The Shape of Snakes

Set against the backdrop of Britain's bleak winter of 1978, The Shape of Snakes is a gripping psychological suspense novel by Minette Walters. In a West London neighbourhood, an outcast black woman known locally as Mad Annie dies in a rain-filled gutter. Despised by those living on Garden Street and dismissed by the authorities, her death would have passed without notice if not for Mrs Ranelagh, the young woman who discovers her body.

Firmly convinced that Annie was murdered rather than the victim of an accident, Mrs Ranelagh becomes consumed by a search for justice. Despite the silence of her neighbours, the anger of her own husband, and official indifference, she spends two decades digging into what really happened that November night. This absorbing novel unravels secrets, neighbourhood hostility, and personal motives in a patient quest to uncover long-buried truths.