The Snake Pit

A deranged but highly inventive killer has a list of prospective victims. He is as cold-blooded as the highly venomous snakes that he utilises to commit the murders for him.

Detective Inspector Joe Hope heads up a team that are searching for a ruthless and singularly ingenious predator.

Divorced, and with a seven-year-old son, Ross, whom he doesn’t see enough of, DI Joe Hope seeks specialist help from Dr. Beverley McGovern – a herpetologist working at Regent’s Park Zoo – to better understand the living weapons being employed to commit murder.

Lucas Neilson is a computer expert, capable of shedding identities with the same ease that his venomous reptiles slough their skins. He communicates and confronts Joe via cyberspace, broadening his goals as murder develops into a compulsive and all-consuming pursuit.

The body count rises, and the case becomes acutely personal to Joe when Neilson abducts his son and delivers a chilling ultimatum to his chosen adversary.
With one obscure clue, Joe, his detective sergeant, and Beverley – who Joe is now involved with – are in a race against the clock. Joe knows that even should he find the killer’s lair, saving his son may be an impossible task. He has been drawn into a desperate game, and is up against an opponent who personifies the very nature of evil.