Anonymous Rex by Eric Garcia

We had a wide variety of participation at this meeting. Thirteen people attended in person, two people emailed reports, and one person phoned in comments. Anonymous Rex is a humorous mystery novel. In this book’s world, a secret society of dinosaurs exists in the 21st century. The dinosaurs disguise themselves as humans and participate in society under fake identities. The book tells the story of Los Angeles private investigator Vincent Rubio, a velociraptor looking for his partner’s killer. Eleven of us had read the book.

Many of us liked this book a lot, and one even called it “a hoot!” The secret society was cleverly constructed, and we were amused when celebrities from our world turned out to be dinosaurs. Rubio?s amusing and sympathetic narrator helps make the book a successful noir detective story. Three members of the group had liked the book so much that they’d already bought and read its sequel, Casual Rex.

Several people found the book had serious flaws. We had trouble suspending disbelief. We kept wondering how the dinosaurs were able to fit themselves into human suits – particularly the dino swimsuit model. We questioned the dinosaur biology, and felt that a sex scene in the book just could not have happened as it was described. The book seemed to be filled with clever bits, but they didn’t add up to a strong whole detective story.

Anonymous Rex turned out to be a book that polarizes people. They either like it a lot or want to poke holes in the story. We recommend it to anyone who thinks it sounds like fun.

After the meeting, several of us had a nice dinner at Ninfa’s.

— A. T. Campbell, III