Stone Serpent

A year after a post-mortem that left her shaken, Dr. Laura Powell, a medical examiner in Sakima, New York, is handed a corpse that has turned to stone. She first assumes it is a fossil, but the records show the man died in a car accident earlier the same day. What could turn living tissue into rock so quickly?

Her inquiry leads her beyond her hometown. In Valley Grove, a fundamentalist religious group answers to a cruel and spiteful leader. At Thurmond Biotech, a secretive drug company is racing to produce the first anti-aging miracle medicine. Both places hide things that are far worse than anything Laura expected. Deadly creatures are attacking the residents of Valley Grove, and their toxic venom warps and petrifies the human body in grotesque ways. The creatures strike suddenly out of the dark, and Laura has to stop them before they reach the rest of the Hudson Valley. Yet every answer she pursues may draw her closer to the creatures' lair.

The Stone Serpent is the second novel in the Dr. Laura Powell series and follows The Hungry Earth, the earlier book that sold widely. Nicholas Kaufmann, whose work has earned several award nominations, combines graphic horror with a fast-moving investigation.