Book excerpt: A lethally venomous snake is on the loose in New York City in this thriller by the New York Times–bestselling author of The Taking of Pelham One Two Three. On a steamy night in Central Park, a sailor returning from South Africa gets mugged. What the mugger doesn’t know is that the sailor is carrying a deadly black mamba—the most poisonous snake in the world. The sailor is murdered, the mugger is bitten, and the snake slithers off into the underbrush . . . As city authorities rush to capture the snake, the populace desperately tries to stay out of its way in this fast-moving thrill ride with plenty of bite.