One of the most highly acclaimed writers in the mystery genre "explores new emotional depths" in this last Henry Rios novel. The gay Mexican-American attorney, after the loss of his lover, must face his own mortality while recovering from a heart attack-and reach out to a family he didn't know he had.
"For more years than we've noticed, Michael Nava has been creating an intricate series of fictions about Henry Rios...to give voice to the voiceless, the outsiders...to remind us that these outsiders are our kin." (Washington Post Book World)
"In 1986, Michael Nava began a series about Los Angeles investigator Henry Rios, a character with three strikes against him: He was gay, he was Chicano, and he was a lawyer. He also had a wry sense of humor, a formidable intelligence and a great deal of insight, so the series, without being preachy, cumulatively had a lot to say about certain aspects of the human condition...With Rag and Bone, Nava brings this wonderful and often moving series to an unexpected close...we thank him for illuminating the life of an always fascinating character and perhaps educating a few people along the way." (Denver Post)
Amazon.com Review
The good news is that Henry Rios, the hero of several of Michael Nava's earlier thrillers (The Death of Friends, The Burning Plain) is back. The bad news, spelled out in the acknowledgments, is that "this book brings to an end this series of mysteries and my career as a mystery writer." If this is your first exposure to the author or his hero, you'll be as sorry to read the end note as Nava's justly deserved fan club.
Rios, a gay Hispanic lawyer, has been described as an "outsider" hero, dedicated to finding justice in a world where it seems to be a highly perishable commodity. His keen intelligence is matched by his vulnerability, in this case to the emotional demands placed on him by a sudden heart attack that leaves him wondering whether life is still worth living, and the news that his sister, a former nun, once had a daughter, who has been found and then lost again. Tracing Vicky and her 10-year-old son Angel isn't that difficult for Henry. An abused woman hiding from a violent ex-husband doesn't have that many ways to disappear. But there's something about Vicky that doesn't fit the abuse profile, and when she's charged with killing Angel's father, Henry is torn between his desire to free her and his sense that there's more to the story than she's telling him. There is, of course, but it's the multidimensionality of his central characters rather than the mysteries they're caught up in that drive Nava's perceptive, brilliantly explicated novels. Love in its many guises drives this one--love between Henry and John, the first man to touch Rios's heart in many years, and love for Angel, the nephew in whom he sees a chance to redeem his own unhappy childhood. Nava leaves his series hero in their good hands, with a new career as a judge ahead of him. And he leaves his devoted readers hoping he'll change his mind and bring Henry back again, perhaps this time from the bench instead of the bar. --Jane Adams
From Publishers Weekly
This seventh Henry Rios mystery should bring both pleasure and sadness to admirers of the gay Mexican-American defense lawyer. Pleasure because Nava is in top form; sadness because of his announcement that this is the last Rios novel. His fans may also be perplexed by the lack of explanation for halting the series. The challenges L.A.-based Rios confronts are as complex and involved as the man himself: a heart attack, a possible appointment to a judgeship, the discovery of an unknown niece and grandnephew, a new love and the most personally daunting defense case of his career. The smoothly integrated plot strands conspire to test and push Rios into reassessing everything, from the new love and the commitment it both promises and demands, to the news that his estranged sister, Elena, had had a daughter, now grown and with a son of her own. And Elena's daughter, Vicky Trujillo, and her boy, Angel, come with serious baggage. Vicky's a battered woman with a record, while Angel, who reminds Rios of himself as a child, already bears signs of a hard childhood. When Vicky shoots her drug-using husband, it appears a simple case of self-defense. But the truth is more complex, and Rios must learn a great deal about himself and his new relatives to find it. Rios's humanity and decency shine through this satisfying novel and leave the reader hoping that the author's pronouncement of finis might be wrong.
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