50 LISTENER JUNE 8 2019
BOOKS&CULTURE
by SAMUEL FINNEMORED
eception is as central to detective
stories as crime, but things take
on an interesting complexion
when they’re one and the same.
Ben Winters’ Golden State ima-
gines a society in which there’s precisely
one verified version of reality, maintained
and enforced by the government. Lying of
any kind is criminal assault on the truth,
fiction is objectionable material, and every
public space is under round-the-clock sur-
veillance. Citizens keep mandatory files on
their own activities and greet each other
with accepted bits of general knowledge.by LINDA HERRICKS
adie Jones’ tense, unpredictable
psychological thriller, The Snakes,
opens with a nightmare that recurs
and evolves as the story progresses,
a premonition of some nebulous terror.
The first one occurs the night before
young married couple Dan and Bea
prepare to leave their poky London flat totravel around France and Italy. Bea dreams
that she and Dan are standing on a white
road surrounded by screaming.
Bea is a poorly paid psychotherapist;
Dan is an artist turned resentful real estate
agent. They can’t afford a break, but Bea
thinks the trip will help their marriage.
Their first stop is the remote hotel in
Burgundy run by her older brother, Alex,
a manic former junkie; their father bought
the rundown hotel to distract him.
Although Alex has been there for two
years, he’s not done any renovations and
seems never to have had a customer, yet
his guest book is full of names. The only
residents are a nest of harmless snakes in
the attic.
When Alex tells Bea that their parents
are on the way, too, an immediate sense of
“dread settling like frost” falls on her. Griff
and Liv Adamson are monstrous creatures,
emboldened by immense wealth created
by property speculation.
Jones describes Griff and Liv in forensicdetail. Griff is almost a caricature, aggres-
sively dominating every conversation and
verbally flailing his children’s self-esteem.
Liv is more insidious: thin, babyish and
a pill-popper. But there’s also a hidden
ugliness to her character that makesher husband seem almost benign by
comparison.
This is bumpy, emotional territory,
but Jones keeps twisting the knife. Dan
becomes drawn to the wealth in which
Bea’s parents are marinating, an infatua-
tion that deepens when he and Bea go to
stay at the Adamsons’ London mansion.
Jones writes some fantastically mordantSubject to
Speculators
A clever novel set in an
altered and enforced
reality is a thoroughly
fresh experience.
In the trap
of luxury
Nightmares await a
hard-up couple who
are taken in by the
trappings of wealth.
JO
NA
TH
ON
G
RE
ER
Jones blindsides with
a finale that has more
coils and kinks than an
entwined nest of snakes.