Ron Shafer

The Rose and the Serpent Ron Shafer

"Readers, prepare to be captivated!" (Dr. Nelson Price, Pastor Emeritus, Roswell Street Baptist Church, Marietta, Georgia)

"You can't put this book down." (Corbin Wyant, Retired Publisher, Naples Daily News)

After a painful five-year separation, Jude and Cory joyfully reconcile but, as in earlier years, are pitted against the brilliant and evil Abe Badoane. More intelligent than Hannibal Lecter and even more scheming, Badoane plots again to destroy the lovers. Beleaguered by their own psychic devastation and past traumas, they battle both Abe's chicanery and the carnal stooges--like macho strongman Duke Manningham--whom Abe manipulates to do his bidding. Though intelligent and spiritual, Jude and Cory face impossible odds, which they learn, through their fire-tested faith, can only be defeated sovereignly. Two sub-plots inform the fast-paced storyline: the events in Jude and Cory's lives mirror the uncanny and recurring rose vision which wise Old Mary dreams across decades; and the characters and even the plotline events correlate to the great Shakespearean tragedy, Hamlet. That correspondence, hinted at in The Rose and the Serpent, becomes a full blown, point-by-point, remarkably intricate intermeshing by the novel's sequel, The Pittsburgh Hamlet. No one stands a chance against Hannibal Lecter, but never has his equal, Abe Badoane, faced Spirit-filled lovers who, despite miserable failings and horror-filled adversity, wage epic battle in this highly dramatic, suspense-filled, gripping story of love. Who will win this titanic clash of good vs. evil?