Customer Reviews

The Serpent's Kiss : A Novel

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What a fascinating read! The first half of the book seemed like the typical American police procedural--this time set in San Diego. The murders are ghastly, and the subset of individuals who seems to be the chosen victims adds another disturbing twist to the story. Our hero, Seamus Moynihan, is a narcissist and is somewhat hard to like. He's a jock, good with the ladies, drives a muscle car, and spews testosterone in every interaction with another living thing, etc.

Once Moynihan travels to rural Alabama--that's when things get interesting. The deeper he seems to go into those dense, humid forests looking for the house where a tragedy took place 27 years ago (and may be the key to solving the string of San Diego murders), the eerier the story.

The ending is somewhat predictable, but the psychology of the criminal's behavior is plausible enough to warrant our suspension of reality to enjoy a spooky, disturbing police procedural.

This is an excellent new thriller by a wonderful author. The plot concerns a series of bizarre killings in San Diego. Nude men are found strapped to their beds, with evidence of recent sexual actions, with three snake bites on them and strychinnine in their veins. Detective Moynihan ventures into the seamier side of San Diego life, and eventually has to make a trip to the backwoods of Alabama to visit a small-town and a serpent-handling church with its own deep, dark secret.

You'll grimace at the descriptions of the victims (think ebola...) and the fast-paced, but evenly distributed action, will keeps you on the edge of your seat. There's even something for the romantic, with tales of Moynihan's sexual conquests during the book, sometimes getting rather graphic (occasionally unnecessarily so).

The Amazon reviews give the tagline that the book jacket does, extolling it for explaining the mystery of the second woman. I went into the novel thinking it would be rather like the phenomenol "The Da Vinci Code," going in-depth on the Bible's greatest mystery. The second-woman thing isn't really explored in-depth, though. It's not really a time-consuming part of the mystery, and is really only used as a minor clue.

The only main problem in this book is the main character. He's an Irish cop whose father was a cop killed in the line of duty. He's haunted by the memories, is divorced, and his relationship with his son isn't what it could be. Basically, he's a rather stereotypical character. Sullivan, however, does flesh him out some, making him an ex-Major League baseball player, and adding some very good and well-drawn side characters to balance. He also writes with enough style and panache to keep you caring about his slightly hackneyed protagonist, all the way to the gripping, exciting conclusion with even something of an unsolved mystery at the end.

Mark T. Sullivan has created a winner of a character in San Diego homicide detective Seamus Moynihan. He's complex and conflicted as all get-out--his family life is in a shambles, his career is on the line, and he's got a past that would haunt anybody. His father, also a police officer, was killed in the line of duty and Seamus broke a promise to his mother by also becoming a cop after a traumatic injury cut short his life with the Boston Red Sox. His ex-wife is moving on with another man, he is alienating his son, and he has difficulty with all his relationships. He doesn't always follow his own advice--the book would be shorter if he did--but then what real person does? In addition, he is an effective narrator and he lives on a boat like Travis McGee. All in all, Moynihan is one engaging character--although not always entirely believable (I mean, I like my heroes as flawed as the next guy, but Moynihan has enough for two characters). Sullivan plans to write a series of books starring "Shay" and, at the very least, this is a man we will not tire of visiting anytime soon.

The Serpent's Kiss, however, is another story. It's a riveting read--plenty of suspense, action, twist, and turns, as well as lots of different characters to keep us guessing to the identity of the murderer. Unfortunately, Sullivan attempts to lead his readers down a path that makes sense, then jettisons it at the last moment for a more sensationalist ending. The last quarter of the book--while gripping, informative, and quickly-paced--dampens the effect of the rest of the novel. Nevertheless, I was engrossed to the very end.

A string of sexually-related serial murders is the focus of the investigation. Peppered with the bites of various illegally obtained snakes (or "hot herps"), the victims are found with poisoned apples in their mouths (where's the Snow White angle?) and obscure literary/biblical references left at the scene. The search leads Moynihan and his partner/brother-in-law to the local reptile adventurer, Nick Foster, star of Cold Blooded (an obvious Crocodile Hunter parody) and his reluctant partner, zoologist Jan Hood. Also involved in the investigation is professor Susan Dahoney, author of a controversial book about the Lilith myth called The Second Woman. Both these women will provide keys to the eventual solution, but not before Moynihan gets involved with them romantically. And before long, Shay will get too close for comfort with several poisonous snakes, but at least his knowledge of them--courtesy of the investigation--will help him survive.

From the beginning, Sullivan leads his characters down the wrong path intentionally, all the while winking at his readers and letting us know he's in on it. This made it all too easy to guess the perpetrator's identity. Sullivan's prose is mostly invisible--perfect for this type of thriller--but there end up being too many subplots. He leads us running from location to location, trying too hard to make sure we're having a good time. After a while--just like on a rollercoaster--I'd had enough and was ready for it to be over.

In the end, I enjoyed The Serpent's Kiss very much, and will certainly be on the lookout for future Sullivan/Moynihan novels. I think that readers who are looking for a suspenseful ride will be very pleased with the novel and those who prefer their characters to be attractively flawed will enjoy keeping company with Moynihan. I recommend it with only these few reservations.

Having read Sullivan's previous works including PURIFICATION CEREMONY, I was pleasantly surprised at this genre-changing work. Sullivan should definitely consider more Seamus Moynihan novels.
This one is a firecracker from start to finish. The terrible deaths of these men are graphically depicted, and make the flesh crawl. Sullivan throws several suspects at you, and then saves the best for last.
Seamus is a great character, as is Nick, the television "Crocodile Dundee". The women in Seamus' life give him a little more trouble than most femme fatales.
An explosive book, with a great feel for place as well. Shifting from California to Alabama, Sullivan gives us several spooky and suspenseful scenes.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

This is one terrific thriller! Sullivan, known more for his "macho pursuit" thrillers like "Labyrinth" tears into the detective genre with outstanding gusto! Seamus Moynihan is a perfect hero, flawed but persistent, and very human. The murders are unbelivably gruesome, and it's a nail biting read from start to finish. Since other reviewers have outlined the plot, what more can I say? It has some incredible suspense scenes and a knockout of a twist in revealing the culprit. This is a great must for thriller fans.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

THE SERPENT'S KISS hits you like a freight train from page one! All you want to do is read this book every minute you can once you encounter the horrific death scene tht homicide detective Semus Moynihan takes in where a naked man has been bitten three times by a deadly snake.

This well crafted tale takes you in to the kinky world of erotic and twisted sex, black market herpetology, cults and a Biblical mystery that is a shocker.

Sargent Moynihan is top notch, tough, stubborn, handsome, and can turn the ladies' heads. He's a character that is realistic, has his troubles with the death of his father, dealing with his divorce and ten year old son. However, he works like a well oiled machine when working with his team of detectives solving cases. The characters are riveting, the prose excellent--all in all a prize package. Best of all this is the first in a series about Semus Moynihan. Hold onto your hats readers as it's a wild and bumpy ride from start to finish with an electrifying ending that is unforgetable.

I'm a romance reviewer who also loves mysteries. After discovering Mark Sullivan I'm a dyed-in-the-wool fan now. I'm making a bee-line to track down the rest of his books. I have LABYRINTH on my nighttable to read next. Go to your nearest bookstore or order online. Yes, he is that good!

There are two points, I think, during THE SERPENT'S KISS where it is immediately obvious that Mark T. Sullivan has developed into one of our best contemporary writers. The first is a fairly sedate moment, a little over one-third of the way through the book, and involves a fairly sedate episode --- an account of a dinner (a date, actually, though they don't really call it that) between San Diego homicide detective Seamus Moynihan and Professor Susan Dahoney, author of THE SECOND WOMAN. The dinner is not necessarily pivotal to the main plot. However, Sullivan sets it up so well, stressing the details where he needs to while leaving other things to the imagination that one sits up and realizes that this is a first-rate craftsman at work. It's not that THE SERPENT'S KISS isn't uniformly great from the first page; it's just that the suspense factor is ratcheted so high that it's easy to overlook just what a great stylist Sullivan is.

The second point? It's a little over halfway through the book, when Sullivan switches locales from the deceptively beautiful streets of San Diego to the backwoods of rural Alabama. Sullivan captures the area and some of its residents so perfectly that you would swear you were reading a diary of his own experiences. And maybe you are...you never know.

But the story! Ah, let's not forget the story! THE SERPENT'S KISS begins with a naked victim tied to a bed and subjected to a slow, excruciatingly painful death by snakebites. The murderer leaves an obscure quotation written on a mirror, but there almost no other clues. The investigation follows a number of twists and turns that include Internet chat rooms, television show hosts, captive reptile enthusiasts, and rapper crime lords --- but each potential thread of the investigation results in a dead end. Moynihan, and the San Diego police force, are in a quandary, one that is made worse while the killer strikes again and again, seemingly able to roam at will. The investigation appears to hit an insurmountable roadblock until a similar murder that occurred decades before in rural Alabama seems to provide the motivation behind the murders and the identity of the murderer. But Sullivan and THE SERPENT'S KISS ultimately keep the reader, as well as Moynihan, guessing until the very end.

Moynihan is a sympathetic and believable character who has just enough trouble balancing the professional and the personal to seem all too real. If by the conclusion of THE SERPENT'S KISS you want him back, you'll be happy to know that this is only the first in a series of what promises to be riveting books featuring Moynihan. Oh, one other thing. Given the phallic imagery associated with snakes, THE SERPENT'S KISS is somewhat erotic, to say the least. And there's a money paragraph or two near the conclusion that is a definite water cooler moment. It'll have you checking the bed before the lights go out for at least a few nights --- at least. But THE SERPENT'S KISS is worth it.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

See storyline above.

Mark T. Sullivan never disappoints and this time I think he has exceeded his previous best.
'The Serpent's Kiss' is a highly addictive and gruesome tale, with plotting that will excite any reader of thrillers and mysteries. Interesting locales and some graphic scenes round out this intense story.

Highly recommended.

And uneven...parts of it are well-written, parts just drab. Honestly I'm tired of these testosterone-laden, irrestible-to-women, ex-pro sports police officers who have been through pain...& therefore have a sensitive side...I didn't know police departments were saturated with such complete specimens of masculinity...the plot twist becomes so contrived it lacks reason & credibility. Would have given 2.5 stars, but between 2 & 3 it is closer to 2.
Two other things: Wellbutrin is an antidepressant (& also a smoking cessation drug) not an antianxiety drug, not a big deal but mystery writers these days fill up their books with so much medical mumbo-jumbo like they really know that medical stuff so it's worth pointing out, especially since the lead police officer was married to a doctor & whose sister is a psychiatrist, he should know better...& secondly, the snake-handling, strychnine-drinking Pentecostal Appalachian cult is very well-known, there have been TV shows on them, & books, wonder why any of those ace detectives didn't seem to have a clue.
Overall the book fails because it has too many sensational gimmicks.