I reviewed this book for The Historical Novels Review, the magazine of the Historical Novel Society. Due to their policy, the review cannot be posted online until after it is published on May 1st. I will update it then.

The Serpent Bearer is a captivating blend of World War II spy thriller, romance, and a tale of buried family secrets. Set in 1941, the story follows Solly, a Jewish veteran of the Spanish Civil War, recruited by a U.S. spy agency to infiltrate Nazi collaborators in Mexico’s Yucatan. Amid his mission, he reunites with Estelle, a British woman he once loved in Spain, while uncovering a plot to invade the U.S. and facing the moral dilemmas of war. Along the way, he encounters refugees seeking salvation, and his journey leads to dangerous revelations.

The narrative skillfully intertwines Solly’s espionage mission with a poignant romance and complex characters like Grace, a fellow spy, and Sister Immaculata, a nun with a vital role in the story’s climax. Rich descriptions bring the Yucatan to life, and the novel’s title, referencing the myth of the Serpent Bearer, reflects themes of transformation and the balance between life and death. Spanning decades, The Serpent Bearer also explores Solly’s later years, as he recounts his extraordinary past to his daughter, revealing long-hidden family truths.

Spanning many decades, The Serpent Bearer tells the story of Solly Meisner, veteran of the Spanish War, who returns to his home in rural South Carolina only to be recruited as a spy whose mission it is to weed out Nazis operating in Mexico’s Yucatan. There he is reunited with the lovely Estelle, a British woman he met and fell in love with while fighting in Spain. Can be trust her or is she a duplicitous traitor? As Solly infiltrates deeper into his assignment, the Nazi threat to the US mainland increases. As the death toll around him grows, Solly knows that if he can’t put an end to this bed of Nazi collaboration the world as he knows it is doomed.

Told in two timelines, pre WWII and a more current 2008, we get to know a young Solly, spy and romantic who has aged into 95 year old Solly, whose mind often wanders as he attempts to tell his daughter his life story that will forever alter her place in her family and the world.

Interesting and creative, at times fast paced and at times much slower , the Serpent Bearer is a unique perspective of the people who fought behind the scenes during the war. Four stars for a worthwhile read that will be released on March 11, 2025. My thanks to NetGalley and She Writes Press for providing me with an advance reader’s copy in exchange for my honest review.

Summary on the back:

suspenseful tale stretching from Spain to Hollywood, from a small Jewish community in South Carolina to a crumbling hacienda in the Yucatan, The Serpent Bearer carries readers into the lives of a glamorous British aristocrat, a Jewish gambler, and a beautiful Hollywood screenwriter—all swept up by dangerous political currents during WWII.

Solly Meisner, a Spanish Civil War veteran of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, has barely settled in after his return home when he discovers powerful Nazi sympathizers are working behind the scenes in his new hometown of Pennington, South Carolina. Determined to stop them, he signs on with the Coordinating Office of Information (COI), a newly formed US spy agency. His first travel to the Yucatan and infiltrate a group of German spies and collaborators—including Estelle, a beautiful British woman he fell in love with in Spain, and whom he fears may have betrayed him.

In the Yucatan Solly encounters a band of European exiles, not all of them who they claim to be. With his contacts dropping like flies, danger lurks at every turn. But with the Nazis only a few hundred miles from the US coast and making plans for an invasion, there is no time to lose, and no one Solly trusts to track them down and stop them but himself. If he fails, the world he once knew will be gone forever—and the people he loves with it.

“The Serpent Bearer” by Jane Rosenthal

What do a Jewish veteran of the Spanish Civil War, a glamorous British aristocrat, and a beautiful Hollywood screenwriter, have in common – and how do they all end up in Mexico in 1941, at the height of World War II?

That’s the riddle at the heart of this intruiging novel by US writer Jane Rosenthal, who deftly weaves her Jewish and southern heritage, along with research trips , into the book’s settings (South Carolina and the Yucatan region) to bring to life the humidity, mosquitos and lushness of the region, with the menace of the time and place.

Solly is a reluctant recruit to a newly formed US spy agency; he is tasked with infiltrating a group of Nazi collaborators and spies operating in the Yucatan. He discovers that there are plans afoot for a German invasion of the US, so the stakes are high.

He also discovers a motley group of refugees from Nazi atrocities in Europe who look to him for salvation. And, raising the stakes further, he learns that somewhere nearby in the Yucatan is Estelle, the British women whom he loved, then lost in Spain – and vowed to find again at whatever the cost.

But before he can get out of Mexico, there are many more discoveries awaiting Solly, both personal and political – all of them dangerous. How he steers his way through them makes for a page-turning, and at times quite moving, novel.

While Solly is the main protagonist, there are a cast of characters who ably support and enrich the narrative: particularly Estelle, Grace (the Hollywood writer who has, like Solly, been sent on a spy mission to Mexico) and Sister Immaculata, a nun who plays a vital role in the novel’s climactic scenes. These are women of agency and drive, with their own particular agendas, and important to the emotional and narrative arc of the story.

The descriptive passages are brilliant: I almost felt immobilised by the humidity myself even though I was reading in a much more comfortable environment!

The title refers to the ancient Greek myth of Ophichus, and the constellation of that name, depicting a man holding a snake, long associated with healing, transformation, and a bridge between death and life:

“It’s up there somewhere.” Grace had interrupted his thoughts. “The constellation of the Serpent Bearer, the god that brings the dead back to life. I wish we could do that, don’t you?’…
“All we can do is what we’ve done, Grace,” he whispered. “Bring souls back from the brink like those refugees …”
The Serpent Bearer loc.99%

The Serpent Bearer is published by She Writes Press and distributed by Simon & Schuster in April 2025
My thanks to the publishers and to NetGalley for an advanced reading copy to review.

I really enjoyed reading this book, it had that thriller element that I wanted and enjoyed the romance overall. The plot worked with the time-period and was engaged with the story being told. I enjoyed how good the overall development was and how the characters were in this. Jane Rosenthal has a strong writing style and can’t wait for more.