SERPENTINE

by Thomas Thompson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 12, 1979

Thompson moves from bloody murder in Texas (Blood and Money) to a one-man tidal wave of blood sweeping across Asia, telling his story with the same focus and intensity--and even more horrific detail. The master criminal is Charles Sobhraj, a Vietnamese-born waif traumatized by his unmarried parents' separation. While still practically a baby, Charles runs away from his mother's home to hide in his father's one-room tailor shop--sometimes going for two days without food, just to be in the same room with his father. When his mother marries a Frenchman and takes Charles off to Paris, the boy chooses to live by his wits on the streets--and repeatedly runs home to his father in Saigon. But the father ignores him and even refuses to give him the family name. Again and again he is returned to his mother, who abuses him for his misdeeds (and for wetting his bed until he's 16). But early on, Charles has revealed a genius for theft, malice, and sheer cunning. He becomes a beautifully tailored, multilingual man-of-all-Asia gem-dealer, passport-forger, and drug-and-rob thief--not to mention mass murderer. For the book's first half you find his genius awesome, if misdirected, and think of him as working out his neuroses on his victims: American kids in Asia with travelers checks, international businessmen and rich transients wherever Charles happens to be operating for a few weeks. His crimes (including getting his half-brother to take his--Charles'--prison term in a bestial Greek prison) are of such breathtaking self-interest that the reader is stopped short. But when Charles gets around to burning his victims with gasoline, a huge desire for law-and-order sets in. Despite everything, Charles' last conviction brought only a seven-year sentence and he is dreaming of coming to the U.S. Sizzling.

Pub Date: Oct. 12, 1979

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1979

Categories: NONFICTION