The Shape of Snakes - Minette Walters

The Shape of Snakes is the seventh novel from the award winning mystery/crime writer Minette Walters. The Plot In 1978, it is the winter of discontent. In a predominantly white community, black woman known 'Mad' Annie is found dying in the street by Mrs Ranelagh. The resultant verdict is death by natural causes, but Mrs Ranelagh seems to be the only one who thinks otherwise, despite Annie having said nothing to Mrs Ranelagh before finally resting. The family move away following difficulties, but return 20o years later, and the memory is still strong. Mrs Ranelagh still retains the obsession with Annie's death, and begins questioning those still ...  Read the complete review

After reading The Sculptress and thoroughly enjoying it (See previous review!), I immediately began reading another of Minette Walters’ books – The Shape of Snakes. This one is her seventh novel and was published in 2000. I was pleased to discover that although it had some similarities with The Sculptress, the feel of this novel was very different from the first one of hers I had read. When discovering a new favourite author, it is often disappointing to find their books are carbon-copy throw-ups of previous stories and characters. This makes the novels boring after a couple and detracts from the brilliance of their work. If The Shape of Snakes is anything to ...  Read the complete review

Introduction This is such a strange book. I have read all of Minette Walters' books; some are better than others and I do agree that this is a good one, but I found it so difficult to get involved in to begin with. The only reason I ever finished the book when I read it for the first time was that I was living abroad at the time and it was hard to get hold of any books in English, let alone crime fiction. So I persevered. And it was worth it. The ending was superb. And when I read it for the second time recently, I enjoyed it all the more. The author Minette Walters first hit people's attention with her 1992 book, The Ice House. This was followed by ...  Read the complete review

Minette Walters came on holiday with me to Majorca this summer, or a least her latest book “The Shape Of Snakes” did. It was the first of many that I devoured during my two week stay. I had bought it from WHSmith’s as it was on offer at £3.99, which I think is very reasonable for a newly released paperback, had I have paid full price for it then I would have been even more disgruntled when all the pages fell out after the first day. I had left it on my sunlounger when I went in for lunch, and when I came back the sun had melted the glue on the spine and all the pages promptly fell on to the floor!! From then on reading became ...  Read the complete review

It really takes a book to grip me to get me to finish it, I've lost count of the books I've bought after reading the blurb that have lost me by the end of the first chapter. I have read quite a few of Minette Walters books, some I finished, some were abandoned but this one does stand out in my memory. It is a brave step to write about a character that has mental illness as you run risks of making the character unbelievable or a caricature. This novel deals with the death 'Mad Annie', a mental health patient despised by her neighbours and regarded with suspicion in the community. What led to her death? Was Annie hit by a truck and left dying in the street or ...  Read the complete review