Serpent Circus

About the Book

Bronson, Arizona, is a small, sleepy burg of about six hundred people along Interstate 40. It is the personification of the proverbial, one horse town, where nothing exciting ever happens. This is about to change. Bronson has seen prosperous days, but those days are gone. Most businesses are hanging on by a thread, and few entrepreneurs are brave enough, or foolish enough, to open new ones. One who does is Leonard Jasquez, snake collector. With his wife and son, he establishes Reptile Gardens, an extraordinary serpentarium, where his impressive array of reptiles is on display. He has many exotic varieties from the world over, and enjoys showing them off. He also relishes the accolades he receives when he milks rattlesnakes of their venom and kisses cobras. Most tourists, especially the children, are delighted with his performances. But there is a darker - - much darker - - side to Reptile Gardens. Displaying his snakes for tourists is not the main reason for its existence. Led by Leonard Jasquez, Reptile Gardens is home to an evil coven of Satanists. Jasquez believes snakes are emissaries of the devil, so uses them in his rituals. Then Jasquez sees pretty little Dianne Luttrell, who has stopped to view Reptile Gardens with her parents, Garry and Agnes. Although she is only nine years old, Jasquez becomes convinced that she is destined to be the bride of Satan and the mother of the Antichrist. With the help of his son, Balock, and one of his overgrown snakes, Jasquez causes a car wreck in which her father is killed and her mother winds up missing. He then kidnaps Dianne. He intends to use her in the Black Mass on August sixth, called Lammas, the Grand Sabbat of Satanists. It is then, he feels, that Satan will ascend from Hell and take her for his bride. She will be impregnated with his seed, and give birth to the Antichrist. Balock is a pedophile with his own perverted intentions for the beautiful child. Mark Stafford, Agnes Luttrell’s brother and a writer of national renown, comes to Bronson from Chicago to investigate the disappearance of his sister and niece, and the death of his brother-in-law. In the sheriff’s office, he meets Dave Purser, a schoolteacher and writer wannabe. Dave has been camped near Bronson, and has seen a gigantic snake, so much larger than any common Arizona variety, that he knows something weird is happening. Since Reptile Gardens was the last place his sister and niece were seen alive, Mark has a gut feeling that their disappearances might somehow be connected with Dave’s sighting. Not satisfied with the sheriff’s slow progress on the case, the two decide to team up and investigate matters on their own. The two meet Susan Keegan, a waitress at the Subs and Suds café. On a dark, rainy night, they rescue her after her car slides into a ditch on a lonely stretch of road. She and Mark rapidly fall in love, and she becomes his fiancée. Meanwhile, to satisfy his ego and test his limits of control over his snakes, Jasquez unleashes them on the unsuspecting townspeople. Several are bitten, at least two are missing, and others are scared witless by the nightmarish creatures. One of these is Claude Bleak, an old prospector who is one of Bronson’s oldest residents, and certainly the most colorful. Claude has intended to camp and prospect for gold, but before he can even pitch his tent he is attacked by thousands of rattlesnakes. He escapes being bitten by a hair, and is forced to flee for his life. Hearing of Dave Purser’s encounter with the giant snake, he joins the three young people in their undertaking. In preparation for the Grand Sabbat, Jasquez vandalizes the local Catholic Church and kidnaps its priest, Father O’Bannion. He wants the priest to witness the Black Mass, which will be an unholy parody of the Catholic Mass. While he is thus engaged, Dianne escapes, and by a miracle is found by Dave, Mark, and Susan in the nick of time to prev

About the Author

Duane Smith is a retired schoolteacher who now operates the largest ghostwriting agency in Arizona’s Yavapai County. “Charitably,” he quips, “no one else has started a ghostwriting agency in Yavapai County.” His specialty is writing fiction and satire, although he loves to write memoirs also. Duane lives with Olesia, the lovely Brazilian girl he married 35 years ago, and their pampered little dog, Shadow. He has written newspaper columns, short stories, memoirs, and resumes. SERPENT CIRCUS is his second novel. His first book, DUANE HAPPENS!, is a satirical novel about a young college student.