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Minette Walters's THE SHAPE OF SNAKES breaks many of the conventional rules of fiction. Part murder mystery, part scathing social commentary, the novel will draw readers in at the same time it may confound them. The main narrator is called only M. She is a mother, wife, and teacher, but the reader knows little else about her. Much of the plot deals with M's attempts to get to the bottom of the death of a local homeless woman named Annie. In fact, other than her drive to seek Annie's murderer, M's desire to live would have faded. Toward the onset of the novel, her obsession with Annie is confusing, the motive unknown. M never spoke to Annie. She never even gave the homeless woman the time of day, assiduously avoiding her, as did most people in the neighborhood. However, as the story plays out, M becomes larger than the novel, a woman of insight and strength.
M's drive uncovers liars, thieves, and deception at all levels. Thrills propel the story home, as M never fails the reader in uncovering Annie's suffering. All of the characters are so entwined that the neighborhood would cease to exist without their dynamics.
Annie, whose life was as mysterious as her death, is a character unfortunately familiar to many city dwellers. Spouting obscenities, Annie staggered about the streets of Dorchester, England, attacking all she encountered. The people of the neighborhood labeled her mentally retarded, since she talked to herself, not realizing she had Tourette's syndrome and coprolalia, the uncontrolled, excessive use of profanity. Doubly damned by the fact that she was black, Annie was cruelly taunted by some narrow minded locals, while others, more "civic minded," tried to have her taken off the streets.
One fateful evening, Annie arrived in the gutter of M's house, battered, beaten and smelling of urine. Believing Annie to be drunk, the neighbors were disgusted and avoided her, even as she lay dying. As the facts of Annie's death came to light, M proceeded to accuse the neighbors of a racially motivated murder. M's husband Sam failed to be supportive, believing M was having a traumatic stress response. Things only got worse for M: she began having aural hallucinations, fighting with her family and friends and just generally not knowing what was real and what was not. Upon threat of divorce, M moved away with her husband and vowed never to speak of Annie again.
Twenty years later, M is still haunted by Annie's death and driven to find justice, justice for a murder and vindication for herself. She delves deeper, finding out that Annie was not the homeless, mentally incapacitated woman of popular belief. Instead, she had a house of her own, one filled with many valuables.
Driven to her truth and unable to stop, M investigates. As the author breaks the rules of fiction, her character-driven story rides forth on a thrill packed adventure.
--- Reviewed by Nancy B. Leake
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