BOOK REVIEW

THE EVIL THAT PEOPLE DO: A REVIEW OF THE SHAPE OF SNAKES

copyright 2002 by Nora M. Mulligan

I have long been a fan of the writing of Minette Walters, whose quirky mysteries turn on the confusions and depravities of ordinary people in extraordinary situations. She's not the kind of mystery writer who gives you the clues and lets you match wits with her characters to see which of you can figure out the crime first. In fact, the clues are subtle and deep, and often the reader doesn't know, until the very end of the book, what the truth was.

Her newest book, The Shape of Snakes , is perhaps her best, an extraordinary tour de force, violent and deeply compassionate, with memorable characters and a variety of twists and turns that kept me on the edge of my seat throughout.

There are really two major questions at the heart of the book (and a host of minor ones): was Annie Butts, the only black woman in the neighborhood of Graham Road in London, murdered, and why is Mrs. Ranelagh, who lived in the neighborhood at the time, so obsessed in finding out the facts of Annie's case that she spends twenty years ferreting out facts until she can confront the principals and attempt to achieve justice?

Though Annie's death takes place in the first chapter of the book, over the course of the book she comes to life through the different images the other characters have of her, supplemented by the official reports Mrs. Ranelagh obtains from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Annie's doctor, and Annie's member of parliament. The residents of the street hate and resent Annie for her race and for her behavior, which is caused by Tourette's Syndrome and which causes her to curse at other people and display various physical tics. However, she is gradually revealed as a gentle, caring person who tried to help her neighbors even as they persecuted her (one of the most poignant parts of the book is the copies of letters Annie wrote to her Member of Parliament, asking for help for a neighbor whose husband was abusing her; this same neighbor has shown nothing but contempt and loathing for Annie).

When Mrs. Ranelagh finds Annie's body in a heap on the street, stinking of urine and covered in blood, everybody else believes that Annie wandered out in a drunken stupor and got hit by a truck, thrown into a lamp post and killed. The official police version is supported by various witnesses who testify to seeing Annie staggering around earlier that evening, and the autopsy report from the coroner. When Mrs. Ranelagh argues against this interpretation, she suffers from official police skepticism and more earthy and violent retaliation from her neighbors, to the point where she nearly has a nervous breakdown and leaves the country with her husband.

The bulk of the book, however, takes place twenty years later, when Mrs. Ranelagh returns to England to sort the matters out. She's done a lot of investigating in the meantime, had pathologists look at the autopsy pictures of Annie, talked to doctors and experts of various sorts. During her time abroad, Mrs. Ranelagh was under treatment for nervous disorders stemming from her obsession with Annie's death, and the reports of her doctor and her correspondence with him are included in the book to give the reader yet another perspective on our point of view character.

There is something so satisfying about the way Mrs. Ranelagh uncovers the secrets of the neighborhood, the way she discovers the real reason Annie's house looked like a wreck at the time of her death, the reason the house was full of starving, mutilated cats, the reason Annie's precious antiques were missing when she died, and, finally, the truth about how Annie died and who was responsible. I didn't guess who the killer was, partly because Ms. Walters is so careful about concealing some of the facts until the best dramatic moment, but I didn't feel cheated because the motivation was so perfect, so justified by what we had already seen of the character in question.

It's only at the very end, the last document presented in the book, that the truth about why Mrs. Ranelagh gave so much of her life to finding justice for Annie after the latter's death is revealed, and that revelation caps the book, poignant and powerful.

This is not a book for the weak of stomach; there's a lot of violence and foulness in it. But it's a wonderful read, a mystery that looks at the big questions: love and responsibility, racism and lost opportunities, justice and revenge. If this book receives the attention it deserves, it should be a best seller.