"Cold-blooded killer" takes on new meaning when a small Southern community is rocked by a series of murders with deadly snakes as lethal weapons. Wilson Barnes is retreating from the mean streets of Miami to his rural hometown on the North Carolina coast, reporting to work as a detective for a former friend, now the local sheriff, and seeking a simpler existence. Turns out things aren't small-town quiet as Barnes and a reluctant partner find themselves immersed in a series of grisly deaths involving poisonous snakes as fanged accomplices of a devious killer. Gary Carter is the author of two previous novels, Not Dark Yet and Eliot's Tale . Based in North Carolina, his poetry and short fiction have appeared in Nashville Review , Sky Island Journal , Deep South Magazine, Real South/West, Steel Toe Review , Santa Barbara Literary Journal , Dead Mule , Delta Poetry Review and Main Street Rag . Author Photo: Nick King