Tropic of Night

Not since The Secret History has a novel so flawlessly married the ferocious intensity of an unforgettable thriller with the depth, daring, and nuance of our most celebrated literary fiction. Tropic of Night is a virtuoso performance — an unforgettably accomplished novel, a masterpiece of electricity and ambition.

Jane Doe was a promising anthropologist, an expert on shamanism. Now she's nothing, a shadow: after faking her own suicide, she's living under an assumed identity in Miami with a little girl to protect. Everyone thinks she's dead. Or so she hopes.

Then the killings start, a series of ritualistic murders that terrifies all of Miami. The investigator is Jimmy Paz, a Cuban-American police detective. There are witnesses, but they can recall almost nothing of the events, as though their memories have been erased — as if a spell has been cast on each of them. Equally bizarre is the string of clues Paz uncovers: a divination charm, exotic drugs found in the bodies of the victims, a century-old report telling of a secret place in the heart of Africa.

These clues point Paz inexorably toward the fugitive, Jane Doe, and force Jane to realize that the darkness she has fled is seeking her out, hunting her down. By the time her path intersects with Jimmy Paz's, the two will be thrust into a cataclysmic battle between good and an evil unimaginable to the Western mind.

One of the most frightening and imaginative novels of suspense to arrive in decades, Tropic of Night pits an anthropologist against a powerful shaman who becomes Miami's most feared serial killer.

At 32, Jane Doe is on the run, turning her back on a promising career after a groundbreaking study has tragic consequences: the murder of her sister. Faking her own suicide, Jane is hiding in Miami under a false identity. But the city turns out to be no safe haven, for a series of ritualistic murders has its inhabitants paralyzed with fear.

Cuban-American police detective Jimmy Paz is trying to untangle the mysterious killings, and though there are witnesses, they can recall almost nothing . . . as if their memory, spell-like, had been magically erased. The only thing they do remember is that the killer closely resembled detective Jimmy Paz.

By the time the paths of Jimmy Paz and Jane Doe intersect, the darkness Jane has fled is seeking her out — hunting her down — and fate is about to thrust her into a cataclysmic battle between good and an evil unimaginable to the Western mind.

Michael Gruber has a Ph.D. in marine biology from the University of Miami. He has held many jobs, virtually all of which have involved writing, usually anonymously. He lives in Seattle and is currently at work on another novel.