Jose Guber was in love with a deadly woman. He met Melissa at the Serological Institute in Sao Paulo where she showed him her beloved snakes. This was a woman who could stuff a rabbit down a boa's throat without turning a hair. Melissa was an expert on poisonous species and venom, which is what Jose wanted to work into his latest crime pot-boiler. Jose unashamedly plagiarised his plots from the classics - Chesterton, Poe, Dostoevsky - and his editor was none the wiser, but he liked to flavour the cribs with a bit of modern science.
Melissa became rather too interested in Jose's dastardly plots - especially the ones where diabolical women seduced and corrupted weak men. She made it clear that she would like to adapt one of the plots to dispose of her present husband. After all, she had set her amorous sights on Jose and if they were cunning, they could be together. But the course of true love and homicide does not always run smoothly. Especially when the rattlesnake gets depressed and other unforeseen obstacles lurk beyond the next twist in the relentlessly twisting tale.
