Reviewed by Annika
TITLE: Rag and Bone
SERIES: The Henry Rios Mysteries #8
AUTHOR: Michael Nava
NARRATOR: Thom Rivera
PUBLISHER: Audible Studios
LENGTH: 9 hours, 21 minutes
RELEASE DATE: April 14, 2020
BLURB:
In Michael Nava’s final Henry Rios mystery, the Latino lawyer faces his most daunting personal and professional challenges as he comes to terms with his past—and a cache of family secrets
Henry Rios was dead for fifty-seven seconds when he suffered a heart attack in the courtroom. While he recovers, his sister, Elena, stays with him at the hospital, and they begin to repair their strained relationship, finally airing their thoughts and regrets about their childhood in an abusive home. But Elena has an extra surprise for Rios: Thirty years ago, when she was in college, she had a baby and gave her up for adoption. The girl, Vicky, grew up in foster homes, but now seeks out Elena for help escaping an abusive husband.
Despite Elena and Rios’s efforts, Vicky returns to her husband—but not long after, he’s shot dead in a motel room and Vicky claims to have blown him away. Rios doesn’t believe her confession, though, and finds evidence that suggests she’s innocent. Rios’s search for the facts leads him into a thicket of secrets and lies. As he fights for a niece he never knew he had, he must also combat the ever-present shadow of his own mortality and the truth about his past. A possible judgeship and a new love give him hope for the future in this stellar conclusion to the acclaimed Henry Rios series, about love, loss, and the enduring power of family.
REVIEW:
When we catch up with Henry again, and very possibly the last time, he is in court defending a man from the three strikes law. Only he suffers a heart attack in the middle of the courtroom. It could be a blessing in disguise as it not only brings him and his sister Elena together again, both determined to mend fences and become part of each other’s lives. He also meets someone new; John. A man he has chemistry with from the start and someone who encourages him and supports him. They fit together. As always there were obstacles, but not insurmountable ones and not ones that caused drama, something I’m very grateful for.
Rag and Bone is different in many ways from the other books, it’s focused on family, past and present, and not just any family, but Henry’s. It’s about making amends and moving forward. But it’s not only Henry and Elena – Vicky the daughter Elena put up for adoption many years comes into their lives. She comes with her young son and a whole lot of trouble in tow. She claims that she and Angel are running from her abusive husband newly released from jail for abusing her. However there are parts of her story that doesn’t add up, and when she’s charged with the murder of said husband it falls on Henry to defend her.
This book was like a balm on our scarred and mangled hearts compared to the others in the series. We finally see some happiness for Henry. Genuine happiness, hope and seeing him settling down some. I know I said in my last review that a happy Henry wouldn’t fit with the rest of the series. But it does. It’s hard won and well earned. Don’t get me wrong, this is still not a fluffy romance, but hope and (positive) possibilities shines through everything. But this series wouldn’t be what it was without some major case, some injustice for Henry to fix. And this time it’s his own family that needs fixing. I loved him with Angel, this brave little boy broke my heart with all that he’d experienced in his short life, never expecting anything or barely taking up any space. I just fell for him – hard. From having had no one but himself – and the occasional lover, Henry finally has a family. A family that requires a lot of work, but a family he’s willing to fight for.
Thom Rivera has been the perfect choice of narrator for this series. He understands the characters, the place and time. Now I don’t know anything about him, but from his narration alone, I’m guessing he shares some commonalities with Henry (and Nava) in having at least a mixed heritage. The way he portrays the off-hand comment, the slurs and the off look really shows it’s something he’s all too familiar with. Then there is the way he handles the Spanish words and names. They are genuine Spanish, no Spanglish near it, it’s also effortless and clearly something he’s comfortable with. He even did a credible Aussie accent, which was a nice surprise for me. Anyway, it’s these seemingly small things that really set the tone of a book and makes it more genuine and authentic. It’s why, even if a book is so so (not that it’s the case here), you’d still come back to it, just to listen to Rivera.
I don’t know if this is the end of Henry’s journey, in a way it could be. He’s starting a new chapter in his life and one I think he’ll be very happy with, but I still have hope that I’ll experience more works by Nava and Rivera, because this duo knows what they are doing.
RATING: 
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