The Snakes
The gripping Richard and Judy Bookclub Pick
-
-
3.3 • 39 Ratings
-
-
- £5.99
-
- £5.99
Publisher Description
READ THE TENSE TWIST-FILLED RICHARD AND JUDY BOOK CLUB PICK FROM THE #1 BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE OUTCAST.
Family secrets can be deadly...
Newly-weds Dan and Bea decide to escape London. Driving through France in their beaten-up car they anticipate a long lazy summer, worlds away from their ordinary lives.
But their idyll cannot last. Stopping off to see Bea's brother at his crumbling hotel, the trio are joined unexpectedly by Bea's ultra-wealthy parents. Dan has never understood Bea's deep discomfort around them but living together in such close proximity he begins to sense something is very wrong.
Just as tensions reach breaking point, brutal tragedy strikes, exposing decades of secrets and silence that threaten to destroy them all.
'A suspenseful, beautifully written thriller about the corruption of money and abuse within a dysfunctional family' Guardian
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Those of an anti-snake disposition should probably approach with some caution. But we’d recommend even the most ardent ophidiophobics gird their loins and tackle Sadie Jones’ dark and decadent thriller. The skin-shedding reptiles here lurk in the attic of the novel’s main setting: a deeply spooky, dilapidated hotel our heroine Bea’s brother Alex has allowed to become guest-free but snake-heavy. Bea and new husband Dan were only supposed to be visiting her wayward sibling en route to a blissful French sabbatical, but suddenly they’re plunged into sudden tragedy and a murky world of family secrets. Evocative, gripping writing with the ability to shock and charm.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Jones's propulsive yet thoughtful fifth novel (after Fallout) grips readers from the first page. Bea Adamson is a 30-year-old psychotherapist living in a modest one-bedroom in London with her real estate agent husband, Dan Durrant, despite her moneyed background. Dan, who is of a much humbler background, dreams of becoming an artist. When Bea and Dan take three months off to travel, their first stop is France, where Bea's older brother, Alex, runs a hotel. When they arrive, they're greeted by a hotel devoid of guests other than the snake infestation in the attic and an erratic, newly sober Alex. When Alex and Bea's extremely wealthy parents, Griff and Liv, unexpectedly arrive at the hotel, Bea, who has long cut financial and personal ties with her severe father and cloying mother, resigns herself to making nice. And with Griff and Liv's arrival, Dan begins to understand just how well-off Bea is, no matter how much she wants to forsake her upbringing. However, when Alex goes out one night and doesn't return, the Adamson family is upturned, and their secrets and twisted relationships with each other are brought to light. The campy ending doesn't quite live up to the rest of the book but what precedes is a tightly crafted, deeply moving, and thrilling story about how money corrupts and all the myriad ways members of a family can ruin each other.
Customer Reviews
The Snakes
Sadie Jones has written an extrodinary story that starts by laying bare the dysfuncionality of a contemporay family dominated by familiar forms of greed and power. And as if her insightfulness into the psycodynamics of family life wasn’t enough, she skillfully takes us on an unexpected and terrifying journey into the possible consequences of such dysfunctionality.
Her skill in story telling and depth of understanding of the human conditon matches that of Shriver and McEwan.
This is the first book that I’ve read by Jones and I’m thrilled to know that there are others.