Big Red Tequila by Rick Riordan

Jackson "Tres" Navarre and his enchilada-eating cat, Robert Johnson, pull into San Antonio and find nothing waiting but trouble. Ten years ago Navarre left
town and the memory of his father's murder behind him. Now he's back, looking for answers. Yet the more Tres digs, trying to put his suspicions to rest, the
fresher the decade-old crime looks: Mafia connections, construction site payoffs, and slick politicians' games all conspire to ruin his homecoming.
It's obvious Tres has stirred up a hornet's nest of trouble. He gets attacked, shot at, run over by a big blue Thunderbird--and his old girlfriend, the one he
wants back, turns up missing. Tres has to rescue the woman, nail his father's murderer, and get the hell out of Dodge before mob-style Texas justice catches
up to him. The chances of staying alive looked better for the defenders of the Alamo....

Reader Reviews
1 of 3 people found the following review helpful: It can't be this easy to win an Edgar!, February 2, 2003 Reviewer: teekay62 from Brooklyn, N.Y. United States Aside from the cat, there's not an original thing about Tres Navarre. Too many characters, too much plot, too little action. I didn't care if he found the girl or not,if he found his fathers killers or not. I just finished the thing and I still don't understand why these people did half the things they did. If the ending was suppossed to make me gasp, it made me yawn instead. Tres keep visiting the same people over and over again and comes away emptyhanded. If it's this easy to win mystery awards I might start writing my own. In the meantime I'll stick with, Dennis Lehane, Robert Crais, Robert Parker etc.