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    What Came Before He Shot Her
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    What Came Before He Shot Her
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    What Came Before He Shot Her
    Ebook764 pages13 hours

    What Came Before He Shot Her

    By Elizabeth George

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    #1 New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth George delivers an explosive, "absolutely riveting" novel (Entertainment Weekly) that delves into the events leading up to the shocking murder of Inspector Lynley’s wife.

    The brutal, inexplicable death of Inspector Thomas Lynley’s wife, Helen, has left Scotland Yard shocked and searching for answers. Even more horrifying is that the trigger was apparently pulled by a twelve-year-old boy.

    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 to their aunt. The oldest, fifteen-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 ends up making a pact with the devil—a move that leads straight to the front doorstep of Thomas Lynley.

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

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 13, 2009
    ISBN9780061805745
    Author

    Elizabeth George

    Elizabeth George is the New York Times bestselling author of sixteen novels of psychological suspense, one book of nonfiction, and two short story collections. Her work has been honored with the Anthony and Agatha awards, the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière, and the MIMI, Germany's prestigious prize for suspense fiction. She lives in Washington State.

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    Reviews for What Came Before He Shot Her

    3.5/5

    33 ratings22 reviews

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    • 4/5
      The brutal, inexplicable death of Inspector Thomas Lynley's wife has left Scotland Yard searching for answers. Who is the twelve-year-old boy who pulled the trigger? What were the circumstances that led to his horrific act? That story begins on the other side of London, where the three mixed-race Campbell children are sent to live with their aunt. The oldest, fifteen-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. But before long, Joel has his own problems with a local gang. To protect his family, he makes a pact with the devil— a move that leads straight to the front doorstep of Thomas Lynley. The anatomy of a murder, the story of a family in crisis, What Came Before He Shot Her is a powerful, emotional novel that only the incomparable Elizabeth George could write.
    • 4/5
      When I began this book -- despite the title -- I really did not understand what I was reading, gradually it dawned on me. I was reading the back story to the death of Helen Lynley. It isn't a mystery or a detective story it is a psychological sociological tale of horror. The story is unremittingly dark and grim. We are introduced to the child who shot Helen and given a taste of his world -- it is not a place that we would want to live -- it is not a rational healthy world. This book is an amazing exploration of the difficulties of living in a completely irrational world. We see a family making horrible decisions that seem pretty darned rational given the dangers and irrationality of their world. It made me think of families that did not leave New Orleans when Katrina struck and my Saudi friend who has few options because she is a woman -- the story allows you to see and feel what it is to be virtually without hope and without help, to feel you have no one to rely on when you are desperately in need of help. It is a horrible experience but an amazing book.
    • 3/5
      I picked this out of my pile of books prepared for a good Lynley mystery. I was saddened when I realized that this wouldn't be one, but a study on a London family- specifically the 12 year-old boy who shot Lynley's wife. I quickly warmed to the story though and enjoyed it very much. I liked how true the book rang- Ness claims to know the world inside and out, however, she couldn't be more naive. She is not as tough as she'd like to be- or thinks she is either. Poor Joel takes on more than he can- with no help from his sister or Aunt. I wanted to jump into the book, give him a hug and tell him it is okay. I loved how George revealed pieces of the kids history throughout the novel- small tidbits here and there, slowly revealing more and more. I think the best part of this book is that all the characters are well-rounded and you really get inside of their heads- we see the sadness, fear and love a struggling family deals with.FAVORITE QUOTES: Like water that seeks its own level, misfits recognize their brothers even when they do so unconsciously. // "I'm the type one generally refers to as an English eccentric. Quite harmless and engaging to have at a dinner party where Americans are present and declaring themselves desperate to meet a real Englishman." // Joel shrugged: the adolescent boy's answer to every question he didn't want to answer, a bodily expression of the eternal whatever voiced by teenagers in hundreds of languages on at least three continents and countless islands pebbled across the Pacific.
    • 4/5
      This is a train-wreck of a book. Because of the book before this one, we know the tragedy that this book ends with. It is part of the Thomas Lynley series, but the main characters in that series are only briefly in this book, which explains how a seemingly senseless tragedy happened.The main characters are three siblings, Ness, Joel, and Toby. Their father is dead, their mother in a mental home, and their grandmother abandons them to go home to Jamaica. She leaves them with their aunt, Kendra. Kendra is around 40, widowed once and divorced once, working in a charity shop and trying to get a business going as a massage therapist. She has never had children, and two of these three are particularly difficult to deal with. Ness is fifteen, refuses to go to school and seems interested only in sex and drugs and the occasional petty theft. Toby is eight, with severe developmental disorders and a way of retreating into an imaginary world. The burden of caring for Toby mostly falls onto 12 year old Joel, the responsible one, the one who finds an unexpected talent for poetry in himself. But Joel makes an enemy, and the enemy targets Toby, who is so very vulnerable. Joel is willing to go to any lengths to protect Toby, and that is what leads him into the fatal error.This is a hard book to read. It is, in part, about how grinding a life of poverty is, the burden and hopelessness of it. It is also in part about the errors that can be made with perfectly good intentions but a panic-inducing level of desperation. The characters at first seem unlikeable, and one doesn't want to care about them, knowing there is a terrible ending, but one learns to care. The author seems to as well, as her voice breaks through the narrative more than in her other books. She'll say, for example, something like "and that would not be his only mistake", things that jar the reader out of the narrative somewhat. In the end, it is a compelling but uncomfortable book, a picture of unalterable despair.
    • 5/5
      I had the very unusual experience of having to read this book very slowly because it was simply so wrenching. I've read all EG's books, including the precursor/sequel to this one, so I knew where it was going, and as EG built her characters as skillfuly as she always does, it was almost too painful to know that they were all doomed. In her past books there have been characters whose demise I regretted, and she certainly is gifted at painting her story people into hopeless corners, building tension all the while, but never like this time. I don't know if this is a good or bad thing, and at times while reading this I thought it was both.I saw EG speak a couple of months ago and she said that she has received a LOT of criticism about this book and her decision to depart from the usual cast of characters and also to go into omniscient narration. I carried this latter thought with me as I read; I thought she pulled it off brilliantly and her defense that she had always wanted to challenge herself by trying it made sense to me. She also mentioned she had been planning to kill off a major character for a while. Well, I guess it's the bane of the series writer; to stay fresh things must shift and tilt. Frankly I felt the loss of the doomed family in this book far more deeply than I did the loss of that other character (trying not to be a spoiler).Overall, it wasn't my favorite EG of all, but it was certainly fine and haunting. Can't wait to see what she writes next.
    • 2/5
      This is the second time I've read this novel, and I'm puzzled as to why I gave it 3 stars instead of 2. I will downgrade it this time. This is the 15th in the Inspector Lynley novels, and it is by far my least favorite. There is very little mystery here and only the briefest of mentions of the characters I know and like from the other novels. We learn all there is to know about the young boy who is accused of the murder in the previous book, With No One As Witness. I got tired of reading nothing but how poor and pitiful this boy is. Yes, I understand, but by the end of the book, I felt like I'd been beat over the head with it. It just isn't that good of a read. I would not recommend this one at all.
    • 2/5
      This wasn't the typical Inspector Lynley mystery. Without giving spoilers, it is difficult to give a reason directly. This book is about the background life of a shooter and his family. George sets up an inevitable combination of forces that predicted the outcomes. It was decent storytelling. I missed the presence of the Inspector and Havers, however.
    • 5/5
      I love the Lynley series. But this book, which isn't a police procedural and only tangentially involves the series regulars, outshines the rest and proves George could write in any genre she chose. There are at least two stories for every crime, and it's fascinating to inhabit the one we so rarely see.
    • 5/5
      i confess i wouldn't have picked this one up if i'd known it what it really was: i did look carefully at it first to make sure it was a Linley mystery. and it is; except not really. it's riskier territory. then i stayed up for two nights running till 4am to read it through, so it was certainly riveting, the way she built the story. the characters come so alive, and the reader is dragged (kicking and screaming, in my case) into the narrative. and the sense of dread carries the novel: the way it grows, the way it spreads, the way it matters. until in the end, it makes perfect sense out of what we like to call a senseless crime. in that context, of course, the indictment's aimed at us. but it still works, in that No Way Out way that this kind of societal/psychological novel tracks.
    • 5/5
      An incredible work. I think it's a very realistic and accurate of how a very simple event in an unfortunate's life can destroy so many lives with a rippling effect. In this instance, if only one person had acted a bit sooner, or a bit kinder, or a bit stronger, the tragic outcome could have been avoided. You can't place unequivocal blame here because everyone tried in their own misguided ways to help. My only complaint was that the why, as in why did the Blade choose Helen as the victim--was there a connection between him and the serial killer, was it a favor, or did it have nothing to do with him and Blade was settling his own score with Lynley himself? That why wasn't answered.
    • 5/5
      The only one I had my husband read...such a challenge to have me forgive the death of Helen...done very well
    • 4/5
      Zweifellos hat es Elizabeth George besonders am Herzen gelegen, diese Geschichte zu erzählen: Im Mittelpunkt steht der zwölfjährig Mischlings-Junge Joel Campbell, der mit seinen Geschwistern Vanessa und Toby in einer sozial schwachen Wohngegend Londons lebt. Die Kinder stammen aus schwierigen Familienverhältnissen und werden von ihrer Tante aufgezogen, die, trotz bester Absichten, von dieser Aufgabe hoffnungslos überfordert ist: Kendra ist zu sehr auf ihre eigenen Angelegenheiten und ihre Karriere konzentriert, um sich adäquat um die drei Kinder kümmern zu können. So kommt es, dass Vanessa, Joel und Toby sehr schnell in die Fänge einer Straßengang geraten. Jeder der drei bekommt auf seine Weise Schwierigkeiten mit dieser Gruppe von gewaltbereiten Jugendlichen. Joel fühlt sich für seine Familienmitglieder verantwortlich. Um sie zu schützen, sieht er keine andere Möglichkeit, als sich mit dem Kleinganoven „The Blade“ einzulassen, der das Stadtviertel kontrolliert. Joel gerät in Abhängigkeit von „The Blade“, und seine Solidaritätsbekundungen für den Kriminellen gipfeln schließlich in Mord. Zu spät erkennt Joel, dass ihn „The Blade“ verraten hat: Die Straftaten, zu welchen Joel sich hinreißen hat lassen, haben ihr Ziel, nämlich, seine Familie zu schützen, völlig verfehlt. Elizabeth George erzählt die Geschichte einer Familie, die wegen ihrer Herkunft und ihrer zahlreichen Schwierigkeiten keinerlei Chance hat, sich aus ihren kläglichen Lebensverhältnissen herauszuarbeiten. Alle Familienmitglieder sind extrem mit Problemen beladen; nicht nur, dass sie sich mit den üblichen Diskriminierungen wegen ihrer Herkunft herumschlagen müssen. Die Familienchronik ist mit Mangel an Verantwortungsbewusstsein, Drogensucht, psychischen Erkrankungen und sexuellem Missbrauch belastet. Obwohl diese Anhäufung von Schwierigkeiten innerhalb einer Familie übertrieben wirkt, ist es durchaus realistisch, dass so schwere Schicksale tatsächlich vorkommen. Die bedrückende Perspektivlosigkeit der Campbells hat Elizabeth George jedenfalls eindrucksvoll herausgearbeitet. Dabei gibt es in der Geschichte durchaus eine ganze Anzahl von Erwachsenen, die den drei Kindern helfen wollen: Alle scheitern jedoch kläglich in ihren Bemühungen. Und immer wieder liegt es an dem fehlenden Verständnis für die Kinder. Elizabeth Georges Hauptfigur Joel ist ein anständiger und verantwortungsbewusster Junge, der sich größte Mühe gibt, alles richtig zu machen. Letztendlich scheitert er an den feindseligen Bedingungen seiner Umwelt und daran, dass er mit seinen zwölf Jahren nicht die Verantwortung eines Erwachsenen tragen kann. Alle Sympathien des Lesers gehören Joel; man leidet mit ihm, während sein Leben und das seiner Angehörigen mehr und mehr aus dem Ruder läuft. Die Autorin beschreibt diese allmähliche Eskalation meisterhaft, wenn auch in gewohnt ermüdender Ausführlichkeit. Die Tragödie erinnert in ihrer Sozialkritik unübersehbar an Werke von Charles Dickens. Im Schlusssatz legt die Autorin Joel den resignierenden Gedanken in den Mund, dass sich unsere Gesellschaft nie ändern wird. Mit dieser Einschätzung dürfte er leider richtig liegen: Ganze Bibliotheken voll sozialkritischen Romanen könnten geschrieben werden, und trotzdem wird die Menschheit sich selbst treu bleiben.
    • 3/5
      Heartbreaking depiction of the hopeless and hapless lives of the underclass in today's Britain (not that it would be all that different in most of big cities of the world). A far cry from the bucolic world of Angela Thirkall, my favorite escape author. One would have to have a heart of stone not to empathize with the plight of Joel and his family. And the tragedy for Lynley hovers on the edge. I was not disappointed that it was not the usual George mystery; she has a right to venture out especially when it results in such a fine book.
    • 5/5
      Excellent page-turner--each page was interesting. There was irritating lower class British patois to slow you down tho. Three children, dumped on their aunt's porch try to survive as does the aunt, her boyfriend and various other, mostly interesting characters. England sounds violent, poor and horrible! (Sorry)
    • 2/5
      What Came before He Shot Her. Elizabeth George. 2006. Who would have ever thought I’d read a seven hundred page plus book on mixed-race immigrants in London? Not me. And I questioned the time I spent on this book most of the way through it. George is an excellent writer, and I enjoyed her style, and seeing how the British social services takes care of or tries to take care of troubled children. The pregnant wife of a policeman was gunned down in the middle of the day at her front door. The novel relates the events preceding the murder. The three Campbell children are left with their Kendra when their grandmother decides to go to Jamaica to be with her “man.” Kendra tries her best to take care of the trouble children whose mother is in a mental institution and whose father was killed by accident when he got in the way of a stray bullet during a drug exchange. Joel tries desperately to protect his older sister who becomes involved with drugs, illicit sex and shoplifting. His younger brother Toby is either mentally retarded are mentally troubled and is a magnet for bullies. The authorities though well-meaning are powerless against peer pressure and street culture. This was a fascinating but said book.
    • 2/5
      Don't think this was the best choice for my first Elizabeth Berg book. Grew weary of the British slang. The ending was not what I expected (which was good, I guess) but the book was way too long & the characters were not endearing.
    • 4/5
      This is a story about three siblings – Ness, Joel and Toby, who have had a difficult start to their lives. Their mother is in a mental institution and their father was killed in front of their eyes when he got caught in the cross fire of a gang battle. It is also the story of the various people who try to help them, and the frustrations of that process. And, of course, as the title suggests, it is the story of the buildup to a crime. It takes place in contemporary London.When the book opens, the children are on a bus with their grandmother. She has told them they are all leaving for Jamaica, but in fact she leaves them outside an aunt’s home, not waiting to see if anyone is there, and off she goes. To her great credit, the aunt, who has not been expecting this, and who is trying very hard to make something of her life, takes them in, finds space for them in her small house (she has been living alone) and gets them into local schools. But she lives in a really rough neighbourhood, and while she, as an adult, may be able to get on with life regardless, it’s not so easy for a 15-year old girl and a 12-year old boy, and both Ness and Joel are soon in trouble. Ness takes up with a major drug dealer to give herself some status and protection (and a source of drugs), then dumps him, which he does not like at all. Joel accidentally insults another street “tough”, who starts targeting him and his confused little brother. This leads to behaviour that looks “troubled” to the grownups, although logical enough within its context. The aunt, her friends, the schools, the social workers and the “system” generally try to help – job opportunities for Ness, creative outlets for Joel, special help for the very muddled Toby. But things just escalate. Joel’s efforts to save his family the “street” way are totally misguided, and build towards the crime of the title.For the first 350 or so pages (of 600+), I really liked this book. The main characters, and some of the minor ones, were well drawn, complex and developing, and the street situations were realistic and scary. It all felt depressingly plausible, and while I was rooting for the kids to be okay, I suspected deep down they probably wouldn’t be. I wanted to see what happened next. And, of course, I was intrigued to know who the He and Her of title were, and kept looking for clues (if you are a follower of George’s Inspector Lynley series you would probably realise who they are before you even start the book – I’m not, and I didn’t). But….it was just too long. Just too many of each type of event, which gradually made everything, and everyone, seem less realistic. And the denouement was really disappointing – not well written, not fully explained, jot really connected to the rest of the story at all. It should all have been much tighter, which would have kept the focus on the real tragedy of these children’s lives, and of the lives of those around them. Still, it was mostly a good read, and probably a better one for Elizabeth George fans.
    • 2/5
      Incredibly depressing. I'm assuming the author is trying to take her series into new territory, remaking her hero in the process. While this book answers the questions readers are left with from the previous book, it's not an uplifting read.
    • 3/5
      It is obvious that Elizabeth George did a lot of research about the slums of London and the police and social services units that serve them. Unfortunately she wants to put all of this knowledge right in front of you, making the the book twice as long as it should be. The novel is a predictable account of the decline and fall of three abandoned children with a family history of insanity to cope with. It is well written, but unremittingly depressing.
    • 3/5
      audiobook. Disappointed. Not usual Elizabeth George type story
    • 1/5
      I did not read it beyond 100 pages. I love E. George, but this is the second time I have tried to read this one and now I have given up for good. The first time I stopped because I was so angry that she killed off a main character that I especially liked and this time I just admitted that I was not taken with anything about it. She still writes so well, but not to any end this time.
    • 5/5
      Quite a change of pace. This is a "prequel" to George's previous Lynley novel, With No One As Witness. It doesn't feature the Lynley crew up until the very end. I thought it was excellent, a deep dive into its characters and their environment.