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Title: Serpentine by Thomas Thompson ISBN: 0-7867-0749-6 Publisher: Carroll & Graf Publishers Pub. Date: 01 April, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.57 (14 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: One of the best true crime books I have ever read
Comment: I really enjoyed this book by Thomas Thompson, an author who redefined the true crime genre and shaped it further after the Capote classic "In Cold Blood." The author makes you feel that you really know all the characters involved with the murderer and antisocial Charles Sobhraj. The descriptions of Charles's crimes really seem like fiction they are so incredible, it is scary to read. I wish that Thomas was still alive to be able to do a followup.
Rating: 4
Summary: an engrossing account of a truly amoral psychopath
Comment: I'm not a big fan of the "true crime" genre. I did love Vincent Bugliosi's Helter Skelter, but don't care for Ann Rule's books or their ilk. Serpentine is an exception. Like other reviewers here, I came across this book about 20 years ago and I still have vivid recollections of it. Sobhraj is a kind of Ted Bundy with a bit more style and class. Thompson does a fine job in conveying Sobhraj's seductive qualities. He also is adept in his description of settings. Sobhraj may be thought of as the only jet-setter mass-murderer. I didn't realize until reading over these reviews that he had been released from prison already. That really is diconcerting, for he is about as amoral as Hannibal Lecter. I can't believe he was allowed back into society. I would recommend this book to those who like true crime stories and to those who just like an engaging, easy read. The book moves along at great pace. If you bring it along on a vacation to Sri Lanka or Thailand or Paris, etc., you may want to keep an eye out for Sobhraj. I wouldn't get too chummy if I were you.
Rating: 5
Summary: An international hustler
Comment: A fictional account of the crimes of Charles Sobhraj, a total psychopath, most infamous for his horrific spree of murder across several Asian countries in the seventies. Known by several different aliases, he would cruise major hotels and tourist areas looking for tourists to ingratiate himself with, then drug and rob them. Eventually he began to kill his victims, even burning some of them to death, moving from country to country using stolen passports, his blatant and arrogant attitude seemed to know no bounds. It required police detectives from many cities and embassies to merge their efforts to catch him and even acknowledge that there was a serial killer on the prowl, this took quite awhile and after all the effort by the end of this novel his only conviction was the one in India for 7 years
Born in 1944 in Vietnam, to an unmarried Vietnamese mother and an Indian father , unwanted by both parents, Charles spent his childhood in Vietnam, France, Africa and India moving from place to place and belonging nowhere. He was highly intelligent and had a natural aptitude for languages, but early on in his life, perhaps because of his unstable childhood and rejection, he turned his abilities to the dark side of life. From a young age Charles was able to manipulate and control others, a skill he developed throughout his life, becoming articulate in many languages and changing identities at the drop of a hat, able to convince otherwise innocent people to commit crimes for him and give him their money. Caught for many of his crimes, he was able to slip from custody countless times with the help of others who remained fiercely loyal to him.
I had never heard of Charles Sobhraj before reading "Serpentine", have since discovered that he was released from prison sometime ago, profiting greatly from selling his life story, truly shocking. While this book does have a sensational style of writing and not totally balanced, typical of pulp fiction from the seventies, I still enjoyed it immensely and would recommend it for readers of the true crime genre.
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Title: Blood and Money by Thomas Thompson ISBN: 0786709472 Publisher: Carroll & Graf Publishers Pub. Date: 09 September, 2001 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Celebrity by Thomas Thompson ISBN: 0385159692 Publisher: Doubleday Books Pub. Date: 01 March, 1982 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: Lost! by Thomas Thompson ISBN: 0446300950 Publisher: Warner Books Pub. Date: 01 November, 1986 List Price(USD): $3.95 |
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Title: Richie by Thomas Thompson ISBN: 0440174015 Publisher: Bantam Books (Mm) Pub. Date: 01 January, 1981 List Price(USD): $2.50 |
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Title: Doc: The Rape of the Town of Lovell by Jack Olsen ISBN: 0440206685 Publisher: Dell Pub. Date: 02 May, 1990 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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