I read Snake in the Grass by Ron Leming. Snake is a feisty, sexy, hundred-pound girl whose job is to go get the oddball stories for her newspaper, assisted by her friend the weird photographer Batty. One story is about gold balls that are appearing around a village in Mexico, apparently dropping from the sky. Finding one is easy; keeping it is dangerous, because thugs are going after them. When they go after other stories, there are more gold balls. One is huge, a yard thick. Snake has a bad feeling about this, and she’s right. The mystery builds, becoming more fantastic-we’re talking gnomes, zombies, alien incursion, and religion here–until there is a wild battle at the end, where Snake discovers formidable powers she hadn’t known she had, such as instantly healing injured people. Along the way she also discovers love, no, not with Batty, who turns out to be a brother, but with a fine handsome man, Dakota, who is truly her type. We also get the full sermon delivered by a snake handler, and a Hell bender it is. This is a delightful novel to read, starting fast and continuing fascinating, with candid thoughts throughout. I love Snake; any reader will, male, female, or other. I recommend it to any reader who wants to be entertained while learning about the world, natural and supernatural. Piers Anthony