Title: Serpent Loop: Zane Clearwater Mysteries
Author: Lynn Lipinski
Publisher: Majestic Content Los Angeles
ISBN: 9780996467688
Pages: 216
Genre: Thriller/Suspense
Reviewed by: Anita Lock
Pacific Book Review
A murder connected to the dark web snakes its way unimaginably into the lives of a brother and sister in Serpent Loop.
Twenty-six-year-old Zane Clearwater and Lettie, his fifteen-year-old sister, live in a dingy two-bedroom apartment in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Zane is Lettie’s guardian, now that their parents are dead. Besides his zoo maintenance job, Zane tries to make ends meet by taking a side job, working security during a carnival. An unexpected fight breaks out, resulting in the death of a man, Wally Zittman. While the man’s brutal death is reminiscent of when Zane killed his father in self-defense, Zane is shocked when he notices that Lettie, who showed up at the crime scene, appears to know Wally. It only gets weirder when he realizes that Lettie’s old, “cracked-up” phone has been replaced with a new one. He can’t even begin to think where she found the money to pay for something like that.
Things turn scary for Zane when he receives a text from Maxine, his ex-girlfriend; it includes a picture of the man who killed Wally, knocking on her trailer door. Zane fears that the man has been looking for Lettie. Desperate for answers, Zane meets up with Maxine, and the two investigate Wally’s abandoned trailer only to find a Blackberry hidden in a coffee can in his refrigerator. Fortunately, Tiffany, Maxine’s step-daughter, who is handy with cell phones, deciphers Wally’s emails, connecting them with credit card fraud and the dark web. To keep Lettie safe, Zane takes Lettie an hour out of Tulsa to their grandmother’s place. But just as he begins to piece things together once he returns home, he receives a frantic call that Lettie is missing.
Rising mystery author Lynn Lipinski keeps it real in the second book of her Zane Clearwater Mysteries series. Crime and poverty seem to go hand-in-hand, and Tulsa, Oklahoma, is no exception. Lipinski presents a realistic plot that shows an unfortunate side of life between two siblings who have experienced more than their fair share of struggles. Front and center is Zane Clearwater, Lipinski’s protagonist underdog, who determines to do his very best to care for his sister while attempting to rise above their limited means. Regrettably, with problems popping left and right, Zane is always one step forward and two steps back—a constant ebb and flow.
The problems Lipinski creates are not far-fetched. They are downright scary—the type of things one could easily read about in the news. Lipinski’s focus on descriptive details both describing the surroundings and characters, immediately draws readers into a factual setting with relatable characters. Scenes quickly build and become dizzying at times as unexpected situations arise. Lipinski deftly captures the emotional climate of Zane’s world as he madly races to overcome adversity. Additionally, Lipinski keeps her chapters short, closes on cliffhangers, and throws in twists and turns in the mix.
Mystery buffs have plenty to look forward to in Serpent Loop, the next installment of the Zane Clearwater Mysteries series.
