While the worst-case scenario envisioned by most professors at the University of Texas at San Antonio probably involves lost essays or a failed tenure bid, recently the medievalists at UTSA have wound up deader than their favorite language. At first, the deaths seemed like accidents. Dr. Theodore Haimer was forced to take an early retirement when his remarks about "the damn coddled Mexicans at UTSA" found their way into the Express-News. Shortly thereafter, the old man was discovered deceased, his head in a bowl of Apple Jacks, the result of an apparent heart attack. His successor, the young Dr. Aaron Brandon, continued to receive the vituperation and death threats that had followed his predecessor to the grave. Then, halfway into the semester, Brandon was also found dead--murdered. Now, Tres Nevarre is the only man crazy enough to fill the vacant chair of Chaucer studies and murder avoidance at the amiable institution. His first day on the job is the clincher: an exploding package leaves him both scarred and excited for the only academic job he's ever found that rivals Indiana Jones's.

Riordan's style blends the hipness of Elmore Leonard with the sardonic humor of Janet Evanovich. And like Evanovich, Riordan draws on the colorful character of his locale--in his case the twangy chili con carnage of San Antonio academic life--to pepper his narrative with a mixture of medieval literature, Tex-Mex dialogue, and Sherlock Holmesian puzzles. While there aren't many more awards for Riordan to conquer, The Last King of Texas will certainly win him some more loyal fans. --Patrick O'Kelley

Product Description
Multiple-award-winning author Rick Riordan brings back smart-mouthed Texas P.I. Tres Navarre for his most dangerous case yet. If you think the academic world is deadly dull, you're half right....

When a controversial English professor is found shot to death, Tres Navarre — P.I. and Ph.D. — is the only local academic crazy enough to accept the emergency opening at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Police assure him they already have a suspect, so while they wrap up the open-and-shut case, all Tres has to do is teach three classes, grade on a curve ... and walk in a dead man's shoes.

It should be an easy assignment — but one thing Tres doesn't do is easy. When the evidence in the case starts looking a little too perfect, when the killing doesn't stop, Tres takes on some extracurricular research into the heart of an assassin — and lands in a high-stakes game of gangster honor on the darkest streets of San Antonio's West Side....

This novel has Tres taking a professorship with University of Texas, San Antonio. He's to protect himself from becoming the third professor in the position that dies and to help the detective agency he works for to find the killer of the other two.

I liked the characters I was supposed to like and disliked the characters I was supposed to dislike. I was suitably confused about who the real bad guy was till the end of the book. I like the way the author writes about San Antonio.

One thing Rick Riordan needs to work on is his gun lore, although it wouldn't surprise me if the author considered himself above guns. For me it was like finger nails on the blackboard when he talks about "silenced .357 semi-auto handguns" or "mercury filled .45 slugs leaving pock marks" in the stone around a fireplace or "a high powered Mossberg over and under."

Grrrrrr.

The .357 caliber is typically used in revolvers and it wouldn't be a good choice for use with a silencer because the bullet itself travels over the speed of sound and makes its own little sonic boom after it leaves the firearm. The mercury filled .45 might be a direct steal from Day of the Jackal but even if it isn't the point of the mercury would be to cause a tremendous amount of expansion of the bullet when it hit something. It shouldn't penetrate the victim and still have enough force to scar the brickwork around the fireplace. It should expend all of its energy in the victim. Finally the high powered Mossberg over and under would read much cleaner if it had been referred to as a Mossberg pump. Mossberg is famous for their low cost, high quality, high capacity, pump shotguns. Also "high power" is a term usually used for handguns and rifles, not for shotguns of any type. John Sandford gets this right in his "Prey" books.

I do think I owe it to the author and myself to read another Tres Navarre book. Rick Riordan has won several mystery book awards which means you can't go too far wrong in buying one of his stories.


The Last King of Texas   November 2, 2001
 0 out of 1 found this review helpful

The third effort of author Riordan and his featured lead character Tres Navarre was a bit disappointing to me in comparison with the first two books, Big Red Tequila & Widow's Two Step.
I particularly did not care for Riordan's attempted "put downs" of the University of Texas of the Permian Basin, which is a sister institution to the University of Texas at San Antonio. The immediate deceased, Aaron Brandon, had been employed for six years at UTPB before moving to UTSA a few months before. UTPB is smeared in comparison with UTSA as one known among academia as the University of Texas of the "Permanent Basement." The characters' dialogue does not ring true when the widow talks about their years spent at "Permian Basin." No one talks that way in real life. The school is referred to by locals as simply UTPB and people either live in Midland or Odessa or other area towns, but not at "Permian Basin."
The plot was somewhat cumbersome and I certainly hope for a better effort by Riordan in his latest, Devil Went Down to Austin.
As an author, Riordan is a long way from the quality of Michael Connelly, Lawrence Block, or Michael McGarrity but I will continue to read nevertheless.


I Enjoyed This Book   September 25, 2001
 4 out of 5 found this review helpful

I enjoyed this book. I am a huge fan of mysteries, especially mysteries like this one. Rick Riordan is a fine story teller, and he captures the multicultural aspects of contemporary Texas perfectly. The Last King of Texas is an excellent book.