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WHERE SERPENTS LIE is a complex thriller straight out of the black heart of present-day sunny Southern California, where both the author and his protagonist reside. Terry Naughton (the protagonist) is head of the Crimes Against Youth unit of the Orange County Sheriff Department. He is also the grieving father of a boy who died two years before the story opens; the boy's death haunts and drives Naughton's life, and therefore this book, which Naughton narrates in first person.
The CAY unit is in pursuit of a serial child kidnapper who has not, so far, physically harmed his victims, all female and all from five to seven years old; moreover, there is a suggestion that there may have been other victims in other states. The kidnapper has named himself, for the titillation of the law officers and the general public, The Horridus. Soon after the book opens, Terry Naughton learns that a "horridus" is a kind of snake: the Latin name for a timber rattler is "horridus horridus." The main point of the investigation is to identify and capture The Horridus before his so-far-fairly-harmless activities escalate and he kills a child.
Ah, but just how harmless is it really to kidnap a child, and dress her up, and take pictures and sell them on the Internet to a bunch of slimy pedophiles? (The people in this book are a lot slimier than the snakes --- and yes, there are snakes.) This is a question that will be thoroughly explored over more than 500 pages. Some readers in the course of it may begin to wonder if there is such a thing as gratuitous psychological violence.
Terry Naughton is a flawed hero --- his flaws are meant to engage our sympathies and to give us an understanding of his deepest motivations. He has suffered a tragedy, and he pays for it all over again in a subplot that becomes equally as riveting as the main plot, which of course is about bringing The Horridus down. There are subtle parallels between main plot and subplot, a kind of sinuous interweaving (more snake stuff), and mirroring of behavior (more psychological stuff) between tragically flawed hero and irretrievably damaged villain. It's well done, yes, but don't forget: this is Southern California culture we're dealing with here, where violence becomes entertainment, not catharsis. Thoughtful readers may want to ponder where the line between the two may lie, and will find good material for it here.
WHERE SERPENTS LIE will take its readers on a long, twisting, unsettling ride --- and even when the nightmare roller coaster seems to have come to an end, be careful how you get off --- a couple of real zingers await, all the way to the final page. T. Jefferson Parker has crafted here a powerful thriller, hailed by the publisher and many reviewers as his breakout book. This fact alone will encourage those who missed the hardcover version last year to pick it up in paperback.
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