What Came Before He Shot Her

By: Elizabeth George

Narrated by: Charles Keating

The brutal, inexplicable death of Inspector Thomas Lynley's wife has left Scotland Yard shocked and searching for answers. Even more horrifying is that the trigger was apparently pulled by a 12-year-old boy. Who is he? Where did he come from? And what were the circumstances that led to his final act of desperation?

That story begins on the other side of London, in rough North Kensington, where the three mixed-race, virtually orphaned Campbell children are bounced first from their grandmother then to their aunt. The oldest, 15-year-old Ness, is headed for trouble as fast as her high-heeled boots will take her. That leaves the middle child, Joel, to care for the youngest, Toby. No one wants to put it into words, but something clearly isn't right with Toby.

Before long, there are signs that Joel himself has problems. A local gang starts harassing him and threatening his brother. To protect his family, Joel makes a pact with the devil - a move that leads straight to the front doorstep of Thomas Lynley.

An anatomy of a murder, the story of a family in crisis, What Came Before He Shot Her is a powerful, emotional novel full of deep psychological insights, a novel that only the incomparable Elizabeth George could write.

©2006 Elizabeth George (P)2005 HarperCollins Publishers Inc.

Critic reviews

"George deftly depicts the palaver and predicaments of middle-[class] and working-class Brits in this dark, chilling tale of desperation and revenge." (Booklist)
"Another winner from the current master of the classic English mystery." (Atlantic Monthly)

Absolutely Absorbing

I listened to this bit by bit while I walked and could not wait to get back to it every day. Charles Keating is phenomenal. The voices of the characters are so real. This book is full to the brim, with much going on, many layers, complex, rich, dense with all kinds of love and pain.

unexpected

The entire story was unique from all previous writing by Elizabeth George. It was well done from a completely different perspective. It was hard to stomach this reality but an excellent read.

What Came Before He Shot Her

Oh my, what a great story. I have been promising myself to read this book for a long time. How awfully sad it was.
A shattered family to begin with. Each one of them trying desperately to right all the wrongs in their life. Reaching out to a greater betterment for their future, only to be brought down again because of their place in society. It is heartbreaking, and what made it more so, it probably is happening everyday in community's such as theirs. I will never forget this book. A huge eye opener for me into real life.
I love Elizabeth George, but by far this was one of her best.

Unsatisfactory ending!

Liked the story and great development of characters but extremely unsatisfactory ending!
Stayed connected to all the characters and then don’t know what happened to all of them.

lifetime

This reminds me of a lifetime movie. If you have mindless worked to be done great listen, but overall story c+.

Don't believe the negative reviews

Just because this story doesn't have the tea and crumpets of the earlier books in the series, some people seem to feel shortchanged. That's too bad, because EG has given us a window into a London that's different but no less compelling.

It's also too bad that audible doesn't get off the dime and buy the rights to the unabridged version of this (#14 in the series) and two other titles: With No One As Witness (#13), and Careless in Red (#15). It makes zero sense for audible to present an excellent 21-book series, with three titles abridged and the other 18 books entire.

So pick up the physical books for these three. Much of value was cut out in the process of abridgement, including character development and motivation, two commodities that make Elizabeth George's works so rich and deep.

Curve Ball

Interesting twists in the parallel storyline. What will happen next…? …as it seems like it’s setting the stage for something?

A excellent book

The characters were so well drawn, I now have insight into lives I never knew. The performance was part of how those characters were drawn. When the ending of a story is known from the title itself, the story becomes that much more intriguing. And yet the ending of this story did what every good book should do: it made me want to read more while making the time I spent already so worthwhile.

And then?

This was a really good story with strong character development. I’m annoyed by how the book just ended. The listener gets the gist but tying up loose ends would be preferred. I’ve already listened to her most recent book, which was great and had a satisfying ending. Otherwise, I would stop listening to the series out of concern that is how she was going to end all of her novels. This is the second out of three books that she’s ended in this manner.

Bleak, pedantic but...love Elizabeth George

I've been conflicted on this one. I love Elizabeth George's Thomas Lynley mysteries, have never listened to one, but have read them all. I'd been reluctant to read this one based on the jacket material, so opted to listen as an option.

If you're an Elizabeth George fan, this one is problematic because those characters we know and love and have followed for years make an appearance only in the last few pages of the book, though the dramatic foreshadowing prepares you exactly for what is going to happen.

George is just too heavy-handed with this one. Too unremittingly bleak, and also too didactic. Again and again we hear various characters talking about problems with "the youth of today." They harp on the desire for a rush of sudden fame, bad work ethic -- and the harping is not worked in elegantly, it becomes stulfyingly, speechifyingly overwrought.

This book is, perhaps, so much more slender than the typical George book because she tells and tells and tells vs. showing.

All that being said, I still give this three stars because she does create plot tension, not an easy thing to do given that the book opens with telling us that the "she" in question, Lynley's wife Helen, is going to be shot (so not giving away any surprises here). And the characters are compelling. But its hard to wallow in this world, as brief as the sojourn is, and no one likes to listen to lectures, especially when they're as ill-disguised as these are. At end, if you love George, read it or listen to it; if you haven't read George, don't start with this one. Start with any of her other Lynley mysteries, this one is a trifling by comparison.