Buy new:

$13.15

List Price: $21.95

Save: $8.80 (40%)

$3.99 delivery: March 15 - 18

Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
As an alternative, the Kindle eBook is available now and can be read on any device with the free Kindle app. Want to listen? Try Audible.

Secure transaction

Ships from	Literacity
Sold by	Literacity

Details

Ships from

Literacity

Sold by

Literacity

Share <Embed>

Other Sellers on Amazon

$3.06
+ $17.16 shipping

Sold by: WYEMART USA

$25.14
+ Free Shipping

Sold by: Book Depository US

Have one to sell?

Sell on Amazon

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See all 2 images

Follow the Author

Warren Adler

The Serpent's Bite Hardcover – September 4, 2012

by Warren Adler (Author)

14 ratings

See all formats and editions Hide other formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$4.99

—

Audible Audiobook, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$0.00

Free with your Audible trial

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$13.15

$3.06

$13.13

Paperback

"Please retry"

$12.99

—

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his callous children, Courtney and Scott, accompany him only to persuade him to restore the financial support he has withdrawn.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.

Print length

320 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Stonehouse Press
Publication date

September 4, 2012
Dimensions

6.25 x 0.75 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

9781590060445
ISBN-13

978-1590060445
See all details

Special offers and product promotions

Amazon Business : For business-only pricing, quantity discounts and FREE Shipping. Register a free business account

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Warren Adler has a remarkable ability to plumb the depths of human obsession.'' -- New York Times best-selling author Nelson DeMille

"Warren Adler's insight into people and women, plus his strong storytelling ability, make his book a smashing and suspenseful read.'' ---New York Times best-selling author Barbara Taylor Bradford

"Warren Adler delivers a dark, delectable look at lust, greed, betrayal, and redemption.'' -- Best-selling author Judith Kelman

''Adler's a dandy plot-weaver.'' -- Los Angeles Times

''Warren Adler writes with skill and a sense of scene.'' -- New York Times Book Review

About the Author

Warren Adler is best known for The War of the Roses, his masterpiece fictionalization of a macabre divorce turned into the Golden Globe and BAFTA nominated dark comedy hit starring Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, and Danny DeVito. In addition to the success of the stage adaptation of his iconic novel on the perils of divorce, Adler has optioned and sold film rights to more than a dozen of his novels and short stories to Hollywood and major television networks. Random Hears (starring Harrison Ford and Kirsten Scott Thomas), The Sunset Gang (starring Jerry Stiller, Uta Hagen, Harold Gould, and Doris Roberts), Private Lies, Funny Boys, Madeline's Miracles, Trans-Siberian Express, and his Fiona Fitzgerald mystery series are only a few titles that have forever left Adler's mark on contemporary American authorship from page to stage to screen.

Product details

ASIN : 159006044X
Publisher : Stonehouse Press; First Edition (September 4, 2012)
Language : English
Hardcover : 320 pages
ISBN-10 : 9781590060445
ISBN-13 : 978-1590060445
Item Weight : 1.2 pounds
Dimensions : 6.25 x 0.75 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #10,260,383 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #81,090 in Family Life Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
14 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		21%
4 star		10%
3 star		28%
2 star		21%
1 star		21%

How are ratings calculated?

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Kindle Customer

Good book but

Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2019

Verified Purchase

The book is good, the storyline flows, but I gave it a 3 because there was no warning about the langauge and some of the storyline, I wouldn't have read it had I known. I don't want graphic sex scenes, and that is what I got.

Helpful

simply elegant

Tragic story of broken people.

Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2013

Verified Purchase

Sad story of a father trying to reestablish a relationship with adult children. The father dives into this proces with eyes closed. His desire to repair the relationship is driven by a significant other who only has one side of the story. Tragic story but well worth the read.

Helpful

llamamia

Terrible

Reviewed in the United States on January 1, 2014

Verified Purchase

Very disappointed in Adler for this & I let him know it. He's a good writer & I've read most of his books but the content of this one is gross & I would not recommend it to anyone.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

geneo

disapointing

Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2012

Verified Purchase

hoping for another book as good as War of the Roses but fell well short. the ending was not good at all.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Christine M. Irvin

Good story but needs some work

Reviewed in the United States on November 15, 2012

George Temple has invited his children, Courtney and Scott, to go on a 6-day outing in Yellowstone National Park. The children are grown now, but when they were younger, they went with their parents, George and Bea, and spent 10 days horseback riding and camping in the park. Their mother died four years ago, and since that time Courtney has been completely estranged from her father and Scott has been partially so. Their father wants them to go on this shortened version of their previous trip as a way for him to bond once again with his children while reliving happier times and memories. He even goes so far as to hire the same guide they had for the original trip in an effort to recreate a special memory.

Courtney is convinced she is destined to be a movie star. She needs her father's money to live on while she pursues her dream. Scott sees himself as a successful business owner and needs his father's money to finance his many schemes. But, even though George is loaded (he owns a diamond-selling business), he has cut off all funds to his daughter, and most funds to his son since the death of his wife, as he considers both his children failures who just keep wasting his money

The last time the topic of wills and inheritances came up both Courtney and Scott were assured by their mother their future fortunes were secure. Upon the demise of both parents, the siblings were to receive an equal share of the total assets, which would amount to several million dollars each. But since the death of their mother, after several years of non-communication and indifference from the siblings towards their father, the matter of inheritance is now in question. The trip is their father's way of re-establishing ties with his children. Courtney and Scott see it as a way to persuade their father to keep them in his will. Scott wants the money, but not as badly as Courtney.

The title of the book comes from a quote from Shakespeare's King Lear: "How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child." That thankless child is Courtney. Years of single-mindedness and selfishness have made her into a monster who is willing to do anything to get her share of the money. During the course of the trip, both her motives and deep family secrets are revealed, changing a supposedly innocent family outing into a nightmare where betrayal, lust and blackmail all rear their ugly heads. Everyone is put in danger, even the guide, Harry, and his hired hand, Tomas.

I found several problems with the text. For instance, the author has a tendency to overuse certain words throughout the story. He used the word "generous" many times during the first few chapters of the book and the word "disengage" over and over again near the end of the book. The text is also sprinkled with typos and misspellings. And, there is a discrepancy with George's age. Near the beginning of the book he is said to be almost 75 years old, but at two other points in the text, it says he is 11 years older past the age limit for trips of this nature. The age limit is 60, so if he is 11 years past that, it would make him 72, not 75. The age of 72 is confirmed at the end of the book.

I may sound picky, but as a book reviewer my job is to provide an honest opinion of both the story and the telling of it. This is definitely a good story, full of unexpected twists and turns, but the problems mentioned above detract from it, at least they do for me. Having said that, let me assure you I still think the story is a good one and is well worth reading.

Helpful

Kindle Customer

I was expecting so much better...

Reviewed in the United States on June 17, 2014

Having been written by the author of "The War of the Roses" I was expecting a blockbuster, can't put it down, can't wait to see what happens next kind of book. This was none of those things.

The book started off very slow and didn't get much better.

Not one of the characters in this book was likable in any way (well, maybe the aging father's new girlfriend that you get small glimpses of). You just couldn't connect with any of them. They also weren't so detestable as to make the book interesting. The back of the book describes the lead female character as "one of the most evil women of contemporary fiction". She didn't even come close.

I understand that dysfunctional people is the author's schtick. However, the whiny, spoiled, narcissistic, incestuous adult children in this book were a disappointment. More time was spent delving into and describing their sexual exploits, both past and present, than on character development.

The blackmailing illegal alien's character was so sporadically developed that he was pretty much an also ran character even though the plot depended on this character toward the end.

The drunk outfitter was so predictable it was like his character didn't even count.

The aging father was just pathetic.

The culmination of the story was one page that was anti-climactic and seemed to be thrown in as an afterthought.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Buy new: $13.15

Other Sellers on Amazon

Follow the Author

Similar authors to follow

The Serpent's Bite Hardcover – September 4, 2012

Special offers and product promotions

Editorial Reviews

Review

About the Author

Product details

Customer reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Buy new:

$13.15