The Shape of Snakes

by Minette Walters

Book Overview

This New York Times Notable Book begins on a rainy winter night. It takes hours for a black woman known as Mad Annie to die in the gutter. It will take 20 years for the woman who found her to shape... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0771087586
• ISBN13: 9780771087585
• Release Date: June 2001
• Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
• Length: 440 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Her Best

Minette Walters always writes gripping, disturbing mysteries. This is her best because it crosses over into a social problem novel that challenges us to think about our own responsibilities towards those less fortunate.

(4.5) "She had the courage to stand and fight and I ran away."

Walters pulls no punches in a devastating novel of racism, sexism and misogyny, a young wife witness in 1978 London to the violent death of the only black resident of an all-white, economically barren neighborhood. The police view the battered body and declare the death accidental: Mrs. Ranelagh cries murder. But time and circumstance are against her, neither the authorities nor her husband or mother willing to entertain the possibility. After an outrageous assault on her home and person by incensed neighbors and the rejection of the police (the officer himself a blatant racist), Mrs. Ranelagh and her husband leave London for Hong Kong. Twenty years and two sons later, Mrs. Ranelagh returns, bringing with her years of carefully compiled documents and a private agenda to reopen Annie's case and finally mete out justice to the culprit or culprits responsible. If she harbors a yearning for a bit of revenge as well, who can blame a woman who was treated as an emotional incompetent, ignored by everyone, even her family. Served cold, this dish is piquant. Walters makes a cogent argument for a woman's place in society in the late 1970s-early 1898s, exacerbated by racial prejudice and male superiority. Given the poverty of Graham Street and the preponderance of council houses, stereotypes abound, Annie an easy target for the bullies anxious to vent. It is Mrs. Ranelagh's evolution that is fascinating, from her delicate mental condition following the murder and the concerted efforts by the locals to make her a victim of the same cruelty they rained on Annie Butts. Her husband's indifference and the local investigating policeman's harassment drive the young wife to the edge, even her overbearing mother contributing to the already burdened woman's nightmare. In spite of everything, Mrs. Ranelagh endures, one of the most interesting relationships with her husband, Sam, who has his own personal guilt to deal with, unable to befriend his wife. That the marriage survives is significant. Working with a wide array of characters, Walters rebuilds the bleak circumstances of Annie's death, philandering husbands, wife-beaters, child-abusers and other social misfits that inhabit the area. Their parents mired in drink and brutality, the children run the streets, aping their parents for lack of better examples. In this scenario, virtually everyone has a secret, save Mrs. Ranelagh, who bears the weight of neighborhood hostility. Stronger from her ordeal, Mrs. Ranelagh puts everyone to shame with her determination, including Sam, who must take responsibility for his own failings. Literally fearless, the protagonist pursues every avenue, turns over every mud-caked rock and faces the animosity of those involved in a bid to find justice for Annie Butts and respect for herself. Twenty years is a long time to wait to redress the past, but this is an exceptional woman familiar with patience: "If you sit by the river long enough the bodies of all your enemies float by." Luan

She's Back and She's Looking for Revenge

Something happened on Graham Street in London back in 1970. A woman was murdered, the people that lived there knew it, but hushed it up, called it something else and the one woman, Mrs. Ranelagh, who dissented, moved away.The murder victim, a woman named Annie, was the only black person on the street. She also suffered from Tourette's Syndrome, so she muttered and sometimes ticked, or she cursed when she couldn't disguise her anger at the way she was treated. Of course the locals were unaware of her condition, so they assumed she was a drunken lunatic. Unfortunately for her, Annie knew something about the suburban debauchery in her community, which she tried to tell Mrs. Ranelagh before being murdered.Annie's death was written off as an alcoholic accident and when Mrs. Ranelagh tried to tell the police of her suspicions, they conspired with her husband, mother and neighbors in writing her off as an neurotic woman with a persecution complex. Then she ends up being the butt of some very cruel bullying herself from her neighbors, and eventually leaves the country for Hong Kong for a couple of decades, but now she's back, looking for answers, plus maybe a bit of revenge, so now the detective work begins.This story is a complex portrait of Mrs. Ranelagh as an avenging angel, or avenging devil, depending on your point of view. We sometimes wonder if she's a bit off her rocker as she tries to track down the murderer. And the real murderer begins to seem less and less important as we learn how many people actually contributed to what happened all those years ago in this great and gripping read.

Ugly, Cruel, and Excellent

As a long term fan of great British mysteries written by Agatha Christie, P.D. James, Ruth Rendell, and Elizabeth George (even though she is an American), I looked forward to tucking into this book. I expected, as in others of the genre, that any violence would be viewed after-the-fact, and only through a prism of hedgerows, ancient chapels, and tea cozies. Ms. Walters makes it clear she will not allow the reader to employ a civilized, but distant, involvement in this book. Her use of photos depicting the characters in the book was one of the first things that impressed me. "This was a real person", she seems to be saying, "ugliness has a face, it is not an abstract concept." She continues to grate ever closer to the bone as she introduces pain after pain. I am an intense animal lover, and the abuse was horrible to read, but it happens, or it could, and Ms. Walters refuses to put the gloves on as she pounds your sensibilities. By mid-point in this book, I would have sold my soul for a mention of a scone. This book demands committment by the reader, and no one gets out of this read unscathed. My husband read the book after I did, and he was sceptical about the main character's obsession with finding out the truth behind a 20 year old question, that was answered to everyone's satisfaction years ago. I glanced over at him when he was nearing the end of the book, and noticed a tear on his cheek. "Now you know", I said. "Now I know", he said. And if you read this book, you will know pain.

Local Mom Charged with Neglect - Blames Mystery Novel

I picked up "The Shape of Snakes" at the library yesterday afternoon. I thought I would sit down and read a few chapters before I started dinner. At 9:00 my daughter came in and said "I'm hungry. Are we EVER going to eat?" I told her she could dial the phone as well as I could. I literally did not put this book down until I finished it. I have always liked Minette Walters' books, but this one is by far the best. I won't synopsize the plot, as that has already been done - but it is riveting. I've rarely read anything as disturbing as this book, and it is a credit to Walters' skill as a writer that it is so disturbing. It brought to my mind Hannah Arendt's quote about the banality of evil. I've read many novels where the crime was more vicious and the characters more twisted, but I've not read many novels that affected me so deeply. The title is perfect - you will change your mind about almost all the people in this novel, including the protaganist "M", at least once before the end. One thing that I have found interesting about the reviews I've read is how many people were deeply put off by the cruelty to cats in the book. When you think about other very popular novels, like those by Thomas Harris, where humans are flayed, eaten, tortured and generally mutilated beyond recognition, you realize that a truly good writer does not have to go over the top to shock, and that evil starts with small acts. I would recommend this book not only to mystery fans, but to anyone interested in a great novel about the nature of justice, the need for revenge, and the difference between bad behavior and evil behavior.