Deep in the jungles of Colombia, an American priest is shot dead in his makeshift church. A few weeks later, an Indian shaman arrives in south Florida, armed only with a bag of totems and the fearsome power of Jaguar, his god. When affluent Cuban-American businessmen begin dying in gruesome fashion, seemingly eaten alive by a massive jungle cat, Jimmy Paz, Miami's resident expert on the deeply weird, is called out of his self-imposed retirement to find the killer. However, Paz has problems of his own: he and his seven-year-old daughter Amelia are both haunted by dreams of Jaguar, who has come to take her as a sacrifice. To save his daughter and stop the murders, Paz will have to reach into the deepest corners of his soul.

Michael Gruber's debut was the much-praised Tropic of Night, also featuring Miami detective Jimmy Paz. 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.