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Valley of Bones

Audiobook
3 of 3 copies available
3 of 3 copies available

The setting is Miami. Rookie cop Tito Morales arrives at the Trianon hotel to investigate a routine disturbance call and, to his shock and horror, watches as a wealthy oil man plunges ten stories and impales himself on a nearby fence. Soon Morales is joined by detective Jimmy Paz, famous throughout the city for solving — or at least providing a plausible solution to — the so-called Voodoo Murders that left Miami burning months earlier.

Together Paz and Morales enter the hotel and discover in the dead man's room a most unusual suspect, an otherworldly woman by the name of Emmylou Dideroff. She emerges from a prayerlike state and says she wants to confess and asks for a pen and several notebooks.

What Emmylou writes is nothing like what Paz expects; he enlists psychologist Lorna Wise in an effort to make sense of things that go beyond Emmylou's explanation of the murder: details of childhood abuse, of other crimes committed, of regular communion with saints — and with the devil. Is she mentally disturbed? Does she really believe herself to be an instrument of God? And why is it that so many people — including Paz's biological father — are suddenly interested in the contents of these notebooks and in preventing them from becoming public?

Emmylou's ""confession"" leads Jimmy Paz, Lorna Wise, and Tito Morales down a series of unexpected and dangerous turns that forces them each to confront questions about faith, love, and the possibility of the miraculous.

Performed by Kate Forbes and Jonathan Davis

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  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Gruber's story is a strange little tale of murder, warfare, and religious epiphany. It is greatly enhanced in the telling by Kate Forbes and Jonathan Davis, who do more than trade off the male and female roles. Forbes narrates the diary of Emmylou Dideroff, a young woman who has experienced enough drama to last several lifetimes. Davis performs the portions of the book that recount Dideroff's current circumstances, which include murder. Both readers seamlessly slip in and out of Cuban, Appalachian, African, and Middle Eastern accents like pros, making what could be a complicated mystery a joy to follow even in the abridged version. M.S. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from November 8, 2004
      Gruber's new mystery/thriller more than fulfills the promise of his dazzling Tropic of Night
      (2003), a critical and commercial success and his first book published under his own name. The story emerges from three directions: the POV of Cuban-American Miami cop Jimmy Paz; pages from the book Faithful Unto Death: The Story of the Nursing Sisters of the Blood of Christ
      by Sr. Benedicta Cooley; and a series of handwritten notebooks, The Confessions of Emmylou Dideroff
      . Gruber brings back Paz ("a neatly built, caramel-colored man, in a beautifully cut gray-green silk and linen suit" and one of the smartest, coolest, most intriguing cops working the pages of American thrillers these days) from Tropic
      to investigate the death of Arab oil trader Jabir Akran al-Muwalid, who's been bonked on the head with a piston rod and thrown off the balcony of his hotel room. Inside al-Muwalid's room, Paz finds Emmylou Dideroff kneeling on the floor, having a one-sided conversation with St. Catherine of Siena. The rod belongs to Emmylou, so she's assumed to be the killer; she's put into a mental hospital under the care of Paz's new psychiatrist girlfriend. Emmylou's written confessions tell the horrifying but riveting tale of growing up with an insane mother and a stepfather who molested her, as well as her adventures as a whore, drug dealer and, after joining the Nursing Sisters of the Blood of Christ, a tribal leader in Africa. Readers will find each of the stories—Paz's, Emmylou's and that of the founder of the Nursing Sisters—equally fascinating. Evocative prose, an erudite author, spellbinding subject matter and totally original characters add up to make this one a knockout. Agent, Simon Lipskar
      . (Jan. 4)

      Forecast:
      A good marketing push and word of mouth should assure a position at the top of the charts for Gruber, who ghosted Robert K. Tanenbaum's bestselling Butch Karp legal thrillers for many years.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Compelling and layered, Gruber's second outing will require near-addictive listening. Detective Jimmy Paz, of the Miami PD, works a murder case that will totally change his life as it introduces him to psychologist Lorna Wise and suspect Emmylou Dideroff. The suspect's past involves the Sudan, oil, child abuse, a paramilitary community, a Catholic nursing order--and more. Interpreted by narrator Nick Sullivan, Gruber's novel is pitch-perfect throughout. Sullivan creates truly authentic voices for Paz (a Cuban-American), Emmylou (a rural Southerner), and all the other characters, incorporating emotions with just the right shading. One wants to discover the ending yet doesn't want it to end. M.A.M. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      Starred review from January 15, 2005
      There is a thin line between deep religious faith and madness. Emmylou Dideroff visits with saints and quotes the scripture by heart, but did she kill the wealthy oilman who plunged to his death from a Miami hotel balcony? Gruber's latest is the follow-up to his debut, "Tropic of Night, " featuring Cuban American police detective Jimmy Paz, who teams with psychologist Lorna Wise to assess Emmylou's sanity. Along the way, they uncover the details of Emmylou's elaborate past, which includes stints as a hooker, drug dealer, and the leader of a band of Sudanese freedom fighters. Emmylou's blurred view of the physical and spiritual worlds eventually causes both Paz and Wise to question their own psyches. Gruber's newest concoction mixes spiritualism with a pinch of intellectualism, taking the story to a depth rarely seen in the crime fiction genre. Vivid characterizations and sapient cultural analysis confirm that Gruber is an author to watch. Highly recommended for most collections. Gruber lives in Seattle. [See Prepub Mystery, "LJ "9/1/04.] -Ken Bolton, Cornell Univ. Lib., Ithaca, NY

      Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Library Journal

      September 1, 2004
      Miami detective Jimmy Paz finds saints and murderers in this quirky follow up to his debut Tropic of Night. Gruber lives in Seattle, WA. Northwest and Miami regional author appearances.

      Copyright 2004 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Library Journal

      January 1, 2005
      There is a thin line between deep religious faith and madness. Emmylou Dideroff visits with saints and quotes the scripture by heart, but did she kill the wealthy oilman who plunged to his death from a Miami hotel balcony? Gruber's latest is the follow-up to his debut, Tropic of Night, featuring Cuban American police detective Jimmy Paz, who teams with psychologist Lorna Wise to assess Emmylou's sanity. Along the way, they uncover the details of Emmylou's elaborate past, which includes stints as a hooker, drug dealer, and the leader of a band of Sudanese freedom fighters. Emmylou's blurred view of the physical and spiritual worlds eventually causes both Paz and Wise to question their own psyches. Gruber's newest concoction mixes spiritualism with a pinch of intellectualism, taking the story to a depth rarely seen in the crime fiction genre. Vivid characterizations and sapient cultural analysis confirm that Gruber is an author to watch. Highly recommended for most collections. Gruber lives in Seattle. [See Prepub Mystery, LJ 9/1/04.]-Ken Bolton, Cornell Univ. Lib., Ithaca, NY

      Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Booklist

      December 1, 2004
      The first cousin of and longtime ghostwriter for Robert Tanenbaum dishes up another meaty supernatural thriller featuring Miami cop Jimmy Paz in the follow-up to " Tropic of Night" (2003). But instead of voodoo, this story turns on mysterious Catholic ways--with able assists from a few Santeria spirits when God and Lucifer prove too much for Paz and his psychologist girlfriend, Lorna Wise, to handle on their own. Gruber intricately weaves together three compelling stories: the mysterious murder of a Sudanese oilman; the life and times of Emmylou Dideroff, the religious former white-trash hooker suspected of killing the oilman; and the history of the Nursing Sisters of the Blood of Christ, a Catholic order of battlefield medic-nuns whom Emmylou has joined. As might be expected, the story takes its sweet time getting up to full speed. But once it finally does, the characters--especially Emmylou--spirit readers along toward a richly rendered Joan of Arc meets Lawrence of Arabia climax. The endearing odd-couple romance that simmers between Afro-Cuban ladies' man Paz and sexually repressed hypochondriac Lorna offers further pleasure.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)

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