Serpent Girl [Deluxe Edition] [Hardcover]

Ray Garton (Author), Jill Bauman (Illustrator)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This intense tale of real-life horror may remind some readers of Dostoyevski's Crime and Punishment. On a whim, hit man Steven Benedetti, who's driving to Los Angeles from Oregon, stops in a small Northern California town to take in a carnival sideshow. There he picks up the Serpent Girl of the title (aka Carmen Mattox), and soon the bodies start to mount up. Carmen seeks emotional and sexual fulfillment in murder, while for Benedetti, the cool professional, it's simply business. Wasting no words on characterization, Garton (Live Girls) speeds the violent, X-rated action to its bleak, foreordained climax. (Dec.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Cemetery Dance Publications; First Edition edition (April 30, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1587671441
• ISBN-13: 978-1587671449
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,809,705 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars superb psychological thriller, July 4, 2008

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Serpent Girl (Hardcover)

Heading from Portland, Steven Benedetti is passing through the California mountain town of Garver when he sees the sign advertising a carnival. Retired with no place to be, he decides to stop and have fun there. However, what made a carnival fun as a kid no longer is the same as displays like the House of Terror are broken just like life.

Then he hears the barker mention the SERPENT GIRL and her command of snakes. He goes to see her show. Shocking himself, Steven wants this Carmen Mattox whose sexual enticing show with the snakes around her beautiful body has him in heat with desire. When he intercedes physically on Carmen's behalf during a dispute, she leaves with him. They spend a night together in a nearby motel where he has the best ride of his life. They travel together towards his home stopping for trysts along the way. However, he begins to have doubts about his companion as he fears she may be more than just a snake charmer; but he cannot put together two coherent thoughts as Carmen keeps placing her big beautiful body around him leading to all his blood clotting in his lower head.

This is a superb thriller written by a master magician who uses sleight of the hand to fool the audience into going down one way only to end up totally elsewhere with what may be the twist of the year. The story line starts off as an erotic tale as the two lead characters cannot have enough of one another. However, just when the reader gets comfortable with the plot, Ray Garton pulls a Twilight Zone worthy spin. Fans will appreciate this wonderful psychological thriller.

Harriet Klausner