The Shape of Snakes (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)
by Minette Walters
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Book Summary Information
Author: Minette WaltersEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-02-19
ISBN: 0307277119
Number of pages: 384
Publisher: Vintage
Book Reviews of The Shape of Snakes (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)
Book Review: She's Back and She's Looking for Revenge
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Summary of The Shape of Snakes (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)
A psychological thriller about race, family, and the brutal power of raw emotion.Mrs. Ranelagh has never stopped thinking about the dead body she found in the gutter twenty years ago, during Britain?s Winter of Discontent. ?Mad Annie,? as she was known, was the only black resident of her West London neighborhood and openly despised by the community. The police called her death an accident, but Mrs. Ranelagh has always suspected it was murder. However, her pleas for an investigation were met with a vicious hate campaign that drove her and her husband from the country. Now, determined to uncover the truth, Mrs. Ranelagh has returned to England, where she quickly discovers a sordid trail of domestic violence, racism and adultery that shockingly could lead back to her own family.
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