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Book Review of The Shape of Snakes

The Shape of Snakes
reviewed on + 105 more book reviews


When the young Mrs. Ranelagh finds an older black woman dying in the street in 1978, the event sears itself into her soul. The death is deemed an accident but there are aspects of it that don't fit. Mrs. Ranelagh almost loses her marriage because of her quest for the truth. Instead, she goes abroad with her husband for the next twenty years.

Her bond with her husband healed, she returns to take up the case again, pursuing leads the police did not.

The story is told in fits and breaks, with the current time (late 90s) alternating with 1978, and with the discoveries and suspicions found and repeated. It seemed to me that many questions were asked again and again, sometimes with different answers. It's jerky and unsettling. Toward the end I was in a hurry for it to wrap up, honestly.