A good, Philip Marlowe / Sam Spade sort of hardboiled gumshoe mystery, with a goodly amount of suspense, humor and mystery. Typical... except for the fact that the main character, and most of the characters in the book, are various species of dinosaurs. See, dinosaurs faked their extinction, and have been living among humans. Vincent Rubio is a slightly seedy, rumpled, mostly honest gumshoe who is drawn into a job for a dinosaur Mafioso which reunites him with a childhood best friend and his sister, whom he was in love with. A good tale with a surprise whodunnit answer that I did not see coming, even though I thought I had the traitor figured out. And any writer that can make the idea that the dinosaurs went undercover right among us instead of extinct, in the midst of a pretty good hardboiled detective story, is all right with me. ( )

The 3rd and final (?) book in the Dino PI series. I have no idea why it seems to be called the Dino Mafia series, because this is the only book in which the Mafia make an appearance.

It was well written, and tightly plotted, if a bit out of new ideas. The books prior to this have had an actual mystery for the main character, Vincent to solve. This book has Vincent sucked into doing low level work for the Mob in LA. He is tailing a big wig from another family. The man leaves LA and goes to Miami and Vincent follows.

In Miami, Vincent along with an old friend who pops up unexpectedly, gets involved in a nasty gang war between two families. One is the Miami branch of the LA gang he is working for, and the other is headed by his best friend from childhood. Vincent and Jack lost touch as teenagers, but they grew up together and were very close. Vincent almost married Jack's sister Noreen. Now Vincent is torn between both groups, trying to sort out whom to be loyal to, and keep himself alive and clean of the dirtier Mafia business.

The only real mystery is how Vincent can meet the demands of each family, while keeping each ignorant of the other's claims on him, and stay alive.

Eventually Vincent has to pick where he belongs, and then he gets just as dirty as the others. There are side stories of his and Jack's childhood, his engagement to Noreen, and glimpses that he was a herb addict even as a young man. Most of the action seems to be happening backwards as memories and background stories. Its not bad, but it doesn't really point in any future direction.

The characters are good, and we get more info about how dinos live in the world, and keep their secrets from humans. There is a good bit of violence and gore. The story explores addiction, lost love, painful memories, loyalty, revenge and forgiveness and personal responsibility. ( )