The Serpent and the Menace A Suspense Thriller

About the book

About The Serpent and the Menace A Suspense Thriller

Fortune cast its rosy smile on Glenn Barnes, paving the road for her into a marriage of manicured rose gardens and reverse commutes. So why was she still beset with recurring nightmares, bewildering health problems, and the fraying apron strings of an indifferent mother? "I love my mother? it's just getting past despising her that's the problem." After years of sparse contact, Glenn reluctantly returns to her small hometown for a visit. As she arrives, she discovers that the son of one of her high school friends is missing.Glenn reconnects with her old friend Doug over drinks and gossip-all those years ago, aimless trips to nowhere in Doug's shitty old "Ford Opossum." The same night, Doug's 15-year-old daughter, Joelle, attends a party where a popular 21-year-old, Aaron, tells her, "your eyes are so gray." She later finds a note in her locker asking her to meet in secret. Joelle knows there will be talk, knows what they think of her-and maybe she does do lurid things, like hang out at John Doby's. Why do they care? At least it isn't more endless tedium. Joelle is later caught at John's, a local venomous reptile hobbyist commonly surrounded by acolytes and hangers-on.Doug and a friend decide to confront John, taking Glenn along for the ride. She remembers, only after arriving back at her guest house, that she left her purse. Glenn makes the long drive back to John's, alone, deep into the backwoods where his trailer perches in the weeds behind eight feet of solid rusted fencing, and where she gets a peek through the keyhole into the dark undercurrent of her old home town and the secrets that threaten to expose a grim truth lurking quietly below the surface.In this serpentine tale of rural decay, Alice Curtis explores what "home" really means when it is constantly vanishing beneath your feet and what we are made of when met with our greatest fears.

Reader conversation

Discuss this book