The Snake That Bites Its Tail

Bob Farrand, author of The Cheese Handbook (Hamlyn, 2000), delved into his own past for the source material for his first novel, The Snake that Bites its Tail.

Stretching from the 1960s to the present day, the issues covered - parental influences, inherited prejudices and free will - are as relevant now as they were during his childhood and a substantial part of this story is based on the author’s own life. Add in the mystery surrounding three unsolved murders and three seemingly unconnected lives and the lines between fact and fiction just got thinner...

In 1965, nineteen-year-old Robin Farnham believes he ran over an old man but on stopping his car, finds no body, merely a gold bracelet of a snake biting its tail. 

In 1981, sixteen-year-old Jane Foster is sexually abused by her adoptive father and attacks him before fleeing to London where she consults Dr Peter Lakmaker, a psychiatrist.

In 2021, now retired, Farnham is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and prescribed a drug on clinical trial. He attempts suicide but awakes in hospital to be told he is suspected of murder. Protected from the police by Dr Lakmaker, Robin is encouraged to write about his life to help monitor the effectiveness of the new drug.

Over a period of half a century, Robin and Jane’s lives are interrelated, although it is not until the year 2000, they finally meet. Robin’s quest for the truth behind his involvement in not one, but three murders and Jane’s tormented search for her birth parents and the close family relationship denied her as a child are muddied by the strangely prophetic Oroborous bracelet Robin wears and the appearance of the vengeance seeking Krait. Separating fact from fiction has rarely presented more of a challenge, for the characters in the story or for the reader.