Frederick Starks is a highly-successful, very wealthy CEO. He somewhat inexplicably confronts not his wife current but her once-removed lover, goes over the edge, puts him into a coma and ends up in jail as a result. Starks is a complicated man who suffers from some very conflicted feelings toward his wife. Perhaps love has been one of those feelings, but they mainly seem to be feelings of possession and he seems to suffer from wounded pride rather than true injury.

I am a little at a loss for what to say about this book. It is well-written and at moments enthralling. The prison atmosphere is stifling and (for someone like myself who has no first-hand knowledge of what prison is like) realistic. There were times when I thought Starks was a bit weird in his mental and emotional makeup, concentrating on some very peripheral issues when some very serious ones were at hand. His continued obsession with Kayla (the wife) is a bit hard to fathom in light of the long-term relationship that is revealed. Starks is a strong character who adapts quickly to change, which is essential in his circumstances. His evolution propels the story.

For me the story ends too abruptly, with far too many ends that I wanted to see tied up. It absolutely feels like it is the first installment in a series, but there is nothing to indicate this in the title. If it is not meant to be part of a series, it simply left me feeling it was incomplete and as if I had invested in a movie with a power failure cutting short the last 30 minutes.

Mr. Clerge has a great deal of skill as a storyteller. He writes in a genre that I do not frequently read, so he is no doubt very impressive to those who follow this genre. I think he has a good future in writing, despite my inability to applaud this novel in the way that some others have. ( )

“You have to come to terms with what you can do and let go of thoughts about what you want to do but can’t.”

Frederick Starks had it all, a beautiful wife, three wonderful kids, a beautiful home and a thriving business, but his neat and tidy life came to an abrupt halt when he found out his wife betrayed him. When Starks takes the law into his own hands, he is convicted and thrown into a maximum security prison where he has to learn quickly to survive in a very dangerous environment.

Starks is an anti-hero. He comes across as arrogant and entitled, but also vulnerable and exposed. He not only tries to come to terms about his wife’s betrayal, but also struggles to just stay alive. Will his quick wits and business savvy keep him alive, or will more secrets in his life be his undoing? The reader will have to find out in the second of Clerge’s Stark’s Trilogy, When the Dragon Roars.

See my complete review at The Eclectic Review ( )

Goaded by his wife’s lover Starks loses control and savagely attacks him. Now serving time for his crime Starks must learn to survive. Attack or be attacked.

When the Serpent Bites is a story of how a moment in time, one wrong decision, can change a life forever. How circumstances mould you and make you the person you become. It’s about trust and betrayal. How not letting go of anger can cause insurmountable problems. How pride can dictate your actions and the consequences of those actions.

Starks was a complex character and I don’t think I ever really got to like him. Sometimes I felt sorry for him as he could never see that he had done anything wrong. He was a proud man, as he quite often said himself, but his pride was misdirected.

This is a riveting story of one man’s fall from the top of the corporate ladder to the bowels of a maximum security prison. We slowly get to learn Starks’ story and not all is exactly as he would like us to believe at the start. He makes some crazy decisions throughout the novel and a major twist at the end has me wondering how he will react.
Looking forward to the next book!

With my thanks to the author for my copy to read and review. ( )

3.5 stars

My biggest complaint with this book is the length. Trimming it down 50 pages or so would have made the book tighter.

Other than that, this is a great examination of the choices we make. I have a brother who's a corrections officer. He always says, we're all just one bad decision from being behind bars. It's true, & this story is an exploration of Starks' bad decision, & how he handles the consequences.

We come to know the history of Starks and his doomed marriage through his sessions with his prison shrink. In hindsight it's clear that their life was unsustainable, & that Kayla was never truly happy. It just took 20 years for it all to unravel. And when it did, it went very badly.

Starks seems to be learning some truths in his discussions with the shrink, but it's not clear that they're the lessons the counselor is trying to impart. Then again, in his current environment, Starks may be simply learning the skills he needs to survive.

The author pulls you into Starks' world enough that you can understand his actions. Yet you know that these choices are setting up a life as unsustainable as - & far more dangerous than - the life he left behind.

At the core of both existences for Starks is pride, caring for his family & those who treat him right, loyalty ... Yet he sometimes fails to truly own how his actions have contributed to his downfall. He seems to understand, but then he'll get hung up on how a wife cheating is worse than a husband cheating, or some such technicality. It's as if he is the Walter White of the penitentiary: standing up to the kingpins, starting his own rackets, keeping a hand in lots of deals.

This is a debut novel by Clerge, & it comes together very well. Pick it up when you get a chance. My thanks to the author for a copy of this book.

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What a great book! A real page-turner that follows one man's journey and adaptation from a charmed life to one that is completely opposite. This has everything: lies, betrayal, revenge and so much more! I look forward to your next book Mr. Clerge!! ( )