The Widower’s Two-Step

By: Rick Riordan

Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte

Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's Summary

Rick Riordan’s first book in the Tres Navarre series, Big Red Tequila hit the mystery market like a Texas tornado. Readers couldn’t get enough of its hero’s offbeat combination of academic degrees, tai chi skills, and nose for danger. When the second adventure, Widower’s TwoStep, was published, it quickly earned an Edgar Award. Instead of accepting a teaching position at the university, Tres is finishing up his apprenticeship for a private investigator’s license. He’s doing a poor job of surveillance on the fiddle player in a promising honkytonk band: she is shot in broad daylight while he watches. Shaken, Tres begins an investigation on his own. It’s not long before he discovers that some people will do anything to capture a lucrative recording contract. With suspense as sizzling as the southwestern sun, and a truly colorful cast of characters, The Widower’s TwoStep is a hit with mystery lovers well beyond the Lone Star State. Narrator Tom Stechschulte’s performance adds just the right spice to Tres’ character.

Crack another case with Tres Navarre.

©1998 Rick Riordan (P)2002 Recorded Books, LLC

Fav Tres Navarre Story so far!

I've so far listened to the 5 of the books, and am in the middle of the 6th book. I must say that this was my favorite out of the bunch. Great story, with great tension. Shows how different City and Country life in Texas can be.

Again with all of the books, being a Texan sometimes the immersion in the story is broken with all the mispronunciations. Like someone said on a review of a previous Tres Navarre book, you would think it wouldn't come up too often... but it does more often than you think. Like Gruene Hall is pronounced "Green," and there are other mispronunciations of other cities.

However even with this, it is a great story with a great narrator that really brings the characters alive.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Good mystery with SLOW narration!

I read Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series when my grandchildren were reading them, but I had no idea that Riordan had written mystery thrillers. This book is part of his 7 novel Tres Navarre series and is it quite good. Despite the fact that Tom Stechschulte has a great voice for audiobook narration and has narrated hundreds of them, I down rate him for excessively slow reading speed. I have to listen at 2X recording speed to make his narration acceptable.

6 of 7 people found this review helpful

Fun Frolicking Listen

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

Not on the edge but definetly wanted to know what the heck was going to happen next!

Which character – as performed by Tom Stechschulte – was your favorite?

They were all good. Male and female which can be hard to do!

Any additional comments?

I love all the bizarre characters and how they all fit together. The tai-chi master twist is fun too.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Don't Waste Your Time

This is the first audio novel I've listened to that was a struggle for me to keep coming back to hear. It had a lot of characters' names who played relatively minor rolls (until the conclusion), so I had to wonder who he or she was every time that person was mentioned. It came together for me at the end, but the process was tedious and pretty much boring, until the last chapter or so. Not much of an emotional grip to this one.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

San Amtonio detective

Riordan is a South Texas treasure. Before he made it big with Percy Jackson, he gave us private dick Tres Navarre and a world well known to the many societies that make Austin/San Antonio our home.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Country Western

A lost demo tape starts an investigation into the business of Country Western. Tres must meet with old friends to enter the scene.

AN INTERESTING TEXAS MYSTERY

If you could sum up The Widower’s Two-Step in three words, what would they be?

MUSIC, MONEY, DEATH

Who was your favorite character and why?

Tres Navarre. He's intelligent, educated and prone to violence.

What does Tom Stechschulte bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

He does a great job of bringing the characters and story to life.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No. It was too long.

Good story with keep you on your toes plot twists.

Keeps you guessing. Lots of well developed players - a bit hard to keep up with all of them, but not terrible....

great listen

Western detective series well worth the time. Will listen to more. look forward to next one.

Great book, Great series!

This is the 2nd book that I have listened to in this series by Rick Riordan, and I'm hooked! I will not be satisfied until I've listened to the entire series! Characters I care about, tight plot lines, interesting locales, cultural diversity, all wrapped up in a cracking good mystery. See for yourself, but listen to Book 1 (Big Red Tequila) of the series first, to place the recurring characters into context.