Tropic of Night: A Novel (Jimmy Paz Book 1)

Jane Doe lives in the shadows under an assumed name. A once-promising anthropologist and an expert on shamanism, everyone thinks she's dead. Or so she hopes.Jimmy Paz is a Cuban-American police detective. Straddling two cultures, he understands things others cannot.When the killings start -- a series of ritualistic murders -- all of Miami is terrified. Especially Jane. She knows the dark truth that Jimmy must desperately search to uncover. As their lives slowly interconnect, Jane and Paz are soon caught in a cataclysmic battle between good and an evil as unimaginable as it is terrifying . . .

Amazon.com Review

This debut thriller should come with a warning--do not pick up if you have anything else planned for as long as it takes to read it! Tropic of Night is a dramatic, stylish, smart, and very strongly plotted novel, mixing anthropology, ethnography, sorcery, mayhem, and murder in an intriguing and wholly captivating story that ranges from Mali to Siberia, Nigeria to Miami, and never lets up. Jane Doe is a smart but listless graduate student when she encounters Marcel Vierchau, a French scholar whose lover she quickly becomes, following him to the strange world of the Chenka, a mysterious sect of Siberian shamans in whose society she quickly loses her scholarly objectivity--and nearly her life. Returning without Vierchau to the comfortable world of her wealthy family, she meets and marries DeWitt Moore, a black poet who accompanies her to Africa on a field trip that turns him into a powerful shaman, awakens her own abilities to commune with the spirits of the Yoruba sorcerers, and again comes close to destroying her. Wary of Moore's new strength, she stages her own death and becomes a faceless member of Miami's underclass, but just when she believes she's safe from his reach, a series of bloody ritual murders of pregnant Miami women convince her that she is once again his target--and that anyone who comes between them, including her adopted daughter, will also meet a terrifying end. Michael Gruber delivers a fabulous, wholly original read that will linger in the reader's mind long after the last page is turned! --Jane Adams

From Publishers Weekly

Gruber's intricate thriller ignites in the very first chapter as anthropologist heroine Jane Doe employs the theories of Claude Levi-Strauss, quotes W. H. Auden, kills a drunken woman using advanced aikido techniques and rescues an abused child whom she raises as her own. The story moves seamlessly between Miami, Long Island and West Africa. Jane Doe's husband, DeWitt Moore, an African-American poet and playwright, accompanies Jane to Nigeria, where she visits the Olo, a tribe of spiritual practitioners. There he falls under the influence of a malevolent witch and becomes a sorcerer. Fearing that her husband will try to kill her, Jane fakes suicide and flees to Miami. Moore, intent on wreaking vengeance on white America, follows and begins murdering pregnant women and stealing their unborn babies for use in a rite that will give him unstoppable powers. Investigating the murders is Cuban exile Iago "Jimmy" Paz and his Bible-spouting partner, Cletis Barlow. As Moore terrorizes Miami, Jane bows to the inevitable, comes out of hiding and gathers a tiny band of courageous accomplices to battle her ex-husband and his shuffling band of the undead. First-time novelist Gruber keeps his far-flung locations, complicated characters and anthropological information perfectly balanced in this finely crafted, intelligent and original work. While readying herself for battle, Jane's commentary on cleaning her rare Mauser pistol could read equally well as a description of Gruber's meticulous plotting: "Each part pops free with a precisely directed pressure and snaps in with a satisfying click, just where it belongs." How readers categorize this book will depend on their acceptance or rejection of Gruber's underlying thesis: "The point is, there's no supernatural. It's all part of the universe, although the universe is queerer than we suppose."Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

A woman who calls herself Jane Doe hides out in Miami, where Detective Jimmy Paz tracks a serial killer witnesses say looks like Detective Jimmy Paz. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

This first novel is being launched with a considerable amount of publisher hype. So, of course, reviewers' first question is, Does the book live up to all the publicity fuss? In this case, the answer is an unhesitating yes. This intelligent thriller builds tension from the first page. The protagonist, who bears the real but unlikely name of Jane Doe, is living in Miami under an assumed name because she's on the run--from Africa, where, with her husband, she had been doing anthropological research. Something happened over there that she could not have foreseen and did not bargain for. When Jane learns of the ritualistic murder of a pregnant woman in Miami's Overtown neighborhood, her heart skips a beat. Is the horror she hoped she left behind in Africa tracking her here to Florida? Gruber's understanding of African witchcraft stands fully behind an exciting narrative populated by distinctly drawn characters such as Jane, who is also haunted by the awful murder of her sister and now finds herself confronting a shaman up to his bloody elbows in ritual murder. This book has movie potential written all over it, which is no criticism of its depth--simply a compliment to its strong and colorful story line. Brad HooperCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

From the Back Cover

Jane Doe was a promising anthropologist, an expert on shamanism. Now she's nothing, a shadow living under an assumed identity in Miami with a little girl to protect. Everyone thinks she's dead. Or so Jane hopes.Then the killings start, a series of ritualistic murders that terrifies all of Miami. The investigator is Jimmy Paz, a Cuban-American police detective. There are witnesses, but they can recall almost nothing of the events, as though their memory has been erased -- as if a spell has been cast on each of them. Equally bizarre is the string of clues Paz uncovers: a divination charm, exotic drugs found in the bodies of the victims, a century-old report telling of a secret place in the heart of Africa.These clues point Paz inexorably toward the fugitive, Jane Doe, and force Jane to realize that the darkness she has fled is hunting her down. By the time her path intersects with Jimmy Paz's, the two will be thrust into a cataclysmic battle with an evil unimaginable to the Western mind.Performed by Margaret Whitton.

From AudioFile

It is hard to characterize Michael Gruber's debut novel, which transcends the horror, mystery, detective story, and thriller genres. It opens with an encounter between two women; when one dies, the other feels obligated to raise the dead woman's 4-year-old daughter. Then a series of ritual murders occurs, and the investigation is assigned to Detective Jimmy Paz, who confronts a world far different from everyday Miami. Narrator Valerie Leonard reads with a low-key yet effective style that allows the story to unfold. With each twist, Leonard provides just the right tone and level of emotion. While the story is lengthy, listeners should enjoy Leonard's performance, and the story's ending is worth the wait. D.J.S. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

About the Author

New York Times bestselling author Michael Gruber is the author of five acclaimed novels. He lives in Seattle.Margaret Whitton's performing career includes extensive work on and off Broadway, numerous television appearances, and roles in such films as Major League, The Man Without a Face, and Ironweed.

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