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What Came Before He Shot Her
Thomas Lynley Series #12

by Elizabeth George



      Inspector Thomas Lynley’s wife was brutally murdered for no apparent reason (With No One As Witness) by a twelve-year-old boy. This unveils the events leading to the murder.

Vanessa (15), Joel (11) and Toby (7) Campbell are abandoned by their grandmother Glory, who is about to depart for Jamaica to join her recently deported boyfriend. She leaves them with their 40 year-old aunt Kendra. The children hardly know her. She is decent and intelligent but ill-equipped to look after any children. She has ambition and plans to achieve them and cannot cope with these three. Their father was murdered in the street, and their mother is in a mental institution. Vanessa loses herself in alcohol, drugs, and becomes romantically entangled with the local drug dealer. Joel tries to keep peace in the family and tries to shoulder all their burdens. He makes a pact with the youngest, who has the greatest problems. The pack sets in motion the devastating crime.

This overlong book could be considered more of a treatise on the problems of the immigrant, poor citizens of Britain and its government’s inadequacy in coping with them than a mystery. George gives a stinging indictment of society’s inability to respond effectively to the needs of poor citizens. George has departed from her usual protagonists (Lynley and Havers) to examine this dysfunctional family. Lynley appears briefly as the husband of the murdered victim of the 12 year-old boy. This is a dark and chilling take on the desperation caused by the circumstances in the lives of this dysfunctional family and their immigrant London milieu. It is a tale depicting the predicament of the middle working class of Britain.

The Book

HarperCollins
Oct 2006
Hardcover
0060545623
Mystery / British Detective
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Excerpt
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The Reviewer

Barbara Buhrer
Reviewed 2007
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