Best of the Bunch Award: Mission Road by Rick Riordan

Lyrical Reviews hosts an award ceremony at the end of each month, called “Best of the Bunch”. Each participating blogger is required to submit a post about his or her favorite book of that particular month.

Although I have read this book long before September, this is my first time participating and I feel as though I should share thois book with you, as I commonly regard it as a favorite. Don’t miss the ceremony on their blog on tomorrow, September 30th, and remember to participate in the October ceremony!

Mission Road by Rick Riordan

About:

“The past collides explosively with the present in Edgar-winner Riordan’s sixth Tres Navarre novel (after 2004′s Southtown) when
Navarre’s boyhood friend, reformed criminal Ralph Arguello, appears on his doorstep wearing a blood-soaked guayabera barely one step ahead of the San Antonio police. The cops believe Arguello’s wife, cold case detective Ana DeLeon, is about to name her husband as the prime suspect in the 18-year-old unsolved murder of Franklin White, son of a local organized crime boss—and, more
incredibly, that Arguello shot her to slow down the investigation. Arguello convinces Navarre he’s being set up, and the two of them struggle to evade a citywide manhunt and discover the real killer’s identity. Riordan jump-cuts between the present and the mid-1980s to tell the story of White’s murder and to provide background for the main characters, including Ana’s mother Lucia, one of the city’s first female cops.”

 

If you haven’t read any of Riordan’s Tres Navarre novels yet and you are a crime fiction fan, drop everything and read one of them right now. Any of them. Each book in the series has it’s own unique qualities, each one with a shocking revelation at the end, and each one deserves a five-star review. Mission Road is probably my favorite in the series, but each book is so great that there is only a slight difference in quality.

From the explosive, breath-taking opening, this book gripped me and it didn’t let go until I reached the shocking conclusion. It seemed pretty straightforward at first and I had my eyes set on a potential killer from the very beginning. As the novel progressed, this killer began to appear more and more guilty to the point where – with one chapter left – I was certain that it was this particular killer. And with about three pages left, this killer was finally revealed and I discovered that my suspicions were correct. Okay, right? WRONG. I was busy basking in my own success in selecting the killer at the time and I decided to read the last three pages just for good measure. At the final few sentences, my heart was pounding as new knowledge was revealed, so much to the point that I couldn’t believe the words I was reading. I won’t spoil anything, but in the final sentence, the true killer is revealed and it is the person who you least suspect… I read this entire novel in hardly over one sitting since it was so intense and I simply could not put it down! The plot was totally unique and extremely riveting, the characters were all realistic and had a certain compelling vibe to them, just your classic Riordan. Driven by Riordan’s strong, sarcastic yet powerful voice and his rich prose, this book is not only well written but enthralling as well. I would recommend Mission Road to all crime fiction/thriller/suspense/mystery fans or really anyone who would like to experiment with the best in a new genre. It certainly deserves this month’s Best of the Bunch Award!

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Here are a few funny lines that I stumbled upon this morning:
“Have a complaint? Go to www.inyourdreams.com!”
“We all have opinions; mine are just more important than yours!”

The Reason, the second book in the Lobotomy trilogy, is free with this coupon: KB99U. Note: the coupon expires Friday, August 19th.