Barnabas, Quentin and the Serpent
The story takes place in 1870. Gerald Collins is an archaeologist and he and his daughter have been exploring Aztec ruins. Irma, his daughter, really doesn't like it in the jungle and objects when her father decides to take lots of specimens he has found back to Collinwood for classification.
There's a bad storm at sea and they lose one animal after it escapes and attacks. It's sort of a min-Dimetrodon (one of my favorite dinosaurs.) Back at Collinwood the crates of animals and plants are unpacked. Then a series of deaths happen with people thinking the people were killed by a feathered snake. This creates tremendous problems for Gerald Collins since there is a greedy guy that wants to buy Colllinwood. The Sheriff is also hostile.
Barnabas shows up in the daylight and Irma ends up falling for him. A guy had been hired to take care of the animals and it's quite obvious that the guy is Quentin is disguise. There are more deaths, more romance and the villain, snake or human, is finally seen.
It's an interesting question why Quentin doesn't get punished for his misdeeds. A case could be made that he is insane when under the influence of the wolf. He'd probably end up in prison for the rest of his life (and possibly experimented upon by scientists.) It's just that he never seems to be punished for his crimes. Still, it's a typically good book in the series.
My Index Page
|
|