Ray Wiseman's Professional and Personal Site

When Cobras Laugh is an iconoclastic historical novel that explores the lives of three idealistic young missionaries who venture as aliens into exotic places. Each lands in a serpent's den of deceit, paternalism and racism. The action takes place on the mission fields of Africa and Asia in the 1970s when apartheid still gripped the people of South Africa and the shadow of the British Raj still hung over India. Reminiscent of the protagonists in the movie, At Play in the Fields of the Lord, Cronin's novel The Keys of the Kingdom, and Kingsolver's novel The Poisonwood Bible, the central characters find themselves in circumstances that threaten to destroy them and their work.

This novel poses key questions for all churches, government agencies, and NGOs who wish to bring help to a suffering world. Do many missions and service agencies suffer the blight of Western superiority? This same disease brought an end to paternalistic Western empires and defeat for their armies. Will modern missions and service organizations suffer the same fate?

Linda Stover, youth pastor: Are you ready for this? No more Christian fantasy land. No more missionary superheroes of mythical proportions. This is faith stripped of its hypocritical facades. Spiritual warfare gets messy. The battle is not where you expect it. From the experiences and observations of two real-life missionary warriors comes this tale that will slice open the world of reality and lay bare your own faith."

David Lounsbury, recent medical graduate: "It mesmerizes like the sway of a cobra."

Phil Dempster, chairman emeritus, Partners International: "God always amazes by using flawed people to accomplish His purposes in the world. Shocking as this book is in places, it gives great hope to see Divine grace at work. It should act as a call to reality for mission leaders and all those who labor for the benefit of mankind."

Phuthumile Bhengu, Johannesburg, South Africa, national Christian worker and former radio programmer: "I lived through the times so accurately portrayed in this book--I can only wish someone had written it years ago."

Hey Ray and Don,
Kudos on an engaging and well written tale. When Cobras Laugh is one of those fiction stories you want to believe isn't real, but know is too real to be fiction. I missed my Sunday afternoon nap when I lay on the couch with book in hand and never fell asleep. Couldn't wait to pick it up again last night and finish the story.
Keith Clemons

Hi Ray,
I started reading When Cobras Laugh Sunday after church and finished it Monday. What a gripping story. You and Don get an A+ from me.
Judy Snell

Hi guys,
Your book certainly passes the test of an attention grabber in the beginning. It takes the reader's hand and invites him or her to fall in step. I look forward to continuing my read. Well done, good and faithful servants.
Rev. Dr. Donna Mann