Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780553804232
ISBN: 0553804235
Label: Bantam
Languages: Array
Manufacturer: Bantam
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 352
Publication Date: 2007-08-28
Publisher: Bantam
Release Date: 2007-08-28
Studio: Bantam

Triple-crown winner of mystery’s most coveted awards—the Edgar, the Anthony, and the Shamus—Rick Riordan and his Texas-style take on the crime novel have never been bigger or darker than in this latest Tres Navarre thriller. This time Navarre faces a killer as unstoppable as a force of nature.

Tres Navarre had given up private investigation—and with it a violent past that had buried too many friends. Newly married, with a baby on the way, it was time to find a safer line of work. He and Maia had come to Rebel Island to celebrate their honeymoon and a new future. But no sooner had they arrived than a reminder of the past showed up in the form of a corpse shot dead in room 12.

Just like that Tres finds himself flashing back on the memory of a grim childhood summer spent on the island—a summer that changed everything in his life. A summer he could never forget but never entirely remember either. And when a second corpse turns up, it’s clear to Tres that the past is not dead and buried after all, but is stalking Rebel Island with unfinished business of its own.

What really happened that long-ago summer, what dark secrets were kept, and who has come back to avenge them…these are the questions Tres, his brother Garrett, and the very pregnant Maia must answer—and time is running out. For a monster hurricane is about to hit Rebel Island, cutting them off from the mainland and leaving them trapped on a flooding island with the hotel’s remaining guests brutally dying one by one. Tres knows better than anyone that the bloodlines of South Texas are as twisted as barbed wire. This time they’re guarding a revelation that can turn his dreams of happily ever after into the ultimate nightmare.

Customer Rating:
Summary: NOT HIS BEST
Comment: DID NOT ENJOY THIS BOOK AS MUCH AS HIS OTHERS. THAT MAY BE THAT THE OTHERS TOOK PLACE OVER A LARGER GEOGRAPHICAL AREA THAT I RELATE TO.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Rebel Island
Comment: I like rick riordan and have read all his books. this one seemed to long.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Same old stuff
Comment: Riordan is in a rut. The plots don't vary much, even though he has retired as a PI.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: dumb
Comment: I'm sorry, but I never felt any of the people on the island were in jeopardy. The author jumped from one head to another in chapters, so it took a few minutes to figure out "who" was talking. Very annoying. I almost stopped reading when Trez found a wooden carving of a woman in a man's room and he remembered the face....from 20 years before! PLEEZE. A lot of this dumb book just didn't make sense. I keep wondering how Garrett lost his legs! No, I will NOT read previous books to find out. There were a LOT of loose ends like that thoughout the book. Yuck.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Spicier than Texas barbeque sauce
Comment: Rebel Island is a "mile-long, thin strip of beach and cord grass that stretches north like a comet's tail. The southern end is half a mile wide --- just big enough for the lighthouse and the rambling old hotel..."

The island gets its name from Colonel Duncan Bray, a crazy rebel who fought in the final battle of the Civil War and who was convinced that Rebel Island was Confederate soil. Bray's house, now the Rebel Island Hotel, has weathered half a dozen hurricanes, but Hurricane Aiden is testing the limits of the island, the hotel and its inhabitants.

When Tres Navarre, his pregnant wife Maia and wheelchair-bound brother Garrett step off the ferry at Rebel Island, they are met by U.S. Marshal Jesse Longoria, a ruthless man who is rumored to have killed six men in cold blood. There's bad blood between Longoria and Tres, and the marshal warns Tres to get back on the boat. Tres refuses to leave.

Longoria turns up dead with a bullet hole in his chest, and with the approaching storm, the killer is unable to leave the island. The storm has knocked out the phone lines, there's no mobile service, cell phones won't work and the island's only shortwave radio has been smashed to pieces. In Longoria's room, the killer left behind a crumbling candy skull wrapped in plastic.

The Day of the Dead candy is the calling card of Calavera. The notorious assassin is known for using explosives to blow up his victims across South Texas. Was Longoria on the island to apprehend Calavera? Is the assassin still in the hotel?

As Tres tries to make sense of it all, the manager of the hotel goes missing, and a note with the words "Find Him" is slipped under Tres's door. When the manager is later found dead, stuffed in a refrigerator, the list of suspects grows, as does the velocity of the impending storm.

REBEL ISLAND has a collection of characters spicier than Texas barbeque sauce. Chase, Markie and Ty are a trio of college students out for a good time --- or maybe they're looking for something more. Benjamin Lindy is an elderly Texan lawyer who keeps his gun, and his secrets, close to his chest. Alex, a childhood friend of Garrett's, served in the Army in Kuwait and is known for creating fireworks displays. Lane is running away from an abusive spouse. And there's Imelda and her husband Jose, who are caretakers for the hotel. They may know more about the murders and the whereabouts of Calavera than they are willing to tell. The end result is a heart-pounding thriller with twists and turns, and justice served up Texas-style.

--- Reviewed by Donna Volkenannt (dvolkenannt@charter.net)

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