Serpent Girl

This intense tale of real-life horror may remind some readers of Dostoyevski's Crime and Punishment . On a whim, hit man Steven Benedetti, who's driving to Los Angeles from Oregon, stops in a small Northern California town to take in a carnival sideshow. There he picks up the Serpent Girl of the title (aka Carmen Mattox), and soon the bodies start to mount up. Carmen seeks emotional and sexual fulfillment in murder, while for Benedetti, the cool professional, it's simply business. Wasting no words on characterization, Garton (Live Girls ) speeds the violent, X-rated action to its bleak, foreordained climax. (Dec.)