REVIEW OF T. JEFFERSON PARKER'S
WHERE SERPENTS LIE

By Denise Baton

HOW LOW CAN YOU GO? Let me say right off that this is a creepy, scary story for all the characters involved and most importantly for the reader. The protagonist, Terry Naughton, is head of Crimes Against Youth in the Orange County Sheriffs Department. He is the protector of young souls and he does his job well. All is ship shape and running smoothly until the day that someone decides to undo him. I was frightened to read this story and wary each time I picked it up but I had to know what would happen next. That is the artistry of T. Jefferson Parker. His tales are true to human nature and so it is hard to resist even the most ghastly of his stories. I do believe that WHERE SERPENTS LIE is the most horrifying of his novels yet. I don’t know exactly how he did his research but in his acknowledgments he states, “The facts are theirs.” A little girl is stolen from her own bedroom. Details from the crime scene indicate that this is the work of a particular pattern of an elusive repeat offender known as THE HORRIDUS. But then the unspeakable happens. Terry is accused of the very crimes he fights so hard to eradicate. He loses his home, his woman, his family, his job. And while he is being displaced from his most precious life, THE HORRIDUS is thriving and growing more menacing by the day. Everyone should read WHERE SERPENTS LIE. It is an important story, another masterful tale by mystery-suspense writer, T. Jefferson Parker.