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Review: A malevolent, magical 'Night'
By L.D. Meagher
(CNN) -- If, as Arthur C. Clarke famously observed, any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, might not the reverse also be true? Is magic, at its core, a subtle and powerful form of non-material technology? That intriguing possibility is the motive force that drives "Tropic of Night," a novel that defies easy description and categorization. First-time novelist Michael Gruber could easily have churned out a genre fantasy based on his central concept. Instead, he has produced a surprisingly inventive and deeply engrossing book firmly that's rooted in the real world while, at the same time, challenging the very concept of "reality." A cop and Jane DoeThe story revolves around two central characters. Jimmy Paz is a Miami Police detective assigned to a string of particularly gory murders. The victims are pregnant women and their unborn babies. Jane Doe (her real name) is trying desperately not to be noticed. She's living in Miami under an assumed identity, working at a minimum-wage job in an effort to remain invisible. The moment she learns of the murders, Jane knows what is behind them. She is, in actuality, an anthropologist whose area of expertise is shamanism and sorcery among secluded tribes. The killings bear the stamp of a particular ritual. And the last thing she wants to do is tell the police. She's convinced she wouldn't survive. Gruber sets his main characters on a collision course. Jimmy and Jane both want to stop the killings, but they approach the task from wildly different starting points. The cop is tracking down leads and interviewing witnesses. The anthropologist is trying to fight fire with fire -- or, rather, magic with magic. A tasty witch's brewIt would be easy for "Tropic of Night" to devolve into a formulaic "good-versus-evil" modern-day fable. That it doesn't stands as a testament to Gruber's skill as a writer. He keeps the story grounded deeply in his characters, even as they delve into matters than can only be described as otherworldly. This is not an easy story to tell. Gruber shifts the storytelling between Jimmy and Jane, interjecting entries from Jane's field journal on a tribe in Africa into the mix. As a result, the story doesn't unfold. It coalesces. The narrative elements come together like a good stew -- or a witch's brew. In "Tropic of Night," sorcery exists. "It works whether you believe in it or not," Gruber explains, "just as a pistol will shoot you dead whether or not you believe that there are such things as pistols." That he harnesses sorcery in the service of what is fundamentally a murder mystery says much about the scope of the author's imagination. That the result isn't some corny "Miami-Vice-meets-Harry-Potter" potboiler says even more about Gruber's talent as a writer. His story is both absolutely gripping and thought provoking. In a word, "Tropic of Night" is magical.
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