This is book five in the Tres Navarre mysteries. Tres is a former English professor turned private investigator in San Antonio, Texas. In this case a group of five inmates escape from a prison, presumably headed north towards Canada. Despite the leader being Will Stirman, a notorious human trafficker who vowed revenge on those who put him behind bars, no one seems very concerned except for Tres’s boss, Erainya. Suddenly, she’s trying to join forces with her rival PI Sam Barrera, and Tres can’t quite figure out why.

This is a hard-hitting detective series, and the body count climbs as the plot progresses. I like Tres. He’s intelligent and a bit sarcastic. His personal relationship is also fraught, and he’s sharing custody of his enchilada-eating cat, Robert Johnson, with his former and once-again current flame, who’s pressuring Tres to move to Austin and give up the PI business.

The setting is practically a character, and Riordan includes many landmark locations that brought me back home again.

There are a total of seven books in this series; the last one was published in 2007. These days Riordan concentrates his efforts on his YA / middle-school fantasy series which have been hugely successful. I wish he’s write more books featuring Tres. ( )

I really liked this book!

Some will say that the story is predictable. Some would say that they figured it out mid book. You know what? I really don't care. I found the story very entertaining. I found the characters to be believeable. And what I liked most is about how the author captures San Antonio. This is the town I live in and I was able to see all the places he wrote about in my mind.

The one flaw I felt that was in the story was regarding the main villain and a small boy named Jem. I am not going to go into spoilers here, but I wished there would have been more interaction, especially at their last meeting. You, the reader with just speculation as to what the final conversation was about.

Otherwise, the story was enjoyable and a quick and easy read! ( )