Valley of Bones

By Michael Gruber

     Jimmy Paz enjoyed his life as a detective in Miami, Florida, but his life was about to take an unexpected turn. It all began with a murder. He got a call that a man had been murdered at the Trianon Hotel. It had begun as a domestic disturbance call. But when officer Tito Morales arrived, he looked up in time to see a body fall from the balcony of the tenth floor and become impaled on the fence below. By the time Detective Paz arrived, the forensics team had found that the victim had died of a blow to the back of the head. He was already dead when he hit the fence.

     Following procedure, Paz investigated the victim’s hotel room. He was a Sudanese named Jabar Akram al-Muwalid. No one seemed to know him or know much about him. Once inside his hotel room, Paz and Morales found something unexpected. A woman knelt in the middle of the living room floor of the victim’s suite. She seemed to be praying. Paz directed Morales to check the balcony. He approached the woman himself. As he did, her eyes rolled back in her head and she fainted.

     Her story made her sound crazy. She swore she did not have had anything to do with the man’s death. However, the murder weapon had been left on the balcony and it had her fingerprints all over it. It was a part for a boat engine that she had admitted having in her possession. Her story would send him and Dr. Lorna Wise on the adventure a lifetime.

    Valley of Bones is one of those books that is difficult to put down. The story of the Emmylou Dideroff is one you won’t soon forget. Pick up a copy and enjoy the suspense.