Rating: 
Summary: Murder & Voodoo, Tense & Frightening
Review: Recovering from a marriage that went south, Jane Claire Doe met a handsome young black poet named Witt Moore. Moore's first play was a satire about white America, it's safe to say that Witt harbors a few grudges against white people. However Jane falls in love with him and they marry. When Jane, who is an anthropologist with a specialty in shamanism, gets invited to join a team of anthropologists studying the Olo tribe in West Africa, Witt goes with her. Witt learns about the Olo religion and is transformed. He comes to believe the world needs a black Hitler and he believes that he fills the bill. Back in the States, Witt uses the new powers he's acquired and kills someone. This scares the holy you know what out of Jane and she fakes suicide and flees.
She's hiding out in a low income Florida neighborhood when she sees a woman abusing her daughter. Jane intervenes and during the struggle accidently kills the woman. Now Jane has a little girl to take care of.
Shortly after that she learns about the ritual murder of a pregnant woman and from the description of the crime she immediately knows Witt is practicing the forbidden Olo fourfold sacrifice. Once he has killed four pregnant women and their babies, and eaten parts of them, he will supposedly get superhuman powers, which Jane fears he will use against white America. As more victims are found, Jane comes out of hiding and joins forces with the police to try and stop the murders and defeat her ex.
The police investigation is headed by detectives Jimmy Paz and Cletis Barlow. Paz is Afro-Cuban, a ladies man and smart as a whip. Barlow is a fundamentalist Christian who has no problem believing in witchcraft, as he believes that Satan is a crafty guy.
So there you have the genisis of this horror-mystery-thriller genre jumping novel that is just about the best book that I read in 2004. Well crafted characters, scary bits that would scare even King and Koontz, description that puts you right in the scene and to top it all off, a story you will never forget. Storytelling just doesn't get any better than this.
Andy Raven, Raving United Fan
Rating:
Summary: The best book
Review: The best book I ever read.
Rating: 
Summary: What's with all of the fragmented sentences?
Review: The story seemed to have a good plot, but I found it very difficult reading because of all of the incomplete, fragmented sentences. As far as grammar goes, this is one of the poorest works I have ever seen.
A fragmented sentence is OK to use once in a while, but Michael Gruber uses them excessively, especially when detailing Jane Doe's thoughts and actions. I counted 35 fragmented sentences on one page.
Trying to figure out what Jane Doe was thinking was like trying to translate with someone who has a limited understanding of the English language, and making sense out of fragmented gibberish.
This book may as well have been written in Pig Latin. It would have been easier to read.
Rating:
Summary: Irresistably seductive
Review: The three converging story lines in this highly suspenseful novel compellingly draw the reader from his or her own reality into the depths of the supernatural (or is it vice versa). Either way, the suspense is nerve-wracking, as ancient forces collide in modern day Miami. There is much to be learned, by both the reader and the protagonists, as this book draws to a spectacular conclusion. Here is an important piece of advice that the author neglects to mention: there is a highly useful glossary at the end of the novel...after I discovered it halfway through, I found it invaluable.
Rating: 
Summary: Never wanted this to end
Review: The title of this stunning debut mystery has echoes of Henry Miller. This is appropriate, since Tropic of Night does for Cuba, Africa, anthropology, and the politics of race and religion what Miller did for Cole Porter-era Bohemian Paris.
What's the bad news? Michael Gruber tries to take a leaf from his sorcerer subjects and tries verbal and character slight-of-hand to see how many times he can sneak in racial commentary bordering on unintentional self-parody. Liberal whites have white guilt. Upper-class Cubans look down on Cubans who look like they might fix the transmission on the professor's Lexus. Still, there has to be one flaw in this big bad voodoo diamond of a mystery. Like the illusions created by dark sorcery, nothing is what it seems in this mystery. Jane Doe, the heroine, does wicked aikido. Jimmy Paz, the hunky detective hero (who discovers his mother, Margarita Paz, is actually a practitioner of the Cuban religion Santeria recently featured on an episode of TV's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit), and Jane don't end up together. Finally, Jimmy, like the reader, becomes a believer in magic.
This is also a terrific exploration of the subcultures of Miami, Florida.
Rating: 
Summary: Suspenseful, Entertaining, but Verbose
Review: This book has it's moments that keep you on the edge. The characters do feel real and are like-able. There is humor and there is terror nicely stitched together. I found Jane's journals tiring, though, and the flowery detail too unnecessarily time-consuming. I was slightly disappointed with the ending, but the book overall is a good read.
Rating:
Summary: Things go bump day and night
Review: This book is surreal. It covers, in magnificent detail, the witchcraft of the Chenka in Northern Siberia, the sorcery of the Yoruba in Mali and Nigeria, the voudou of Haiti, the Santeria of Cuba, and many more. The author presents it so well that it takes a while of indecision to make up your mind: is all this for real, or did he make it up? You be the judge. The baseline is a series of murders indicating an unknown animalistic cult. Part time narrator is Dolores Tuoey, originally named Jane Doe. Helping her to clear the air in Miami are detectives Jimmy Paz and Cletis Barlow. The victims are women, pregnant and about to give birth, in Miami: Deandra Wallace, Teresa Vargas and Alice Powers. And then there is Dolores' husband, the famous writer De Witt Moore. He is in and out of Africa, apparently learning to be a world-class sorcerer. Who did the killing, and why? We are told two thirds through the book. But how do you arrest a spirit. And how do you stop sorcery? This is not a story of black magic and legerdemain, but a fascinating and horrifying trip into the heart of African culture.
Rating:
Summary: Great story....
Review: This is a compelling book with very well drawn characters. The story is well paced and well written, though the narrative juxtaposition takes a little while to heat up. The prose is lyrical and intelligent. Paz is a character I would like to read again in another novel.
Rating:
Summary: The Devil is in the Details
Review: This is a top-flight debut suspense thriller with only one weakness--it's obsession with detail. Anthropologist Jane Doe falls for two men who introduce her to two disparate communities with isolated and pristine societies ; one in Siberia, the other in Africa. The common denominator in the two locales is an integral link to magic, as in witchcraft. Doe's first husband, an anthropologist, is involved recreationally with the Siberian Chenka but is in control of it ; whereas the second husband, a black poet and author, cedes control to the African magic and becomes a gruesome mass killer. Parallelled with Doe's story is that of police detective Iago Paz. Paz is assigned to solve the murders and bring the murderer to justice. He learns that human wisdom is limited when dealing with the otherworld. And Doe is needed if the killing is to end. Michael Gruber has a unique voice and uses it well to create honest and believable characters. The interplay between characters is wonderful. He builds his suspense slowly to a chilling finale that may have some readers losing sleep. His weakness is that he perhaps builds his suspense a little too slowly for some. Gruber obviously knows the subject of magic well. He spends much of the book building the reader's understanding of magic in great detail, eventually showing clearly the difference between white (good) magic and black (bad) magic. He depicts clearly the finite nature of human mind and reason and our refusal to listen to multi-dimensional thought. Family relationships shadow the characters and become a major factor in the end. Fantastic writing! Chilling climax! Unfortunately, it took me more than 100 pages to be hooked. A book not for the impatient.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating Thriller
Review: This is one of the most unusal and brilliant thrillers I've encountered. And no, don't read it if you only like a simple straight narrative. The plot is quite decipherable, but the book weaves together the present stories of the two main protagonists Paz and Jane Doe, with the "past" via Jane's journal. I think the construction is almost flawless. The prose is gorgeous, but without sacrificing the suspense. The book lagged only the tiniest bit toward the end, then picked up again for a magnificent final confrontation. It also manages to be horrifying without ever feeling like sleazy horror, an amazing feat in itself. If you liked The Skull Mantra, or Smila's Sense of Snow, try this book, which also transport you out of the ordinary world. I did have some trouble with the morality of the twist at the end. There was something the author felt was more forgiveable than I did. Nonetheless, this is a knockout book and I eagerly await whatever the author does next.
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