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Valley of Bones (Jimmy Paz #2)

3.71 of 5 stars 3.71 · rating details · 550 ratings · 70 reviews

The startling reviews of Tropic of Night announced Michael Gruber as one of the most talented thriller writers to debut in many years. Now, with the much-anticipated publication of Valley of Bones, Gruber fulfills that genre-bending promise as perhaps no writer since Graham Greene, with a genuinely exhilarating thriller that simultaneously offers a profound, deeply provoca...more The startling reviews of Tropic of Night announced Michael Gruber as one of the most talented thriller writers to debut in many years. Now, with the much-anticipated publication of Valley of Bones, Gruber fulfills that genre-bending promise as perhaps no writer since Graham Greene, with a genuinely exhilarating thriller that simultaneously offers a profound, deeply provocative exploration of the nature of faith itself. 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 oilman 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 rapturous, prayerlike state and admits that she had a motive for killing the oilman. Ultimately, she says she wants to confess, and asks for a pen and several notebooks in which to convey the details of her confession.

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 or playacting in hopes of getting declared unfit for trial? Or 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?

As Valley of Bones moves toward its startling and dramatic finale, Emmylou's "confessions" lead Jimmy Paz, Lorna Wise, and Tito Morales down a series of unexpected and dangerous turns that puts them in the path of perhaps the most terrifying evil imaginable and forces each of them to confront questions about faith, love, and the possibility of the miraculous.(less)

Hardcover, First Edition, 436 pages

Published January 1st 2005 by William Morrow

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Oct 01, 2012 Brick rated it 5 of 5 stars

One of my favorites, a thriller, a mystery, a police procedural, a wonderful introduction to the culture and place of South Florida, plus a primer on the long running conflict in Sudan. Jimmy Paz is the protagonist in a series of three books by Gurber, but the other characters in each are super as well, just terrific. I have this book in hardbound, and in a Kindle version, and the Kindle version has a fascinating addendum that is the back story to sources for Michael Gruber's experiences that al...more

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Aug 05, 2012 Harry rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: detective-mystery, favorites

If you're reading this review of the Jimmy Paz series than you've read them all. In my opinion this series is remarkable for its intelligence, its strong plot and, it's philosphical world view and psychological depth of characters. Mixing murder with ethnography and sorcery, Gruber brings us a fascinating tale of Jimmy Paz, a cuban-american detective who is about to have his world and beliefs shaken to the core.

We all have brains, we all possess varying degrees of intelligence, and we all are ph...more

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Jan 03, 2012 Lindsay rated it 2 of 5 stars

I LOVED "Tropic of Night," the first Jimmy Paz novel. I stayed up all night reading it. So I came to "Valley of Bones" with high expectations, excited to read more about Paz and Gruber's artfully-depicted Miami. But "Valley of Bones" was a big disappointment to me.

First of all, it was something of a let down. The stakes in "Tropic of Night" were so high! And even though much of it was back-story, there was such immediacy in the book's events that you really felt like you were on a rollercoaster....more

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Jun 21, 2012 Meg rated it 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this interesting police thriller set in Miami - the immigrant areas, not the celebrity enclaves. A believable unbelievable plot using Gruber's now familiar style of three stories simultaneously. I was not so keen on the voodoo aspects of the back story, but I guess it is authentic for some sections of the Cuban migrant population. It was the second in a series (currently three) featuring the character Jimmy Paz. I prefer to read books in the sequence they were written, but have not bee...more

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Apr 03, 2012 Petty Witter rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The second in a series of books, I have to say that, apart from the occasional reference to the first book, this read perfectly well as a standalone novel.

Alternating between the story of the crime of which Emmylou Dideroff is accused (IE the killing of Sudanese oil baron Jabir Akran al-Muwalid) , her written notebook 'confessions' and a history of the fictional order known as the Nursing Sister's of the Blood of Christ, it is my opinion that it is only the story of Emmylou's crime that is is an...more

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May 22, 2009 Ryan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Another re-read, another book purchase. Not as good as Tropic, but good and again full of interesting ideas, a good (though more disturbing) story and good characters.

The book is possibly more hopeful than much of traditional christian literature, which is a strange thing to say since the story has some rather disturbing elements. Simply put (and of course, my interpretation), all of us are worthy and valued, regardless of our damage, our history. Every experience, even the painful and horrid on...more

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Aug 15, 2011 David rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011

This is a series I really like! The second of the Jimmy Paz series (is it really a trilogy, or just a three-book (to date) series? I don't know yet) is considerably lighter in tone than the previous "Tropic of Night" but in its own way just as good. The book begins with what appears to be a clear case of murder with the killer at the scene. But the woman accused, a strange religiously zealous woman named Emmylou Dideroff, is a woman with a complicated past and it becomes clear very soon that she...more This is a series I really like! The second of the Jimmy Paz series (is it really a trilogy, or just a three-book (to date) series? I don't know yet) is considerably lighter in tone than the previous "Tropic of Night" but in its own way just as good. The book begins with what appears to be a clear case of murder with the killer at the scene. But the woman accused, a strange religiously zealous woman named Emmylou Dideroff, is a woman with a complicated past and it becomes clear very soon that she is a pawn in a much bigger game that, like the first book, traces itself back to Africa.

The third person narrative is structured in an interesting way. Besides the third-person POVs of Cuban-American Detective Paz, it also follows the POV of Dr. Lorna Wise, the assigned psychologist and Jimmy's eventual love interest. A good portion of the book is also devoted to Emmylou's first person biography. Finally, there are interjections quoting the history of Emmylou's religious order.

Besides the structure, I like this because Michael Gruber has a great sense of plotting. It's not easy taking a story that covers a multitude of states and a portion of three continents and keep it interesting and ahead of most readers' predictions, but Gruber does a fine job. I also love the depth of character development, which is a nice treat in genre fiction. Jimmy Paz transitions from his wilder relationship ways, continues with his evening job as a chef for his mother's restaurant, with whom he has a colorful relationship. Lorna Wise is highly insecure about her figure, is hypochondriacal and struggles early on to overcome certain prejudices. Emmylou steals the book with her colorful life that is told with a Southern wit.

The book also deals with the supernatural again and, unique to this entry, there are some persuasive arguments about the logic of faith as opposed to atheism, the difference between true Christian faith as opposed to the pretentious hypocritical religion that most of the world associates with Christianity. It'd be foolish to say that this is a Christian book because it just as easily glorifies the African religions. That said, as a Christian reader, I found Michael Gruber (regardless of his actual faith) to have a solid grasp on how a devoted Christian truly thinks. This very frequent mention of religious faith and the persuasiveness against atheism will no doubt offend devout atheists, which has also affected the overall rating of this book on this site. I know some people are also turned off by books that don't stay firmly in one genre, but I love books like this that break the mold. I eagerly await reading the third book, "Night of the Jaguar".

On a final note, I listened to the unabridged audio performance by Nick Sullivan, and his narration is superb. He nails all of the different character's voices, accents and gets the flow of humor where needed just right.(less)

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Feb 06, 2010 Rosina Lippi rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, reviewed-here

I reviewed Gruber’s Tropic of Night; Valley of Bones is a sequel of sorts. This one also has Iago (Jimmy) Paz as a detective working a murder, and the setting again is a very vibrant, very vivid Miami. Noisy, colorful, crowded, dreadfully poor and rundown on the one hand and polished like a gemstone on the other.

These are crime novels. A guy gets thrown off a hotel balcony, a woman is found in his room, her fingerprints on the object used to clonk the guy over the head. Her name is Emmylou Dider...more I reviewed Gruber’s Tropic of Night; Valley of Bones is a sequel of sorts. This one also has Iago (Jimmy) Paz as a detective working a murder, and the setting again is a very vibrant, very vivid Miami. Noisy, colorful, crowded, dreadfully poor and rundown on the one hand and polished like a gemstone on the other.

These are crime novels. A guy gets thrown off a hotel balcony, a woman is found in his room, her fingerprints on the object used to clonk the guy over the head. Her name is Emmylou Dideroff and she is caught up in an intense conversation with St. Catherine of Siena when Jimmy starts asking her questions. Religious mania? Looks like it. Of course that’s not all there is to the story.

The third central character is Lorna Wise, who is a therapist/social worker assigned as one of a team who evaluates the accused’s mental capacities.

Okay, so you’ve got three main characters, and complex back stories on each of them. Emmylou declares she’ll tell them everything, but she wants to do it by writing it all down in notebooks. What we get then, in chunks, is her first person autobiography. It’s disturbing and entertaining reading, covering a horrific childhood and finally her association with the Nursing Sisters of the Blood of Christ. Not what you might be thinking in terms of nuns. These are not your typical nuns.

So here’s the good: There are great characters here and I loved watching them interact. In fact I read until really late because I was intrigued. The attraction between Jimmy and Lorna is nicely done, often funny and sad at turns. Their conversations, the cultural clash and how they work it out, all of this worked. At first Lorna is shocked at the idea that Jimmy never went to college: he’s very smart, widely read, often bests her in logical argumentation. He calls himself a student of the University of Girl because he only dates smart women and spends a lot of time talking to each of them about their work. She’s an upper middle class white girl from the north with a PhD from Columbia — Jimmy plays havoc with her preconceptions. In a whole variety of ways.

You can tell I liked this novel. But something kept getting in the way, what was it– oh yeah, the murder.

I guess I’d say there were some pacing problems here. The first 3/4 of the novel are great, and then Gruber seems to realize he’s left the actual plot behind the murder alone for too long and it’s time to get down to work. So in about a fourth of the book we get it all packed together, how Emmylou was tied in a roundabout way to the victim, the money question behind it all, the quilty parties. A complex backstory here that involves oil and Africa.

Which really? I needn’t need. Or I needed far less of. And still I really liked this book, and I can recommend it in spite of what I see as pacing issues. I think I liked this one more than the first Jimmy Paz story because I was more comfortable with the way the religious theme was worked in and carried out. For which you may call me ethnocentric, and I’d have to plead guilty.(less)

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Jan 11, 2013 Abby rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Abby by: Sarah

It was such a heavy read. There were too many things going on, too many stories to follow: that of Emily/Emmylou's, Paz's, Wise's, the dead man's, Morales', Oliphant's, etc. There are only too much the mind could handle.

I didn't like the first few parts. The Christianity, coupled with mania and vision, is a huge dilemma, a heavy burden. Although, I have to admit, it did help me understand things. Somehow, there were lessons I found that, although I have encountered before, haven't fully underst...more

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Oct 09, 2009 Phil rated it 4 of 5 stars

This second book by Gruber involving Detective Iago (Jimmy) Paz of the Miami Police Department is every bit as intricate as the first book, Tropic of Night. Gruber obviously enjoys research, especially gathering all sorts of information from a variety of arcane subjects, and weaving them into a narrative.

Where I found the the first book absolutely riveting in its blood-chilling and macabre details, Valley of Bones is considerably "tamer" and not a nail-biter. (Hence the fouir-star ratring rathe...more

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Jul 15, 2011 Linda Branham Greenwell rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, mystery-crime, psychological-thriller, hauntings

Not sure exactly what kind of book. Yes, a mystery, but also visions, saints, demons and voodoo... and the politics of oil

The mystery begins with officer Morales responding to a disturbance call from a hotel. where he becomes a witness to a possible suicide. He investigates the victims room and there he finds Emmylou Dideroff huddled in a corner of the room muttering prayers.

Detective Jimmy Paz enters the crime scene and figures Emmylou is the killer and thinks she might be going for a crazy pl...more

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Nov 09, 2012 Kmmoy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks

I chose this book because it was available in MP3 format, which is compatible with listening on my new iphone. Also, the narrator, Nick Sullivan, is my new favorite male narrator.

The book is long, and the second in a series (I plan to read the first and third one). It's a good story, a little long in some parts, but in general I enjoyed it. The reading is one of the best I've experienced, and I listen to many audiobooks. He does an amazing job with male, female, and all the accents.

I would defin...more

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Nov 29, 2008 Wendell rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: trash-horror-guilty-pleasures

Books like this are why it's called "genre writing." _Valley of Bones_ falls (not to say sinks) into the category of "beach reading" (provided it's a really nice beach and you're in an especially distracted mood) or what it's perhaps more accurate to call "potato chip reading": the pages go down like potato chips, but no individual chip requires your attention. There's only one reason to write like this: money. Before anyone gets his knickers in a wad, let's be clear: I'm very happy if writers m...more Books like this are why it's called "genre writing." _Valley of Bones_ falls (not to say sinks) into the category of "beach reading" (provided it's a really nice beach and you're in an especially distracted mood) or what it's perhaps more accurate to call "potato chip reading": the pages go down like potato chips, but no individual chip requires your attention. There's only one reason to write like this: money. Before anyone gets his knickers in a wad, let's be clear: I'm very happy if writers make money. But I also think it's fair to say, if the most impassioned defense one can bring to bear on a book is that it makes money, that there's at least the possibility the writer doesn't love you nearly as much as his publicist would like you to believe he does. I certainly don't think it's an easy task to sustain invention, even at the dilute level of _Valley of Bones_, for 400+ pages, but books like this make me wonder one thing: Why not try to write better? _Valley of Bones_ contains a fine collection of sentences goony enough for the Bulwer-Lytton contest, not a few of which are simply incomprehensible. And if you can't write better, how come Harper doesn't give you a real editor? Could it be that your publisher, too, is more interested in rolling out a product than in writing as a (dare I say it?) profession? The problem here isn't--or isn't solely--the writer's devices (such as a long, intermittently interesting journal that may or may not contain information that may or may not explain the plot of the novel) or characterization; the problem is that the elements of the story are handled by someone who suggests he isn't all that interested (Gruber's technique for characterization, just to focus on that, is to provide his characters with a series of psychological tics and catch-phrases which they dutifully trot out whenever they appear; he doesn't actually believe in character development). I don't think I'll be spoiling much if I say the title of the book has absolutely nothing to do with the story or that, in the end, Gruber makes only a feint at resolving the book's central mystery. It's not amateurish; these days, sadly, it's entirely professional. What it is, is distracted, lowest-common-demoninator writing (and editing) that demonstrates a major preoccupation with buyers and only a minimal interest in readers.(less)

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Oct 29, 2008 Will Byrnes rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery-and-spy-fiction, religion-and-sprituality

This is another very interesting suspense novel, a worthy follow up to the excellent Tropic of Night. Jimmy Paz remains the central character, a Cuban-American Miami detective with connections to the Santaria community. An Arab is smacked on the head and thrown from a hotel room to his death. A young woman is found in the room in a state of shock. The story-telling is structured like a braid with the threads intertwining. Chapters alternate between the diary of the mad woman, the investigation b...more

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Aug 19, 2010 Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: gulped-it-down, mysteries

A really out there writer. I enjoy his books a lot -- recently I've read The Good Son, and before that another Jimmy Paz novel. Strange, strange combination of guns n' conspiracy, literary/historical smarts, cultural stuff (Cuban Miami), great characters (love Jimmy, Cletis, and Jimmy's mom), and...religious mysticism, with real devils, zombies, and spirit possession. Wacky, but fun and never boring. I also appreciated a writer who steadfastly refuses to split the infinitive.

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Nov 15, 2010 Beth rated it 4 of 5 stars

Valley of Bones follows Gruber's Tropic of Night both as a sequel and in format. The narrative is told from three different points of view, Detective Paz's, Lorna Wise (a psychologist), and from the diaries of Emmie Lou (a nun with a gun). Again there is a splendid mixture of anthropology, romance, and detection, though in this book they are not quite as well woven together as they were in Tropic of Night.

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Nov 25, 2011 Carolyn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: library-books, literary-fiction, thrillers

Gruber continues to delight me with his intelligence, depth of thought, and interesting characters. His thrillers jump out of their genre to stand as literary works of art. I've looked up several words (new to me, or forgotten) in each of his 3 books I've read so far. Not many authors build my vocabulary this way, and I appreciate it. Not to mention he keeps me turning the pages past the time I should be asleep.

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May 11, 2011 Diane rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

I like Michael Gruber and I like his writing and you can't beat his crime stories for action and complexity. This time nearly half the book is told in the voice of an amazing female protagonist named Emmy Lou Dideroff (and other names). I became enchanted with the society of Catholic sisters who work with revolutionaries and displaced peoples in Africa - I fear they are not real but they ought to be.

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Jul 16, 2012 DWGibb rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It's the suspect who is most fascinating in this Jimmy Paz case. She's a hard, manipulative woman with an enigmatic and otherworldly quality about her that seems to unexpectedly infect those who come in contact with her, including Paz. She requests hardbound notebooks in which to write her lengthy and absorbing confession, which is integrated into the novel as the overall plot unfolds. As a result, the book entails three discrete interwoven sub-chronicles that gradually coalesce into an anomalou...more

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Aug 16, 2009 Cyndee rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Phil

I still find Gruber's 'gimmick' of identifying a minute element of the plot and inserting info (letters, lengthy quotes) about it between chapters to be distracting. This book was a very tense thriller, with one element of material (the confessions of the suspect) to be absolutely essential to the plot.

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Dec 16, 2008 Steve rated it 4 of 5 stars

Another Michael Gruber mystery with detective Jimmy Paz. This is a complex thriller that kept my attention from the beginning to the end. Skin-head survivalists, Homeland Security, African terriorist, Miami gangsters, Catholic sisters, and soldiers of fortune are characters in this book. Gruber is great at having his characters and readers ask the question, "What is real and what is not?" Read Tropic of Night before this book so that you have good background on detective Paz and his former partn...more

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May 07, 2010 J. Robert Ewbank rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: a-good-read, mystery-thriller-suspense

This was a very interesting book. It is definitely one of the stranger books I have ever read. Almost gave it up several times but when I finished it I can truly say that I enjoyed it. A very different read.

J. Robert Ewbank author "John Wesley, Natural Man, and the 'Isms'"

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Jan 03, 2011 james rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is an excellent police procedural which takes place in Miami. This is the second in a series featuring detective Jimmy Paz, a quirky Cuban American, and the impossibly interesting Emmy Lou Dideroff or whatever her real name is. I highly recommend it.

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May 10, 2013 Val Shockley rated it 3 of 5 stars

This came highly recommended by a friend. I read it on a weekend trip. Part way through I got distracted which was my fault. It wasn't as riveting as I hoped, but maybe I just wasn't in the mood for murder mystery.

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May 19, 2011 Jess rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, 2011

I just don't get the fabulous reviews. The writing is horrible, the characters are static, the story is silly. One character actually says, " I haven't been nailed like that in a coon's age." Also, the few black characters (yes, it's pointed out that they are black) are made to say things like "yo'self."

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Nov 05, 2010 Robyn rated it 3 of 5 stars

This really didn't compare to the first book, Tropic of Night, with Detective Paz. This one was supposed to be about demon possession, I guess. The characters were still interesting and likable, but it had none of the intellectual teeth of the first book.

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Aug 01, 2011 Andrea rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: police-detective-thriller

Not many novels can combine the war in the Sudan, Santeria and an order of nursing nuns and have it all somehow fit together coherently. I wasn't always quite sure what was going on, but I enjoyed the ride.

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Aug 06, 2011 Pjpollard added it · review of another edition

Cuban coffee and the earthly struggle between good and evil. If you don't mind a large sose of incestuous pedophilia it's a fun ride. Caution- this book contains no demon sex.

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Sep 28, 2009 Liz rated it 3 of 5 stars

I think that the ending was too rushed especially with Lorna. Overall I am surprised how much I liked the book. I feel that the best of books make me forget that I am reading what some author put down on paper. This book was a little forced and I always knew that the author was wanting the reader to go somewhere specific.

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May 12, 2008 Jon rated it 4 of 5 stars

Another Michael Gruber that I greatly admired. His books all seem to relate in some way to the utter mysteriousness of good and evil, the world as perceived by consciousnesses other than the accepted ones of today, and religious confusion and doubt. All wrapped up in mystery/thrillers that are utterly believable, until you close the book and realize how thoroughly you've been enthralled. Or so it would seem when looked at "in the cold light of day." Which is exactly the "normal" outlook he's alw...more

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About Michael Gruber

Michael Gruber is an author living in Seattle, Washington. He attended Columbia University and received his Ph.D. in biology from the University of Miami. He worked as a cook, a marine biologist, a speech writer, a policy advisor for the Jimmy Carter White House, and a bureaucrat for the EPA before becoming a novelist.

He is generally acknowledged to be the ghostwriter of the popular Robert K. Tane...more

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Valley of Bones (Jimmy Paz #2)

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