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Title details for Valley of Bones by Michael Gruber - Available

Valley of Bones

#2 in series

by Michael Gruber
Nick Sullivan
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available

A wealthy oilman plunges ten stories to his death from a hotel-room balcony. Detective Jimmy Paz's only suspect is Emmylou Dideroff, an eerily pious young woman who claims to commune with saints. Eager to confess, she begins the bizarre tale of despair and degradation that led her into the service of God. Together with his new partner, rookie cop Tito Morales, and police psychologist Lorna Wise, Paz must find the truth hidden in this strange woman's tale. When people associated with Emmylou start turning up dead, Paz and Lorna begin to suspect that there's something much larger at stake than Emmylou's guilt or innocence, and that the search for justice might bring them all face-to-face with an even more elemental - and terrifying - force.

  • Creators

  • Series

    Jimmy Paz

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    August 2, 2006

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780792744214
      • File size: 483142 KB
      • Duration: 16:46:32

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • 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
    • 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
      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

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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