Where Serpents Lie

by T. Jefferson Parker

Book Overview

A brilliant novel of one man's quest to protect the innocent, as he tries to face down a terrible guilt locked in his own past.Terry Naughton is head of the Crimes Against Youth unit of the Orange... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0786862874
• ISBN13: 9780786862870
• Release Date: February 1998
• Publisher: Hyperion Books
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 1.78 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.5" x 9.6"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Darker Parker......

I first discovered T. Jefferson Parker in Silent Joe, a carefully crafted and intriguing story with a twist. Joe, a sweet man with a damaged face, is one of Parker's great heroes. Naughton, in Where Serpents Lie, is another. He's a self-acknowledged flawed character who lives with regret and sorrow and deception while struggling to do his job as head of the Crimes Against Youth division of the Orange County Sheriff's Office. I liked him immensely, perhaps because he is flawed enough to be real. The crimes against children which he investigates make your hair stand on end, partly because you know they really happen. But Parker appears to have done his research and presents the cases and circumstances with compassion while creating a villain who is both monstrous and yet sympathetic. This is an exciting if long read, maybe a trifle overwritten. The novel contains one glaring error that no other reviewer has commented on, so I will. After Naughton sees photos of himself that he knows are doctored, he goes to a friend and asks the friend to doctor some photos himself, of a woman bathing a child, a woman and child who have never actually met. Apparently, Naughton means to use this doctored photo as proof that the photos which resulted in his suspension from CAY were also doctored. As readers we get on board with this idea and wait to see what happens. But we wait in vain, for this entire plot line and the requested doctored photo is never heard of again. The photo never materializes and the friend is never again mentioned. It's an editor's job to catch these things so I blame him or her more than Parker himself for this big ooops. Other than that, Serpent is another winner in the Parker ouevre. I put Parker in the company of Dennis Lehane, James W. Hall, and Carl Hiassen--all gifted writers and good storytellers.

Very Well Researched and Written

This book was recommended to me by a police officer. We both work crimes against children cases and this book is absolutely right on target. The events that take place in this book are the exact same events that take place in our local communities each and every day. We just don't get to hear the details of those. I could not lay this book down! It was right up my alley!

SNAKES AND HUMAN PREDATORS

It's been well over ten years since I read T. Jefferson Parker's LAGUNA HEAT. I remember that it was a good book. For whatever reason, I didn't follow up on Mr. Parker's other works as he continued to write. That was my mistake! Thankfully, I've rediscovered him. I just finished WHERE SERPENTS LIE and though the novel was written over two years ago, I have to place it on my list of best books that I've read so far in the new millennium. The story deals with Sergeant Terry Naughton, head of the Crimes Against Youth Division of the Orange County Sheriff Department in Southern California, and his hunt for the Horridus, a man who preys on young children. Two years before, Terry suffered the lost of his five-year-old son, Matt, in a swimming accident. He still feels the immense pain of the tragedy, not to mention the sense of failure and regret he experienced when he and his wife could no longer live together after what happened. Terry now pours all of his energy into trying to save as many children as possible from the human monsters out there, who secretly hunt, sexually abuse, and kill these innocents as a means to fulfilling their sick desires. There is one man who calls himself the Horridus, and he's the worst of the monsters. His pleasure comes in the form of kidnapping the children right out of their homes, then using them to complete his dark fantasies before feeding them to his thirty-foot long python. Now, in my opinion, this is definitely a guy you want to do a "Dirty Harry" on. Terry feels the same way. His one goal is to put this predator down the hard way, hopefully before he kills again. As Terry gets deeper into the hunt, he's suddenly sidetracked when mysterious pictures of him having sex with a minor are discovered by members of his department while checking out a crime scene. Terry knows that he is innocent, but few others seem to believe him. The question is who's setting him up for the big fall? Who has the most to gain? Is it the Horridus, or is it possibly one of the members of his department? Terry quickly finds himself on suspension while an investigation is started into the incriminating pictures. He refuses, however, to just sit back and wait, especially while the Horridus is still kidnapping children. With or without the help of his department, he's determined to nail this guy. He simply has to do it before he finds himself in jail on false charges. WHERE SERPENTS LIE will surprise you again and again. Just when you think you know where it's going, there will be a twist that takes you in a completely different direction. You may at times feel sick as Mr. Parker delves into the hideous side of human nature, but at no point will you stop rooting for our hero to put down this evil specimen of humanity. The writing is taunt and the suspense is relentless. Mr. Parker has created a hero with a tormented soul in the character of Terry Naughton, and your heart will go out to him at the ending when he's forced to look at himself and

Kirkus Reviews is WRONG

In my humble opinion, Where Serpents Lie is the best crime fiction novel in the last four or five years. Parker has crafted an intricate, unforgettable plot rich with engaging characters. From start to finish the pace never falters, the action is believable and truly scary. For the so-called experts at Kirkus to call his work "annoyingly unoriginal" reeks of jealously and envy. They couldn't write as well as Parker if their lives depended on it.

A must read for all suspense/thriller buffs!

Parker captures the attention of the reader from page one and does not release you until the end of the book--which ends all too soon for the entralled reader. Naughton is a believable non-hero with a lot of problems and a lot of good in him, too. I cheered for his triumphs, cried over his defeats and read the whole book in less than 24 hours. You must have this book!!!