Night of the Jaguar: A Novel

Briiliant new genre, excellently written, a great pleasure to read. Has a quite different twist.

I found the writings of Michael Gruber by accident about a year ago. I was so impressed and entertained by his book that I had to find out just who this guy was and why had I not come across him before. Turned out that he was busy. Google him, he's had a fascinating career outside of writing and he certainly brings this rich background into his stories. His characters are uncommonly well defined. In other words, they are ALIVE. His story lines are intelligent and seamless. "Page Turners", I would find myself up a 2am saying "just one more chapter, I'm good with 4 hours sleep." I've read all his books and happily await for more.

Nobody has done a better job of bringing the "lost" supernatural dimension of primitive folk magic and religion into the modern mystery/thriller world than Michael Gruber. He has a deep and sympathetic understanding of what we secular Westerners might regard as "alternative belief systems," and he manages to seamlessly juxtapose witchcraft, Santeria, etc., with utterly plausible crime and violence plotlines. Additionally, few authors in the thriller genre can match Gruber's ability to flesh out characters -- even bit players -- in three dimensions. By now it's well-known that Gruber is the ghostwriter responsible for the first 13 crime novels "authored" by his cousin, Robert K. Tanenbaum, which are among the very best of the genre. I will read anything he writes.

The great thing about Michael Gruber's books is that they work on so many levels. The basic level is the thriller/ police novel, where a complex crime is resolved, here in this book as in his two others by Jimmy Paz, Cuban-American detective in Miami. However, Gruber is also a master plotter, and even though he presents his story -- here a series of revenge killings by a Colombian Indian protecting his forest in supernatural jaguar shape -- in a way that it may seem that there will be no surprises, the intricate elements of the plot and the quirks of the characters are shown to be linked. These characters are a mixed bunch, including Paz's psychiatrist wife, physicist genius friend, Colombian drug dealers, Santeria priestess mother and his six year old daughter, whose innocent self confidence is very well drawn. Gruber also brings in a deep consideration of the nature of human consciousness and of religion and its role in daily life, and this, to me is really what makes the book so wonderful