Murders and militias and snakes, oh my!

Cop-shy and snake-shy Hawaiian archaeologist “Digger” Fitz arrives at the small town of Golden Leaf, in the hills of Kentucky, for a reunion with his cousin, retired archaeologist Edgar Fitz—only to find himself face-to-face with a country sheriff, his deputies, and serpents aplenty.

Set up in the local motel, Digger awaits the third member of the family reunion: their niece, herpetologist Nikki, who is to arrive the next day. But that morning Digger is summoned by McAfee County sheriff Coony McCoy to a remote farm, where Edgar has become the victim of a gruesome murder, complicated by the presence of “enough dope to keep the Golden Leaf High School senior class happy for a three-day weekend.” Digger, an outsider with police problems in his past, has now become Sheriff McCoy’s primary suspect in Edgar’s homicide.

To the find the real killer, Digger and Nikki must dodge the country cops, their crazed kin—members of an apocalyptic militia determined to survive the threat of the FBI/alien conspiracy—and a private war between the forces of a pair of eccentric collectors about to explode over an invaluable artifact from the French and Indian War. Then there are the serpents: 436 rattlesnakes from a reptile shipment gone wrong have infested the small town. “They shall take up serpents,” the apostle says, “and it shall not hurt them” (Mark 16:18). But that Bible passage wasn’t referring to snakes of the human variety . . .