Customer Reviews

What Came Before He Shot Her

5 star:		(98)
4 star:		(47)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(32)
1 star:		(98)

 

 

"A wanton act of destruction" --- no, not a murder as such, but the way one of Elizabeth George's outraged readers described the unhappy ending of WITH NO ONE AS WITNESS, her second-to-last book: Helen, the adored pregnant wife of George's policeman hero, Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley, is gunned down on the doorstep of her London house. Mystery lovers are often habituated to tidy, let-justice-be-done denouements; sacrificing Lynley's nearest and dearest evidently violated some unspoken taboo.

When Arthur Conan Doyle killed off Sherlock Holmes (he was weary of turning out stories about the eccentric detective), his admirers were so upset that he had to bring Holmes back from the dead. George, in contrast, doesn't seem inclined to appease her fans: Instead, she takes an even bigger chance in her new book, WHAT CAME BEFORE HE SHOT HER, telling the story behind Mrs. Lynley's murder.

The apparent culprit is 12-year-old Joel Campbell, a mixed-race boy from North Kensington --- a neighborhood where the police are not heroes but enemies; where gangs rule, drugs and sexual violence are endemic, and there is a constant struggle to survive. Joel and his two siblings --- Vanessa, his older, troubled sister, and Toby, a boy who seems to live in his own private world --- are all but orphaned (their father is dead, their mother in a psychiatric hospital; they've been abandoned by their grandmother and fobbed off on an aunt). Caught between painful memories of a one-time happy childhood and the perils of their current existence, they lurch helplessly down the road to disaster. Lynley, by the way, does not even appear in the book, and his police sidekicks, Barbara Havers and Winston Nkata, have only a walk-on --- another probable source of distress for George's devotees.

WHAT CAME BEFORE HE SHOT HER is a gamble in two senses. George not only diverges from the traditional crime-solving formula, she is also a white, well-heeled American presuming to get inside the lives and heads of black, struggling Londoners. No matter how well intentioned, this effort will certainly be seen by some people as patronizing rather than courageous.

Racial politics aside, the book reminds me strongly of the nineteenth-century English social novels in which middle-class authors addressed the evils of early industrial slums and factories. Like Benjamin Disraeli's SYBIL, it emphasizes that rich and poor, although they ostensibly live in the same city, are really "two nations." (When Joel ventures into Belgravia, the elegant neighborhood where the Lynleys live, it is a world so alien it might as well be the North Pole.) Like Dickens's books, it is narrated by a lofty omniscient voice and features a large cast of characters. Striving, upwardly mobile Kendra Osborne, the children's aunt, is trying to establish a massage practice, and her boyfriend, Dix, is a prize-winning bodybuilder. Teenaged Vanessa is a furious victim of sexual abuse. There are Dickensian villains, too, evil geniuses of the street who take pleasure in manipulating and torturing boys like Joel and Toby. The do-gooders --- social workers, writing teachers, mentors --- are mostly white and usually impotent, foreigners who don't really know the language of the neighborhood or its people.

Speaking of language, the dialogue in this book is largely in the black argot of London. There is a point to this --- time and again George emphasizes that educated people like Kendra are perfectly adept at standard English (what the kids call her "Lady Muck" voice) and can pull it out on appropriate occasions (as when talking to the authorities). Thus the see-sawing between slangy and refined accents comes to represent a tension that dominates the whole book: the choice between sticking with the lousy deal that fate has handed you and trying to escape into a better, less limited existence. But the dialect gets to be a bit much after a while --- I felt as if I were listening to a minstrel show. George's decision to reproduce the vernacular may be phonetically accurate, but I'm not sure that it serves her book well.

The novel is absorbing, albeit overlong. The characters are engaging and poignant; you want to protect them, prevent their descent into crime, peril, loss of dignity and selfhood. In crossing class and racial lines, George is doing something most genre writers wouldn't: setting out to expose the ugly underside of offenses so politely solved in the usual English mystery. This is a more realistic book than the usual thriller insofar as it recognizes that most crimes originate in problematic socioeconomic conditions ("[T]here were forces at work far larger than the Campbell children or their aunt, making North Kensington a place unsafe for harbouring or advancing dreams") and it has no detective hero to hand the reader a neat explanation-cum-solution.

But I'm not sure we read mysteries for a picture of society as it really is. I think we read them for reassurance: Their conventions make us feel that crimes aren't just random acts but possess some logic, and that those who commit them can be unmasked and punished. And I missed Lynley and (especially) Havers. Part of the pleasure of a series is encountering familiar people, in particular the guiding presence of brilliant crime-solvers who give shape to the story and balance to the moral scales. Although I respect George for challenging herself and her readers, WHAT CAME BEFORE HE SHOT HER is more a worthy experiment than a successful mystery.

Still, I appreciate a writer who surprises me rather than banks on the same bestselling blueprint. What in heaven's name will Elizabeth George do next? Your guess is as good as mine.

--- Reviewed by Kathy Weissman

I'm writing this as a rebuttal to some of the reviews here. Much has been said about how bad and depressing this book is. I feel that these reviewers went into reading this book with the wrong expectations. This book is a description of a modern tragedy. It is very clear from the title and the back cover that this is the backstory of Helen Lynley's murder, that there is no happy ending to be found here. And how can the lead-up to a murder be anything other than depressing?

But the writing is brilliant. Time and again I found myself pulled along with the characters, wanting them to make better choices, even though I knew the ending in advance. If you're looking for a fun way to pass the time, this is not the book for you. But if you're looking for a book to make you think and feel and maybe cry a little; a book you experience, rather than just read; pick up What Came Before He Shot Her.

I picked up this book (probably the 6th or 7th E. George book for me) and I read it about 8 months ago. I don't think I'm exaggerating to say that I have thought about the characters - Joel especially - every day since. The characters do live depressing lives, and are trapped - and they are far from the upper class characters that George often portrays. And for those looking for a nice "English" bucolic setting, this is not it. But Joel, the 11 year old protagonist, is a credible and even lovable character, and his journey from protective older brother to unwilling murderer is believable in the setting. This is one facet of modern day Britain - not pretty, not quaint, barely even civilized. I read it as a piece of sociology and an insight into the deprived lives of poor people in west London.

How could Elizabeth George even think of letting her fans down like this? I've never before been moved to write a review but this book is a literary crime that cannot go unpunished! (Wish it had gone unpublished though.) Ever since I read George's first Lynley mystery, I've bought each subsequent new one as it was released. I've never been disappointed - until now. That's not to say I don't have some gripes with George; I do. For one, she's long-winded and seems to get more so with every passing book. Readers don't need a description of every locale on a given London road to believe that the author, self-consciously and insurmountably American, has been there. More irritatingly though, and no doubt stemming from the same self-consciousness, her overuse of Brit vernacular and colloquialisms is forced and rings false compared with true British writers, who have no need to prove where they are from. But to her credit, she has created a cast of winning characters and I tune in every time to see what has happened in Lynley's and Havers' worlds. Especially after the last book shockingly killed off a major character, we deserved to be rewarded for waiting and plunking down our money. I want to know how Lynley is coping with the death of his wife, and what is happening with emotionally-scarred Deborah, who was first on the crime scene? And what about Barbara Havers, the character with whose creation George struck pure gold? Both Havers' professional and private lives are utterly engaging ongoing sagas (when will she get together with that neighbor of hers?) and I feel completely ROBBED not to have received the next installment. Worse yet is the book itself, which I dumped after a tedious first chapter (and after I flipped through the rest of it thinking I could find the parts with Lynley et al. Trust me, they aren't there). George's attempt to write completely outside her milieu and misleadingly foist it on her loyal mystery-reading public strikes me as pretentious and patronizing - towards both the subject and the audience. She is off my "authors to trust for a good read" list. True British mystery lovers, wondering what to read now, might try Kate Atkinson's "Case Histories" and "One Good Turn" for superb writing and storytelling. The latter, her newly published sequel about detective Jackson Brodie, kept me up all night, entertained and awed. If only Ms. George's latest had done the same.

WCBHSH is not a Lynley/Havers novel. Once past that stumbling block, this novel deserves a fair look at it for what it is. Though reviewed as a scruffy, dark novel about a dysfunctional family, there really is no family present in this plot, not in the real sense of the word. Rather, it is about three psychologically fragile children trying to survive in a world that has given them nothing but life itself. Dumped on their aunt's doorstep in one of London's most dangerous neighborhoods, they cannot rely upon her to provide much more than food and shelter. Love, trust, and a sense of safety are qualities that they never had a chance to develop. None of them is capable of accepting a helping hand even when repeatedly offered. Eleven year old Joel is the rock of this little trio, and although he tries valiantly to protect his brother and sister, and even his woefully inadequate "aunty", naturally he is doomed to fail. The title of this book is literal - it is the story of what happened to this child as he is coerced into doing things that are abhorrent to him and that destroy his soul long before he can reach adulthood. At bottom, this is an existential piece that can open the reader's eyes to the harsh circumstances that mold the lives of so many underprivileged, neglected children. It is the anatomy of a crime. It is a look into the mind of the "criminal". What Came Before He Shot Her is not fun, but it is skillfully crafted. It's a shame to miss out on a very good novel because of the absence of Lynley.

For me, this novel was an unpleasant reading experience. I've read all the Lynley/Havers books, and I love the characters. We lost one character in the last installment, which was tragic, but that was the author's decision. Writers should write what they want, not what they think people expect, and for that Elizabeth George gets an A+ (and this review gets two stars instead of one).

That said, I simply did not enjoy reading this book. For one thing, the regular cast is not in it. The story is told entirely from the point of view of Helen Lynley's killers, and they are a dull lot, to say the least. We are all painfully aware of poverty, racial inequality, disenfranchised youth, illegitimacy, illiteracy, apathy, despair, drugs, and all the other appalling social conditions that lead to certain types of crime. I have no solutions for these problems. I don't think Elizabeth George does, either. So what is the point of reading a hefty novel that merely repeats a long, droning laundry list of society's woes?

I have little sympathy for the creatures who murdered Helen Lynley, and absolutely no sympathy for the social realities that created them. And if I want a sermon, I'll go to church. I can forgive this novel for being ambitious, even for being presumptuous, but not for being tiresome. Still, I'm looking forward to the next one....

This is a definite departure from the Lynley series and is quite absorbing for the first several hundred pages. But I started to skim sections at around page 300 as situations and dialogue got repititious and the central action of the book was delayed beyond reason. It's admirable that George focused on a little-known aspect of British life, but some of the characters started bothering me--did all the black women have to have insatiable libidos? All the black men have to be either sociopathic or narcissistic? And the piling-on of misfortune was almost insulting to the characters: With such a litany of woe, one would expect a Columbine at the end, not a single murder. George is no Doestoevsky when it comes to exploring the criminal mind.
No, what was more interesting to me was why GEORGE chose to commit the murder in question. After lovingly crafting an interesting character over a series of books, she brutally kills her off for no real reason. Now George is forcing her readers to suffer through volumes of doleful mourning from a character who was never a barrel of laughs to begin with.
What's your excuse, Elizabeth?

This book has no sign of Thomas Lynley and is not even a mystery. Instead, it is more of a social commentary about poverty, broken families and the gang lifestyle in a fictional setting. Language was often unpleasant. Perhaps necessary for realism, but not enjoyable reading. If you want a crime, investigation and to puzzle out the solution to a mystery, I doubt you would enjoy this book. It is baffling why the author would turn a highly successful series into a soap box. I'd recommend getting this book from the library before spending money on it. I wonder why I actually read it to the end.

I knew when I picked up this book that it didn't have the usual cast of characters, but I trust Elizabeth George and was willing to give it a try.

My complaint isn't the "lecturing" about the results of such intractable societal ills as racism, poverty, and child abuse. It's that the characters of this book fell short. I found them one-dimensional for the most part. Ness was nothing but angry. Joel was nothing but anxious. Toby was nothing but helpless. And the plot was too simple...just pile the bad acts onto angry, anxious and helpless and you get "inevitable."
These kids were propelled by events, each acting 100% predictably in all cases. There didn't seem to be any real understanding of the unique character each kid must have.

Real life so often provides more subtle turning points. Real life is comprised of good and bad, both in people and situations. This book was all bad, like "A Series of Unfortunate Events" without the humor.

It felt lacking in humanity. There's a point when the aunt, Kendra, bemoaning her niece's choices, muses that sometimes kids manage to transcend tragic beginnings. This could have been a fantastic book had this been explored. This is the fascination in lives that go so wrong...where were the choices made? The points of no return? What's the difference in the personality that survives? Instead, we see characters that merely react to tragedy after tragedy. I believe that these kids (and Elizabeth George) are capable of more.

After the events of her previous novel, With No One As Witness, I was fairly upset with author Elizabeth George for what she had done to a character that was appealling, likeable, and then was suddenly yanked out of the series in a brutal way. For quite some time afterwards, there was much mumbling on the fan sites about the situation, and would it signal the end of the series about Inspector Lynley and Sergeant Havers?

Set within the world of London's poorest classes, What Came Before He Shot Her tells the tale of the Campbells, three children of mixed race heritage, and without any hope of a future. Their father was killed in a senseless street shooting, and their mother has vanished -- somewhere. Now their grandmother, Glory, has packed up the only home the children have known, and promises that things will be better in faraway Jamaica, where her husband George has been deported to.

It is, of course, a lie. Glory drags the three -- Ness, Joel and Toby -- across London to another neighborhood just as dingy and appalling as the one that they have left, and abandons them on the doorstep of their Aunt Kendra, sister of their father. And Kendra isn't too happy to see them either; her life has been marginally better than the children, but not by much. All she sees with the arrival of the trio is more work, and a responsiblity that she has no desire to take on. While Joel is a quiet cautious child, his two siblings are trouble from the get go. Teenage Ness is pretty, but she's quickly sliding into a mess of drugs, prosititution and theft, and Toby -- well, no one seems to know what is going on with Toby except that he seems to be in a world of his own. Kendra certainly doesn't have the skills to cope, and the reader can easily see that catastrophe is looming.

Still, she tries to hold her sudden family together, despite the poverty, the presence of a local gang leader with the nickname of The Blade, and the fact that Ness can not, and will not, even try to fit in. A good portion of the novel is taken up with Ness and her friends, Tash and Six, as they skip school, do drugs and sex, and decide to take the next step in a life of crime, that of mugging to get the cash and mobile phones that they crave.

Poor Toby, lost as he is in his own world, is an automatic target for the neighborhood bullies and thugs, and Joel tries hard to protect his little brother. He's not adverse to using his fists, and can talk as tough as the next. But it isn't enough as we see, and it forces him to make an alliance with a monster.

To balance the prevasive evil, there's a few who do care and try to help -- Ivan Weatherall, an adult at the school who helps Joel find his poetic voice, and for Ness, the surprising figure of a Pakistani woman who runs a child care centre. Even Kendra finds a savior in Dix D'Court, a strapping young bodybuilder who is very attracted to her. But will it be enough to stop the tragedy that is rushing towards them all?

Elizabeth George uses her skills at psychological drama, insight and drawing verbal pictures of people caught on the edge. But fans of Lynley or Havers will be very disappointed at all -- Lynley appears not at all, and Havers only in the final few pages of the story. There's very little police procedural in this, without the a mystery to really involve the reader -- and that is one of the great pleasures of her novels, to get to follow along as a very detailed story is gently tugged and unraveled.

Instead, I was left with the impression that Elizabeth George was playing at becoming the Dickens of the twentieth-first century. The misery in this one grinds on and on, without any glimmer of contrast or brightness to relieve any of the true awfullness of it all. The dialog throughout is crude and written in a phoenetic cant that is barely understandable, and very unschooled. While I can appreiciate a touch of that now and then in a book, having the characters constantly speak in slang is rough going.

Finally, we realize that the entire novel is pretty much just the previous one, told from the point of view of the criminal that appears in the end of With No One As Witness. While you might not have to had read the earlier work to understand the nuances, it's still pretty much clear that we're not going to be seeing the stories of either Lynley and Havers or any of their associates moving forward any time soon. And that is the real draw of Elizabeth George's novels, is that she is able to contrast Lynley and Havers so well, and the reader has the security of knowing that these two people will hold onto the practice of doing what is right nearly all of the time.

Sadly, this is a novel that really goes nowhere at all. The level of human misery in this one is so pervasive and all-encompassing that there is little to give the reader an urge to grind on through the nearly six hundred pages of story. I was so relieved to have the damn thing end that even the tragedy of the Campbells couldn't stir me very much. In short, it's a book that takes forever to get to where it is going, and there's not much to entertain you along the way, and so, I can't recommend this one. One of the reasons that I read novels is a form of escape, I want to know that somewhere there is a place where there is hope, and that one aspect of keeping human spirit alive is completely gone in this novel, even when there is a chance of it, it is all too quickly snuffed out. In terms of writing, it's good, and it's the only thing that keeps this book from being hit with a two star rating from me. It is also very unlikely that I will be rereading this one either, so overall, this one is a failure on all counts.

Not Recommended.