The Serpent's Shadow

In Cancun 1986, Mayans and Mexicans are fighting each other using strange powers they do not understand. A young American, alive with his first taste of star-crossed love, finds himself caught in the crossfire. Who is the mysterious and deadly White Lady murdering tourists? What strange, otherworldly things wait in the jungle? Will our young hero beware or heed Saint Death's call?

Braum's debut novel delivers a smart, character-driven adventure in the unique and powerful style readers encountered in his story collection, The Night Marchers and Other Strange Tales. Richly depicted Central American settings combine with strange cosmic forces, including a monster large enough to knock the moon out of orbit with a brush of its tail.

Enter the jungle where The Serpent's Shadow looms over the fate of an embattled city and a young man's dream.

"An expertly plotted coming-of-age story where love isn't just blind, but horrific." Sarah Langan. Author of Audrey's Door.

"A chilling apocalyptic brew of myth and murder. Braum immerses the reader in a Mayan paradise torn by spiritual conflict where all roads and rivers lead to a stunning climax." -Douglas Wynne Author of Black January

"The Serpent's Shadow is a tale that slithers under your skin and grips you until the last sentence." -Michelle Garza, Coauthor of Mayan Blue

DANIEL BRAUM is the author of The Night Marchers and Other Strange Tales, The Wish Mechanics: Stories of the Strange and Fantastic, the chapbook Yeti Tiger Dragon and his third collection, Underworld Dreams.

Braum's stories are full of rich settings that span the globe and explore the tension between the psychological and the supernatural. Many of them he calls "strange tales" intentionally adopting the term used by Robert Aickman.