The burn palace

Summary/Review: At two-thirty in the morning at the local hospital in the small town of Brewster, Rhode Island, Alice Alessio is given the surprise of her life. Coming back from a secret tryst with a doctor, she peeks in to check on the newborn baby she was supposed to be watching, and finds a huge, writhing red-and-yellow snake in the bassinet instead. So begins the series of strange and disturbing events that start to plague this community and confound the police.