FICTION · CHILDREN
Sadie Jones
Sadie Jones was born in London, England, the daughter of a poet and an actress. Her father, Evan Jones, was born in Portland, Jamaica in 1927. He grew up on a banana farm, eventually moving to the United States, and from there to England in the 1950s. His most widely acclaimed work is "The Song of the Banana Man". Sadie's mother, Joanna Jones, was featured as an extra in various television series, including "The Avengers." As a young woman, Sadie opted out of attending university, preferring instead to work an assortment of odd jobs (video production, temping, waiting tables) and to travel. After visiting America, the Caribbean and Mexico, Sadie settled in Paris, where she taught English and wrote her first screenplay. She eventually moved to London, where she currently resides with her husband, architect Tim Boyd, and their two children. Sadie wrote screenplays for fourteen years before producing THE OUTCAST, her first novel. Her writing credits are an eclectic mix, everything from episodes of BBC-TV shows to a feature film in 2004.
Most acclaimed
The Uninvited Guests
One late spring evening in 1912, in the kitchens at Sterne, preparations begin for an elegant supper party in honor of Emerald Torrington's twentieth birthday. But only a few miles away, a dreadful accident propels a crowd of mysterious and not altogether savory survivors to seek shelter at the ramshackle manor—and the household is thrown into confusion and mischief. Evening turns to stormy night, and a most unpleasant parlor game threatens to blow respectability to smithereens: Smudge Torrington, the wayward youngest daughter of the house, decides that this is the perfect moment for her Great Undertaking. The Uninvited Guests is the bewitching new novel from the critically acclaimed Sadie Jones. The prizewinning author triumphs in this frightening yet delicious drama of dark surprises—where social codes are uprooted and desire daringly trumps propriety—and all is alight with Edwardian wit and opulence.
Fallout
Forced to resign after being wrongly scapegoated for a tragic midair disaster, former Navy TOPGUN instructor Luke Henry has opened a private aerial combat training school in the Nevada desert -- with the aid of a cadre former aces and full support of the government. But the Defense Department's contract comes with strings attached: Luke must train a handpicked group of pilots from the Pakistani Air Force in Russian MiG-29s that the U.S. has supplied. These suspicious foreign nationals are being placed at the controls of one of the world's most potent aerial weapons, and it's Luke job to make them proficient. But the strangers may have a secret agenda that strikes directly at the vulnerable heart of their American benefactors, a nightmarish scenario of devastating terror that Luke Henry must expose and combat -- in the skies above his nation, if necessary.
Snakes
'I wonder if it hurts them to shed their skins,' she said. She didn't feel afraid standing in the darkness, imagining snakes, even with the smell of death in the air. Bea and Dan, recently married, rent out their tiny flat to escape London for a few precious months. Driving through France they visit Bea's dropout brother Alex at the hotel he runs in Burgundy. Disturbingly, they find him all alone and the ramshackle hotel deserted, apart from the nest of snakes in the attic. When Alex and Bea's parents make a surprise visit, Dan can't understand why Bea is so appalled, or why she's never wanted him to know them; Liv and Griff Adamson are charming, and rich. They are the richest people he has ever met. Maybe Bea's ashamed of him, or maybe she regrets the secrets she's been keeping. Tragedy strikes suddenly, brutally, and in its aftermath the family is stripped back to its rotten core, and even Bea with all her strength and goodness can't escape.