The Serpent Club [Mass Market Paperback]

Tom Coffey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2000

Tom Coffey delivers a gut-wrenching debut, a sensational thriller that could be torn from today's headlines. Plunging deep into the morality of a city renowned for sin -- Los Angeles -- this edgy, piercing novel will carve its way into your psyche.

Her name is Megan Wright. Pretty. Thirteen. Nice house. Private school. When she is raped and murdered, it's a story, and Ted Lowe is the one to report it. He's been a reporter for many years, but this is the first time he actually sees a body. Megan was indeed pretty. The crime scene is anything but.

As Ted smoothly uncovers the facts surrounding Megan's death, he finds that the glittery facade of her perfect life was just that -- a thin veneer easily wiped away with the answers to a few well-placed questions. The suspects slowly accumulate: the cold-as-ice mother, the deadbeat surfer father, the friends, the boyfriend who happens to be the son of one of the richest men in California. It could be any one of them. For any reason.

As the spun-out decay of an entire city closes in around Ted, he realizes there are people who do not want this case solved. And if the life of a thirteen-year-old girl was worth taking, so is the life of a reporter who has seen too much.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Coffey covers a lot of legal and moral ground in this fast-paced, shocking and hypnotic debut thriller about a cynical journalist working for an L.A. daily who stumbles into a career-making story while investigating the brutal rape and murder of a 13-year-old girl. Ted Lowe finds himself handling a front-page case when the primary suspect turns out to be the girl's boyfriend, Brad Devlin, the adolescent son of a billionaire CEO of an electronics company who has the connections to protect his son from prosecution. Lowe uses a police source and some questionable reporting tactics to gather clues that incriminate the youth and his father, but his investigation takes a bizarre turn when Brad and his thuggish friends "kidnap" the reporter and force him to ride along while they rape a young girl and her mother. Lowe finds himself drawn to the violence, and his failure to report the crime becomes one of several fascinating angles that unfold as the case comes to trial. The sensationalized trial moves steadily toward an acquittal despite the evidence against Brad, leading Lowe to suspect that the father is pulling strings behind the scenes, and forcing him to choose between testifying about his own criminal behavior to help convict Brad or maintaining his silence to protect his career. Coffey, a New York Times sports editor, employs a deceptively spare, world-weary voice to slowly reveal the origins of his protagonist's emotional limbo, and he comes up with stunningly original plot twists to emphasize Lowe's excruciating moral dilemma. The cast of quirky L.A. characters helps give context to Lowe's bizarre behavior, lending color to a narrative combining the suspense of a police procedural with the moral intrigue of a legal thriller. In a genre where breaking new ground is a rare achievement, Coffey has gone far beyond the restrictions of formula to craft a remarkable debut.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

A first novel about a burned-out Los Angeles reporter's edgy obsession with rough sex, depraved teenagers, and a murdered 13-year-old girl, from a New York Times sports editor. Ted Lowe, a jaded veteran of the police beat, can't forget the fragile, battered corpse he and the police find, especially when it seems superrich high-tech mogul Jeremiah Devlin and his lethally good-looking teenage son, Brad, have something to do with Megan Wright's death. Lowe's editor compels him to write a series of luridly sensational articles about the death, while L. A. is haunted by a series of rapes and robberies by a gang of masked youths who bludgeon their victims with baseball bats. The newspaper is cutting budgets and staff; a strong story might protect Lowe's job. He ends his long-standing relationship with Norreen and moves in with Rebecca, an idealistic intern who admires him and enjoys his tastes for rough sex. Meanwhile, Devlin is too rich and powerful to be indictedhe's bought both the district attorney and his challenger, members of the LAPD, the best criminal lawyer in the state, even the newspaper's publisher, at a time when Lowe has run out of leads. Lowe breaks into Megan's house, where hes kidnaped by the teenage hoodlums lying in wait for him. Their leader, Brad Devlin, takes Lowe on a rampage that results in the rape, torture, and beating of an innocent Asian woman and her daughter. Instead of going to the police, though, Lowe, fearing hes compromised, follows his obsession, even when hes laid off. Once Norreen becomes a target of Brad's fury, Lowe takes the law into his own hands, though the outcome of this unbelievable exercise in in-your-face depravity is thankfully downbeat. Tersely detailed violence, a made-for-Hollywood car chase, courtroom histrionics, and villains too bad to be true: the nastiest L.A. noir since Robert Campbell's La-La Land series. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Pocket (March 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671028286
• ISBN-13: 978-0671028282
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,869,142 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was born and raised on Staten Island, where I attended Catholic schools. I graduated from the Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University, and embarked on a career in journalism. I've had the good fortune to work as a writer and editor at some of America's leading newspapers. I've been employed at The Miami Herald, the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner and New York Newsday. I've been a staff editor at The New York Times since 1997.

My first novel, "The Serpent Club," was published in 1999, and my second book, "Miami Twilight," came out in 2001. I live in Lower Manhattan with my wife, Jill, and our daughter, Skyler.

And if I knew back then what I know now, I would have become interested in writing children's books.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars sick and twisted and hard to put down, April 2, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Serpent Club (Mass Market Paperback)

The Serpent Club was really compelling, in fact I read it in one long day of reading. It's definitely not pretty though (random home invasions, rapes and violence and of course murders are there at every turn) and the faint of heart shouldn't even bother to pick it up. Coffey's first novel is written in a simple first person format and the way he uses words is just perfect in my opinion. As I said earlier, the subject matter was just disturbing enough for me to think "do I want to keep reading?" obviously I did and to tell the truth the ending almost made it worthwile. I hope that Coffey soon follows up with another book, either continuing Ted Lowe's story, or starting another one.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars NEW THRILLER TERRITORY CHARTED HERE, February 17, 2001

By 

Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Serpent Club (Hardcover)

Justice is an anachronism, power the supreme deity, savagery routine in Tom Coffey's sharply conceived debut thriller The Serpent Club. An explosive plot plus a highly original suspense driven narrative are compelling, while the plausibility of his scenario makes this cutting-edge tale even more chilling.

The setting is southern California - land of power and plenty, a landscape now scarred by brutal, sadistic random violence, its populace plagued by faceless enemies who relish evil.

Antihero Ted Lowe is a curious blend of hypocrite and truth-seeker. He's a seasoned, salty-tongued reporter for a Los Angeles newspaper whose view of life may be found in his musings: ".....the ancients invented God to explain why things happen. They were afraid to accept the arbitrariness of life, too ignorant to understand the great cosmic joke that the universe itself is just a gigantic accident."

He is assigned to cover a murder story - the rape and fatal beating of 13-year-old Megan Wright. Her body is found atop Sepulveda Pass; the crime scene is grisly. It's a sight Lowe cannot forget.

Obtaining a photo of the dead girl, he thinks, "I'm glad for this chance to see her whole."

Lowe's coverage of the crime is set against a backdrop of apparently unconnected break-ins - brutal assaults in which a band of ski-masked thugs force mothers to watch the rape and sometimes fatal beating of their daughters.

"Why look for motivation behind the violence - why did he do it, why did it happen to her?" the narrator coldly asks. "These questions are pointless of course. Things happen because they do."

Doors close, evidence is skewed, and possible witnesses disappear when Brad Devlin, teenage son of wealthy, influential Jeremiah Devlin, is linked to Megan Wright's murder. Pressured by his editors for daily doses of sensationalism, Lowe knows a lurid front page story would be a boost for his career. He investigates on his own, while launching an affair with a smart but naive young reporter who shares his affinity for rough and tumble sex.

When the band of rampaging thugs, which includes Brad Devlin, kidnap Lowe and force him to accompany them as they rape and pummel an Asian mother and daughter, he is forced to confront his inner contradictions - he is fascinated by the ghastly act. "The sound of breaking glass thrills me. It's a true noise of the night."

Brad's eventual indictment for the murder of Megan is hardly a blip on his father's mental screen - Jeremiah Devlin has already bought off the district attorney, his challenger, the newspaper publisher, and others. The Devlin's high-powered, higher-priced attorney exudes supreme confidence.

Lowe is left to decide whether to take the stand and testify to what he witnessed in order to help convict Brad, thereby risking recrimination for failing to report the crime or remaining silent to protect himself.

Mr. Coffey handily layers moral questions with legal issues as the narrative races from investigation to a no-holds-barred courtroom trial. To the author's credit there is little physical description of the character who most embodies evil - he remains a faceless terror, growing even more frightening in the reader's imagination.

A cast of L.A. noir characters enliven the story, while the enigma of Ted Lowe's character both puzzles and fascinates. Mr. Coffey, an editor at the New York Times, charts new thriller territory with The Serpent Club; he's a cagey, daring and imaginative writer from whom we want to hear more.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing but....., November 11, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Serpent Club (Hardcover)

After completing this book, I was horrified to discover that the author is an editor for a major newspaper. While the story is intense and intriguing, the writing was pitiful. At times, I found it difficult to continue reading because of the lack of fluency and transition. The story plot is original and clever but I fear the author needs to revisit grammar and sentence mechanics 101.