Say is a wonderfully descriptive and atmospheric writer, and his
dialog flows with natural ease. In The Serpent
Bearer, he deals
with the occult as a natural phenomenon – nothing particularly spooky about it.
Say, in fact, goes into some well-researched detail on shamanism and psychic
dreams.
This second title in the Lake
Pontchartrain Mysteries is certainly as
involving and suspenseful as his first. Where The Serpent Bearer differs from the dark and other-worldly Nine Lives is that it’s more sympathetic
(a la Ray Bradbury) and less horrifying (a la Stephen King). But it still gets
you. I must mention here that the cover, featuring original art by Laura
Sprunk, is quite striking.
There
is a caveat, a big one, which has nothing to do with Say’s masterful story
telling. I was wary at the outset when I had to order the book through Lulu, a
vanity press. Sure enough, trouble started on the front flap of the dust
jacket: a paragraph cut off mid-sentence. The entire narrative was fraught with
misused words, misspellings, and punctuation errors. One chapter abruptly ends in mid-sentence just as the sisters are about to try giving a pitifully
frightened little dog his meds. If I hadn't been reading it so late at night I would've called Frank to find out what happened! An editor is credited on the opening
pages. Where was she? Didn’t Frank get a chance to look over a galley proof
before the book went to press? There’s no way his master’s thesis was presented
in such a state!
I
will certainly continue to follow the Lake Pontchartrain Mysteries. But I gotta
tell ya: Frank Say’s talent deserves better treatment.
