wonderful cross between a Mickey Spillane crime novel and a dodgy late-night sci-fi series.’
The Big Issue

A private-eye murder mystery with a difference set in Los Angeles and New York.

Eric Garcia’s hilarious and brilliant debut novel is as noir and hard-boiled as they come, a private-eye murder mystery set in Los Angeles and New York. It’s tough, wisecracking, fast-paced, violent and, occasionally, tender.

So what’s new? Only that the private-eye in question is a dinosaur, prone to overindulging his taste for basil rather than whisky! Like 5% of the world’s population, he has evolved over the ages to be as small as a human, and a master of disguise so that he can survive without the other 95% knowing about him. With his make-up and costume on, he looks like everyone else.

But this case could stretch the human/dino relationship to the limits!

'Any detective hatched from an egg brings new meaning to 'hard boiled''

Meet Vincent Rubio, PI. He's your typical down-on-his-luck hard-boiled private investigator in Los Angeles: he's out of work; his car's been repossessed; his partner died under mysterious circumstances; he's got a substance abuse problem (basil is his weakness); and his tail just won't stay put. Because Vincent is a Velociraptor, one of the many dinosaurs who still roam the earth, wrapped up in convincing latex costumes to help them blend perfectly into human society. When Vincent is called to investigate a two-bit case of arson at a hip dino nightclub, he discovers something sinister that lures him back to the scene of his partner's death, and a dangerous nexus of dinosaur and human intermingling…

When classic tough detective noir fiction meets dinosaurs, you could only get something as amazingly funny, fast-paced and just plain wild as 'Anonymous Rex'.

"You're mostly going to be dazzled by Garcia's energy and chutzpah" PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

"The story's sly, seamlessly conceived dinosaur underworld contains all the elements of a cult classic." ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

"A weird and wonderful cross between a Mickey Spillane crime novel and a dodgy late night sci-fi series." THE BIG ISSUE

"A whimsical, surprisingly logical farce." KIRKUS REVIEWS

Eric Garcia is a 27-year-old writer from Miami. He attended Cornell University and the University of Southern California, where he majored in creative writing and film. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Sabrina, and their dachshund, Oliver.