The Serpent's Bite

"How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child" —King Lear, William Shakespeare This famed quote by William Shakespeare finds its modern meaning in this taut, fast-paced, remarkable novel by renowned author Warren Adler. The Serpent's Bite will take you on a frightening horse trek through the far reaches of the Yellowstone wilderness that turns a father's quest to deal with parental guilt and reunite with his two adult children into a nightmare of lust, betrayal, entrapment, and death. Beyond the revelations of dark family secrets, readers will discover how an obsession for celebrity and blind ambition can distort familial love and turn a beloved child into a grotesque monster. Courtney Temple is sure to be judged as one of those most evil women in fiction, alongside the likes of Lady Macbeth, Medea, and the Wicked Witch of the West. Adler's latest novel takes its place next to the iconic The War of the Roses , in which the... This famed quote finds its modern meaning in a taut thriller of family dysfunction. In an attempt to reconnect with his two alienated adult children, George Temple replicates the memorable horse trek through the forbidding Yellowstone wilderness they had enjoyed twenty years earlier. But his callous children, Courtney and Scott, accompany him only to persuade him to restore the financial support he has withdrawn. As they are led by a drunken guide and a venal horse wrangler over potentially lethal terrain, their bonding experience quickly disintegrates. Nostalgia is corrupted into a nightmare of lust, betrayal, and entrapment as the children's disturbing motives are revealed and dark family secrets are exposed. Courtney's appetite for selfish and violent pursuits establishes her as one of the most evil women in fiction, alongside the likes of Lady Macbeth. Through her, Warren Adler explores how an obsession for celebrity and blind ambition can distort familial love and turn a beloved child into a grotesque monster. As he did in the iconic The War of the Roses, Adler paints a frightening picture of the American family, only more sinister. What is intended to be a nostalgic family horse trek in the Yellowstone wilderness to mend fences between a father and his adult children becomes a nightmare of unintended consequences, poisonous motives, and malevolence