Night of the Jaguar: A Novel (Jimmy Paz Book 3)

“Like settling down with a Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel—if it was rewritten by James M. Cain.”—Denver Post Michael Gruber’s Night of the Jaguar—like his earlier novels featuring Miami detective Jimmy Paz (Tropic of Night, Valley of Bones)—transforms the conventional thriller into something extraordinary, taking the crime novel to a place it has never gone before. Combining a grisly murder investigation with chilling supernatural elements and provocative thought, Night of the Jaguar is a bravura display of the originality and artistry that has won Gruber the title, “the Stephen King of crime fiction” while inspiring the Washington Post Book World to name the Jimmy Paz trilogy, “among the essential novels of recent years.”

From Publishers Weekly

Gruber's highly entertaining supernatural thriller completes the trilogy that began with Tropic of Night and Valley of Bones. All feature Miami cop Jimmy Paz, though the real star of this outing is the supposedly dull-witted Jenny Simpson, a gofer for the Forest Planet Alliance. When someone starts murdering Cuban-American businessmen in grisly fashion, suspicion falls on Moie, an Indian from a remote area of Colombia the victims had plans to develop. But how could the tiny Indian leave footprint evidence indicating he weighs over 450 pounds? Summoned out of retirement, Jimmy takes on the case, though he and his seven-year-old daughter, Amelia, are soon troubled by dreams of a jaguar with evil designs on Amelia. Every time Moie glides onto the page, the book shines, but it's Jenny, helping to shelter Moie, who steals the show (e.g., she's baffled that her boss would have a wife, Portia, named after a car). Hotly spiced with hit men and guns, demon gods and piranhas, this one offers more social satire than its predecessors, mostly at the expense of do-gooder environmentalists. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Bookmarks Magazine

Critics raved about the first two novels in the Jimmy Paz trilogy; Night of the Jaguar is not as universally loved because of hard-to-stomach coincidences and strained plausibility. No matter; author Michael Gruber possesses a flair for words and setting that will carry any reader through this heated tale. He makes great use of his meticulous research by delving deep into Cuban Santeria rituals, the repercussions of environmental clear-cutting, and the taxonomy of fig wasps (perhaps too much so), while taking witty swipes at stoned environmentalists.Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

From Booklist

The third supernatural thriller featuring Jimmy Paz picks up seven years after the fine Valley of Bones (2005) left off. Paz, now an ex-homicide detective cooking in his mother's Cuban restaurant and settling into an unlikely marriage with psychologist Lorna Wise, is drafted by the Miami cops to solve a series of strange murders that may have been committed by a mystical jaguar. When Gruber explores the religious rites and culture of Santeria and a South American shaman named Moie, he's at his gripping best. But other new characters come straight from central casting; long philosophical discussions mute the impact of the sporadic action; and overreliance on coincidence leads to lazy plotting. Because the story is predicated on the notion that these events are all preordained, Paz can do things like take an entire week off to be initiated into Santeria at a critical moment without triggering a real sense of danger. But even with the tension artificially drained out of the tale, readers will be glad to get to know Moie as he saves his patch of rain forest from the bulldozers. Frank SennettCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

From the Back Cover

Deep in the jungles of Colombia, an American priest is shot dead in his makeshift church.A few weeks later an Indian shaman arrives in South Florida, armed only with a bag of totems and the fearsome power of his vengeful god.As a Miami Homicide Detective, Jimmy Paz saw terrible things that defied rationality. Now retired, he's put the darkness behind him. But suddenly he, his wife, and their young daughter are being haunted by horrific dreams—terrifying visions of a giant jungle cat. And when affluent Miami businessmen begin dying gruesomely in their fortress-like homes—with the footprints of a massive animal found at the crime scenes—the baffled police must turn to Paz, who has experience with the impossible. Paz cannot refuse, for he's tied to this case by a shocking secret from his past. And what he loves most may be the next thing devoured in this nightmare of carnage and sacrifice.

From AudioFile

This title is an ideal showcase for Jonathan Davis, who reads with an elegance amplified by his mastery of foreign words. It is an unusual novel, a mystery in which people are being murdered by what appears to be a jaguar as revenge for their illegal development of an African jungle. It is also a book of supernatural intrigue that encompasses American, Colombian, and Cuban culture. No matter what language he's reading, Davis's performance is so polished that every character's personality is distinctive, and the reader is free to concentrate on the plot, which is, to say the least, convoluted. 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.

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