And now ... for something completely different ... I really shouldn't post after a litre of the house red!!
HUNTSVILLE TIMES (Alabama) 31 August 03 This 'Serpent's Kiss' packs a chilling bite - Enjoyable thriller sets its conclusion on Sand Mountain (David Prather )
"The Serpent's Kiss," by Mark T. Sullivan: Atria, 375 pages, $25.
John Burdett's remarkable "Bangkok 8," published earlier this year, featured snakes as murder weapons. So does this book.
Dan Brown's incredibly successful "The Da Vinci Code," still a best-seller, played up alternative religious myths. Ditto for "The Serpent's Kiss."
Burdett's book is strong on character and milieu. Brown writes like Robert Ludlum on a bad day. Sullivan's artistic powers in this book lie somewhere in between.
But "The Serpent's Kiss" has something to interest local readers that neither Burdett's nor Brown's books do: A good part of Sullivan's novel is set on Sand Mountain.
The story begins, though, in San Diego, where police detective Seamus Moynihan is confronted with a baffling series of murders by snakebite. Although Moynihan tells the story in first-person, he cuts to third-person scenes to describe the gruesome murders. Those scenes will convince you that death by snake venom is not the way you want to leave this Earth.
Moynihan goes to the San Diego Zoo for information about herpetology and encounters a clone of the "Crocodile Hunter" and his better-educated but underappreciated assistant. A professor of religion, who claims to have "discovered" who Cain's wife in the Land of Nod was, also joins the investigation because of the tantalizing biblical clues at the crime scenes.
Moynihan plods undeterred through the investigation despite problems with his divorced wife and his Little League son, an abrasive boss and, eventually, a theory that doesn't sit well with the police brass.
Bereft of badge and authority, he flies to Chattanooga, drives past Scottsboro and enters fictional Hattiesburg, Ala., where people are unfriendly and have a major secret to hide. It's here that Moynihan witnesses the Holiness sect's rite of snake-handling, and gets the final clues to solve the mystery - maybe.
In a chilling finale - which any veteran thriller reader can see coming a mile away - Moynihan falls prey to a misinterpretation of the clues and an eastern diamondback rattlesnake. His survival depends on keeping his wits as the snake venom robs him of his sanity.
The Alabama scenes are quite well done, and in an afterward, Sullivan tips his pen to Dennis Covington's "Miracle on Sand Mountain," a brilliant nonfiction account of snake-handling by religious cults in North Alabama. Those scenes are, in fact, the strongest in the book - which, based on Sullivan's track record, should be better than it is.
Sullivan's "The Purification Ceremony" is one of the weirdest and most engrossing thrillers in recent memory. His next novel, "Ghost Dance," was a disappointment in comparison.
His penultimate novel, "Labyrinth," has gotten fine reviews, but I haven't read it, so I can't comment.
As for "The Serpent's Kiss," I enjoyed reading it - Sullivan has a great sense of pace - but it's not one that will stay in the personal library.
This 'Serpent's Kiss' packs a chilling bite
