Customer Reviews

The Snake Eater

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The Kirkus Review is right on. Very readable. Not deep. The author has a way of describing interesting siuations. The story develops well and then wraps up a little too neatly. Still, I liked it.

White-shoe lawyer, Brady Coyne, is called in to defend a friend of a friend, Daniel McCloud, who is facing felony jail time for having a large garden of the best marijuana. Daniel, a Viet Nam vet who has been Agent Oranged, claims he uses the drug only for medicinal purposes to relieve his terrible skin rash. Brady takes an instant liking to Daniel who is quiet, modest and completely self-reliant. He hunts, fishes, knows the forest as well as the animals, and has built a beautiful modern home by hand in rural Connecticut.

Daniel gives Brady a box containing his "book" instructing him to find an agent to get his work published, but not to open it or read it. Then the mysteries start to pile up. Why did the D.A. drop charges against Daniel when they had an airtight case? It seems everyone who has contact with Daniel's book dies (including Daniel.) Why do the local cops dislike Daniel? Why are they not investigating his murder? At this point, we are right where we want to be as a reader--baffled, intrigued, and ready for more.

Well, that's it folks. The suspense goes down like an old soufflé and we are left with half-answers or unlikely ones. The book just seems to run out of gas. Brady is a very likeable hero, he has non-intense, non-monogamous relationships. He is very laid back and admits that fly-fishing is his first love (and probably his second or third as well). What could have been a highly suspenseful story just leaves us hanging. Brady probably just went fishing. C-