The Serpent Bearer

For fans of Kelly Rimmer and Kate Quinn, comes The Serpent Bearer: a World War II spy thriller in which a glamorous aristocrat, a Jewish gambler, and a beautiful Hollywood screenwriter must confront a terrible enemy to save themselves and those they love.

The Serpent Bearer, part World War II spy thriller, part romance, part story of buried family secrets, is a tale that stretches from Spain to Hollywood, from a small Jewish community in South Carolina to a crumbling hacienda in the Yucatan and carries us into the lives of a group of glamorous, reckless men and women, swept up by the dangerous political currents in the years before and during WW2.

To save their own lives and the lives of others, each must confront their worst fears and take courageous actions. If they fail, the world they once knew will be gone forever and the people they love with it.

More about the book from the author

The year is 1941. The place is Pennington, South Carolina, a fictional (but oh-so-real) cotton mill town, pretty much owned lock, stock and barrel by Mister B.D. Pennington himself—— the mill, the main street, as well as the sharecroppers’ shacks and all the red clay dirt underneath them.

But, Pennington is also home to a few outsiders, including a small, Jewish community, one that minds its own business and keeps to itself, which is exactly what Solly Meisner intends to do when he takes a job at Blumberg Agricultural Freight Company in Pennington in the middle of kudzu- covered nowhere. Mind his own business, keep to himself, and bury the memories of his past, all the sun and blood- soaked memories of Spain, memories of the war they lost and the woman he lost, too.

But the past has a way of rising up from the grave.At least that’s what the recruiter from Roosevelt’s newly formed spy agency tells Solly when he pushes a dossier across his desk and tells him to take a look. And when Solly does? Well, he is shocked enough to take the deal the recruiter offers him—- go to the Mexican jungle, see what he can find out, let the ghosts of his past come alive again.

Characters who can’t be whole

Some of the most compelling fictional characters are the ones split between who they are, what they want, and what they fear. As a narrative device, this dual identity creates an inner conflict/external conflict that drives a plot . . . READ MORE
Fear that pushes characters forward

Fear is one of fiction’s oldest engines. While many plots are driven by what a character wants, a fear-driven plot is often fueled by what they’re afraid to lose. These kinds of stories begin subtly — not with a villain appearing in a . . . READ MORE
Women who act, not react

The strongest female protagonists aren’t defined by how much freedom the world gives them. They’re defined by what they do with the freedom they claim. That’s the heart of agency in fiction, as Jenna Moreci argues in her article on . . . READ MORE

The Serpent Bearer is a book about my parents’ world, one that I felt in my heart I had to capture on the page before it was forgotten and before history had a chance to repeat itself.

This novel is for the brave people who fought ‘the good fight’ in Spain and for all the people, most of them anonymous, who fought against injustice in this country.

May their memories be for a blessing.

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