A sabbatical in France reveals a twisted, slippery family history

A grippingly well-told story, situated in a middle ground between highbrow literature and the thriller genre, The Snakes seethes with intrigue for the duration of its 438 pages

Sadie Jones may be set to surpass the success of her first novelGETTY

FIction: The Snakes, By Sadie Jones, Chatto & Windus, €17.25

Sadie Jones is best known to books fans as the British author of The Outcast, which won the Costa First Novel Award and was shortlisted for the Orange Prize, as well as making it to the small screen in a BBC television adaptation. Come the end of 2019, however, it’s possible her latest book The Snakes may supplant that novel in her readers’ ...