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Valley of Bones | 
| Author: Michael Gruber
Publisher: HarperTorch
Category: Book
List Price: $7.99
Buy Used: $2.15
You Save: $5.84 (73%)
New (32) Used (35) Collectible (1) from $2.15
Avg. Customer Rating:  28 reviews
Sales Rank: 117377
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 432
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 6.7 x 4.3 x 1.4
ISBN: 0060577673
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780060577674
ASIN: 0060577673
Publication Date: March 1, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Help save a tree. Buy all your used books from Green Earth Books. Read -> Recycle -> Reuse!
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Amazon.com Review
This top-notch novel confirms Gruber's place as a gifted writer who stretches the conventional bounds of the genre by placing the mysteries of faith and religious experience and the complexities of the human mind as well as spirit at the center of his work. It's a taut, compelling whodunit that's as far from a typical detective procedural as good is from evil and a worthy follow-up to his acclaimed debut (Tropic of Night) that also features Cuban-American cop Jimmy Paz. Here Gruber tells a mesmerizing tale of Emmylou Dideroff, who communes with saints and whose checkered past includes stints as a hooker, drug dealer, and the leader of a band of Sudanese freedom fighters. But did she kill the Arab businessman on a government "watch list" who plunged to his death from a Miami hotel? While that's the incident that brings her to Paz's attention, it's only one of his questions about this strange woman, whose unsettling "confessions" stir up the detective's confusion about his own deepest beliefs. Emmylou is as fascinating and fully realized as Jane Doe, the memorable protagonist of Gruber's first book--so too is Lorna Wise, the psychologist brought in to assess Emmylou's sanity, whose personal and professional lives are turned totally upside down by her involvement in the case and her relationship with Paz. This is a smart, riveting, wholly original and thoroughly fascinating book that's impossible to put down and leaves the reader with only one question--when is this author's next one coming out? --Jane Adams
Product Description
The body of a wealthy oilman plunges ten stories from the balcony of a Miami hotel, and is impaled on an iron fence below. In the dead man's room, Jimmy Paz, the famed detective who solved the grisly Voodoo Murders, and Tito Morales, a young cop who witnessed the fall, find a woman on her knees, engaged in intimate conversation with Saint Catherine of Siena. Emmylou Dideroff had a strong motive for murder, and the evidence against her is overwhelming -- but she insists she's innocent of the crime, while freely admitting her guilt in numerous other amoral and unspeakable acts. And the shocking confessions of this complex enigma -- abused victim or vengeful whore, god-touched prophetess or delusional psychopath, demon or saint -- are leading Paz, Morales, and psychologist Lorna Wise into a terrifying dance with the Devil himself.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 23 more reviews...
 Way above average crime fiction August 12, 2008
It's summer: I'm reading a lot of crime fiction. I've picked up some Patterson (how can you avoid it) some Baldacci, and some others.
I picked up this one (book on CD actually) because the premise intrigued me.
Crime fiction without a serial killer! Does anyone do these anymore? Well, Gruber does, and this is a great one.
Apparently, the hero of the book, I.X. "Jimmy" Paz, is the star of a trilogy. But though this is one of a series, you almost never realize that. His character is drawn well enough without it. He is flawed, but not in a tragic way. He is strong, but need not apply to the Justice League. He seems very credible and empathetic.
As does Lorna, the heroine. She goes through some terrific growth through this story, and the author does a fantastic job of getting in her head-shrinking head to show where her challenges and strengths are.
There is a third main character, but unlike most crime fiction, this character may not be the killer. You suspect in the beginning that, though the evidence points to her being the killer, she may be innocent. Her "confessions" make up a third of the book, and she's absolutely terrifying and terrific. In a very different way than the average crime-fiction's sociopath, I must say.
The religion in the book is entirely believable; the only small problem I had with the whole thing is the snipes at modern society (hey it ain't great but it's all we got).
All in all, I don't want to say more so as not to give anything away, but I would totally put this on your vacation reading list. It was a great ride.
(*)>
Audio abridged 5cd August 7, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Emmylou dideroff a woman who believes both God and the devil live inside her. She had a detached mother and was sexually abused by the stepfather which eventually pushed to prostitution.
We meet Emmylou sitting in a hotel room occupied up to a short time ago by a mysterious African who currently resides on top of a spiked fence some ten floors below.
Jimmy Paz an Miami Detective arrested Emmylou as the prime suspect but she leads all to wonder if she is insane.
Mystery and suspense told well. The plot never slips.
This is one of Michael Gruber best novels.(Can't fall alseep through this Audio trust me).
Barbara Audio only
 too expensive August 1, 2008
why does the kindle version cost almost as much as the printed version. Dont fall for this type of price gouging or Kindle will be ruined.
 There Were Some Flaws June 8, 2008
I thought Tropic of Night was brilliant which is why I was surprised that in this book Gruber's portrayal of Santeria did not completely jibe with what I have learned about it.
Another problem is that I lost interest in the African section of Emmy Lou's memoirs. It was less dramatic than it could have been. Emmy Lou herself was fascinating, but her memoirs weren't always all that compelling.
This novel's concept had potential and it had great character ingredients, but Gruber fell a bit short on the implementation.
 And this is why they call it "genre writing"... May 18, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Books like this are why it's called "genre writing." _Valley of Bones_ falls (not to say sinks) into the category of "beach reading" (provided it's a really nice beach and you're in an especially distracted mood) or what it's perhaps more accurate to call "potato chip reading": the pages go down like potato chips, but no individual chip requires your attention. There's only one reason to write like this: money. Before anyone gets his knickers in a wad, let's be clear: I'm very happy if writers make money. But I also think it's fair to say, if the most impassioned defense one can bring to bear on a book is that it makes money, that there's at least the possibility the writer doesn't love you nearly as much as his publicist would like you to believe he does. I certainly don't think it's an easy task to sustain invention, even at the dilute level of _Valley of Bones_, for 400+ pages, but books like this make me wonder one thing: Why not try to write better? _Valley of Bones_ contains a fine collection of sentences goony enough for the Bulwer-Lytton contest, not a few of which are simply incomprehensible. And if you can't write better, how come Harper doesn't give you a real editor? Could it be that your publisher, too, is more interested in rolling out a product than in writing as a (dare I say it?) profession? The problem here isn't--or isn't solely--the writer's devices (such as a long, intermittently interesting journal that may or may not contain information that may or may not explain the plot of the novel) or characterization; the problem is that the elements of the story are handled by someone who suggests he isn't all that interested (Gruber's technique for characterization, just to focus on that, is to provide his characters with a series of psychological tics and catch-phrases which they dutifully trot out whenever they appear; he doesn't actually believe in character development). I don't think I'll be spoiling much if I say the title of the book has absolutely nothing to do with the story or that, in the end, Gruber makes only a feint at resolving the book's central mystery. It's not amateurish; these days, sadly, it's entirely professional. What it is, is distracted, lowest-common-demoninator writing (and editing) that demonstrates a major preoccupation with buyers and only a minimal interest in readers.
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