Had she thought of it, your mother would’ve told you, “Never get involved with a woman who dances with snakes at a carnival.” And from what the protagonist of Ray Garton’s outrageous road-trip novella SERPENT GIRL goes through, your mother would’ve been right. As in, dead-on.

Steven Benedetti is just passing through a California mountain town when he decides to stop at a two-bit carnival, where he’s entranced — or at least his nether regions are — by Carmen, the titular (in every sense of the word) woman whose act consists of writhing about suggestively as reptiles encircle her voluptuous body. Afterward, Benedetti witnesses Carmen in an argument with her boss, sticks up for her and offers to give her a ride (eventually in every sense of the word).

They share a steamy night in a motel — so erotic, in fact, Benedetti claims it’s the best he’s ever had. (As Garton describes the encounter, I’m apt to agree.) He falls hard for her as they head toward his home, screwing like bunnies all along the way. (Seriously, the book is one sexual romp after another, but actually has a point for such a salicious structure.) And all the mind-blowing sex helps him grapple with his growing suspicions that Carmen is a serial killer.

That Garton specializes in twisted sex should come as no surprise to anyone who’s read his modern-day vampire classic LIVE GIRLS. And SERPENT GIRL finds him at his best — at 140 pages, the story is lean and mean, with emphasis on the latter. Carmen works her considerable charms on Benedetti (no saint himself) and, in turn, on the reader, which only makes the book’s revelatory climactic scene a real horror shocker.

In that scene, which comes as a bit of a blunt punch to the stomach despite all evidence being laid out in front of you, Garton aims to disturb, and hits his target squarely. That kind of thing takes skill in misdirection — or at least distraction — and Garton is up to the challenge. Sure, it’d be tough to bore in such a slim volume, but however fleeting this ride is, it’s the fact that it sticks with you long after that makes it special. —Rod Lott

Buy it at Amazon or Cemetery Dance.

“She spread her legs and I settled in between them. She reached down, rubbed the head of my penis up and down between her labia, directed me in. She moved on me in ways no woman ever had before. She bent down and let her breasts smack me in the face as they lolled back and forth. ‘Oh, yeah!’ she cried, sitting up again. ‘Yeah, you’re doin’ it to me, you’re doin’ it to me.’”

OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS AUTHOR:
• LIVE GIRLS by Ray Garton
• THE LOVELIEST DEAD by Ray Garton
• NIGHT LIFE by Ray Garton
• RAVENOUS by Ray Garton
• SLIVERS OF BONE by Ray Garton