Books
Night of the Jaguar

by Michael Gruber
William Morrow, March 2006, $

In the depths of the Amazonian rain forest, a priest is murdered by order of Cuban American businessmen in Miami who are conspiring to harvest ancient hardwoods from a forest preserve. Before the priest dies, his departing spirit tells an Indian shaman why he was killed, names the businessmen, and urges the Indian to go to Miami and stop the forest's destruction. The Indian, Moie, makes his way to Miami and locates the men. Then he picks them off one by one, by turning into the god Jaguar and eating them.

Ex-police detective Jimmy Paz, now working as a cook in his mother's Miami restaurant, becomes bothered when his household starts having frightening dreams about jaguars. When the baffled police come to him for help with the gory murders, because of his experience dealing with "weird stuff," he temporarily comes out of retirement to help figure out who is killing and eating Cuban businessmen.

Night of the Jaguar is Gruber's third Jimmy Paz novel. It is an intriguing, analytical blend of the mystical, intellectual, and mundane. Paz tries to understand the phenomenon of shape-shifting, while primitive Moie tries to interpret life as he finds it in Miami, and members of an environmental commune are preoccupied with their individual agendas. Night of the Jaguar will leave you with lots to think about and possibly give you very strange dreams.

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In the depths of the Amazonian rain forest, a priest is murdered by order of Cuban American businessmen in Miami who are conspiring to harvest ancient hardwoods from a forest preserve. Before the priest dies, his departing spirit tells an Indian shaman why he was killed, names the businessmen, and urges the Indian to go to Miami and stop the forest's destruction. The Indian, Moie, makes his way to Miami and locates the men. Then he picks them off one by one, by turning into the god Jaguar and eating them.

Ex-police detective Jimmy Paz, now working as a cook in his mother's Miami restaurant, becomes bothered when his household starts having frightening dreams about jaguars. When the baffled police come to him for help with the gory murders, because of his experience dealing with "weird stuff," he temporarily comes out of retirement to help figure out who is killing and eating Cuban businessmen.

Night of the Jaguar is Gruber's third Jimmy Paz novel. It is an intriguing, analytical blend of the mystical, intellectual, and mundane. Paz tries to understand the phenomenon of shape-shifting, while primitive Moie tries to interpret life as he finds it in Miami, and members of an environmental commune are preoccupied with their individual agendas. Night of the Jaguar will leave you with lots to think about and possibly give you very strange dreams.

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by Michael Gruber
William Morrow, March 2006, $

Gruber
March 2006
Night-of-the-Jaguar
William Morrow