304th out of 673 books
—
445 voters
Before The Poison
Through years of success in Hollywood composing music for Oscar-winning films, Chris Lowndes always imagined he would come full circle, home to Yorkshire with his beloved wife Laura.
Now he's back in the Yorkshire Dales, but Laura is dead, and Chris needs to make a new life for himself. The isolated house he buys sight unseen should give him the space to come to terms with...more
Now he's back in the Yorkshire Dales, but Laura is dead, and Chris needs to make a new life for himself. The isolated house he buys sight unseen should give him the space to come to terms with...more
Hardcover, 436 pages
Published
2011
by Hodder & Stoughton
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A shift here, from Peter Robinson's long-reliable Inspector Banks series, which has ranged all over the mystery map thru the years-- from fairly blunt procedural policiers to psychological novels where crime is simply a vehicle for deeper investigations ...
This one is what's called a 'standalone', or non-series endeavor, with no repeat characters. These are often the best way to gauge an author's prowess and range. Known and consistent series-detectives are their own continuing drama, notching...more
This one is what's called a 'standalone', or non-series endeavor, with no repeat characters. These are often the best way to gauge an author's prowess and range. Known and consistent series-detectives are their own continuing drama, notching...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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Chris Lowndes, a grief-stricken widower, returns to England after living in the United States for 25 years and enjoying a successful career writing theme and atmospheric music for movies. He wants to move back to the Yorkshire dales where he grew up and he buys an old, neglected mansion called Kilnsgate House sight unseen. After moving in, he discovers that Grace Fox, once the mistress of Kilnsgate House, had been found guilty of poisoning her husband, Ernest, 50 years before and had been hanged...more
This is the first book I have read by Peter Robinson, and I'm not familiar with his other books. I notice there are many people who enjoy his Inspector Banks novels; he seems to have quite a loyal following. I was impressed by his writing, which was sure and capable. Unlike several other reviewers, I enjoyed the minutiae he included: the protagonist's taste in music, movies, food, and most of all, fine wine and assorted spirits. I also liked the concept - it isn't exactly new territory, an old c...more
"Before the poison" by Peter Robinson tells the story of Chris Lowndes, a successful Hollywood musical score writer who moves back to his homeland England after the death of his wife after a long and painful illness. Having bought an old mansion in the Yorkshire dales sight unseen, he gets a big surprise to find out that one of the house’s previous mistresses, Grace Fox, was hanged in the 1950’s for allegedly poisoning her husband. Haunted by Grace’s ghostly presence in the house and his own dem...more
May 20, 2012
Tony
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
fiction-crime-detection
BEFORE THE POISON. (2012). Peter Robinson. ****.
I’ve been reading Peter Robinson’s series detective novels (Inspector Banks) for a long time. Here he comes with a stand-alone mystery that doesn’t disappoint. It’s about a quest into history that involves a fifty-year-old crime. Chris Lowndes is a successful composer of film scores for Hollywood. He has recently lost his wife to a long illness, and decides he needs some time off to think and compose music that “people actually listen to.” He goes...more
I’ve been reading Peter Robinson’s series detective novels (Inspector Banks) for a long time. Here he comes with a stand-alone mystery that doesn’t disappoint. It’s about a quest into history that involves a fifty-year-old crime. Chris Lowndes is a successful composer of film scores for Hollywood. He has recently lost his wife to a long illness, and decides he needs some time off to think and compose music that “people actually listen to.” He goes...more
I thoroughly enjoy the "Inspector Banks" series. I have mixed feelings about this one. The characters simply do not ring "true". The storyline is very interesting in those sections dealing with Grace Fox, but Chris seems a sort of a "milk toast" type.
The character of Chris is the problem for me. I had to keep checking the year of the story, because Chris didn't seem to know about internet use in completing his research, until fairly well into the novel. "Heather" seems like the sort of fantasy l...more
The character of Chris is the problem for me. I had to keep checking the year of the story, because Chris didn't seem to know about internet use in completing his research, until fairly well into the novel. "Heather" seems like the sort of fantasy l...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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Chris Lowndes is a successful film score composer, well-known in the business and financially very comfortable. Having promised himself he'd return home at the age of sixty, he buys an isolated country house near the Yorkshire town where he grew up. He hadn't expected to be doing it without his wife at his side, but she'd died a few months earlier. He goes anyway, telling himself he needs solitude to work on the piano sonata he's always wanted to compose.
Having completed the purchase well before...more
Having completed the purchase well before...more
Peter Robinson has made his name with his Inspector Alan Banks crime novels. Banks is a brooding, intelligent detective inspector who loves music. In this stand alone novel, we meet Chris Lownes who has returned to his native Yorkshire after the death of his beloved wife, Laura.
Chris spent 25 yrs in Los Angeles as a composer for films - the kind of music nobody remembers as someone says to him. He hasn't retired, but he's decided it's time to reconnect with his native country. He buys a home in...more
Chris spent 25 yrs in Los Angeles as a composer for films - the kind of music nobody remembers as someone says to him. He hasn't retired, but he's decided it's time to reconnect with his native country. He buys a home in...more
Received for Review
Overall Rating: 4.00
Story Rating: 4.25
Character Rating: 3.75
First thought when Finished: That last half of this book was really well done and kept me riveted!
What I Loved: I can't really go into detail about what I loved about Before the Poison or the review would be full of spoilers. I will say there is a distinct point in the middle of the book where we start reading parts of Grace's journal that really, in my opinion, made the book start to sparkle. I was riveted and intrig...more
Overall Rating: 4.00
Story Rating: 4.25
Character Rating: 3.75
First thought when Finished: That last half of this book was really well done and kept me riveted!
What I Loved: I can't really go into detail about what I loved about Before the Poison or the review would be full of spoilers. I will say there is a distinct point in the middle of the book where we start reading parts of Grace's journal that really, in my opinion, made the book start to sparkle. I was riveted and intrig...more
Before The Poison
How many years has Peter Robinson been writing exceptional mysteries? I don’t know but his new book, Before The Poison is a perfect example of why he’s a master crime novelist. Once you have recovered from the grief caused by realizing that Robinson’s new mystery is not a DCI Banks novel take a deep breath and climb aboard.
Before The Poison follows newly widowed Chris Lowndes as he leaves a long, successful career as a composer for films and returns to Britain. Since the death...more
How many years has Peter Robinson been writing exceptional mysteries? I don’t know but his new book, Before The Poison is a perfect example of why he’s a master crime novelist. Once you have recovered from the grief caused by realizing that Robinson’s new mystery is not a DCI Banks novel take a deep breath and climb aboard.
Before The Poison follows newly widowed Chris Lowndes as he leaves a long, successful career as a composer for films and returns to Britain. Since the death...more
“Before the poison” by Peter Robinson follows Chris Lowndes, a widower Hollywood musical score writer who moves back to England after becoming a widower—only to get swept up in his new home, called Klinsgate, and its dark history. Back in the early fifties, Grace Fox was hanged for poisoning her husband, Dr. Ernest Fox, in this very home and accused of being an adulteress with her young lover Sam Porter.
When Chris sees a picture of Grace, she reminds him of his wife Laura and he becomes obsesse...more
When Chris sees a picture of Grace, she reminds him of his wife Laura and he becomes obsesse...more
Before the Poison, by Peter Robinson, a-minus, narrated by Susan Lyons, Toby Lennet Moore, produced by Harper Audio, downloaded from audible.com.
Chris Lowndes is an Englishman who lived in Los Angeles for 25 years becoming famous as a film score writer. But his wife died, and he moved back to England and bought a house in the country. The house hasn’t been lived in for a while, and he finally learns, after having purchased the house, and after having seen a ghost, that the house wouldn’t sell be...more
Chris Lowndes is an Englishman who lived in Los Angeles for 25 years becoming famous as a film score writer. But his wife died, and he moved back to England and bought a house in the country. The house hasn’t been lived in for a while, and he finally learns, after having purchased the house, and after having seen a ghost, that the house wouldn’t sell be...more
Peter Robinson usually writes the Inspector Alan Banks series set in England. This book is a deviation from Alan Banks. This story involves the hanging of a young wife for the poisoning of her much older husband. Robinson writes two stories: the one set in the 1950;s and the other set in 2010. An old English manor ties the two stories. The 2010 story involves a grieving widower who watched his beloved wife succumb to cancer. Chris Lowndes, a composer of musical scores for American movies, has de...more
I’m not much of a mystery reader, but if I do read a mystery I tend to avoid series writers as they often tend to be formulaic. So when an honored mystery writer comes along with a standalone I am more apt to give it a try. In the case of Peter Robinson’s latest Before the Poison I’m glad I took the chance. Best known for his Inspector Banks novels Robinson is indeed a celebrated novelist, and Before the Poison is sure to win him new admirers. Chris Lowndes has spent twenty-five years in the Sta...more
Diverting his attention from the popular and successful Inspector Banks series, the author has written a murder mystery of a different genre. Instead of a police procedural, he has undertaken to use a variety of literary devices to unravel the truth behind a death that took place sixty years ago.
It begins when Chris Lowndes, reeling from the death of his wife, decides to buy a home on the Yorkshire Dales. He purchases Kilnsgate House, a large, bleak, isolated structure in which he hopes to recov...more
It begins when Chris Lowndes, reeling from the death of his wife, decides to buy a home on the Yorkshire Dales. He purchases Kilnsgate House, a large, bleak, isolated structure in which he hopes to recov...more
Not a Banks mystery, something different but wonderful.
Peter Robinson shows how versatile his writing can be, but has many constants from his Bank's series to keep readers comfortable. Constant with the hero Chris Lowndes and Inspector Banks are their love of many types of music, movies, and curiousity of why people behave the way they do.
Each chapter is divided into two parts. During the first half of the book the first part was a historical record of Grace Fox's trial in the 1950's, the second...more
Peter Robinson shows how versatile his writing can be, but has many constants from his Bank's series to keep readers comfortable. Constant with the hero Chris Lowndes and Inspector Banks are their love of many types of music, movies, and curiousity of why people behave the way they do.
Each chapter is divided into two parts. During the first half of the book the first part was a historical record of Grace Fox's trial in the 1950's, the second...more
I've been a fan of Peter Robinson's Inspector Banks series for a long time but I didn't enjoy the last two books (All the Colours of Darkness, Bad Boy)as much as the earlier ones. When I requested Before the Poison from the library, I assumed it was the next Inspector Banks and was perhaps a bit disappointed to find that it was a stand-alone novel. But once I started reading I wasn't disappointed at all! The story mainly takes place in Yorkshire just like the Banks novels but otherwise Robinson...more
Peter Robinson has long been one of my favourite authors and I pick up anything with his name on it, knowing I'll be in for a good read. His latest book Before the Poison, is not part of his series featuring Inspector Banks, but is instead, a stand alone work.
Chris Lowndes left England when he was younger for the United States. He made quite a name for himself as a movie score composer. When his wife dies, Chris decides it's time to return home to England. He and Laura had planned to retire ther...more
Chris Lowndes left England when he was younger for the United States. He made quite a name for himself as a movie score composer. When his wife dies, Chris decides it's time to return home to England. He and Laura had planned to retire ther...more
This is a wonderful novel with a very interesting mystery. Chris Lowndes left England decades ago and has a successful American career writing music for films. Following his wife's recent death, he has decided to return to his home country and has bought a large house in rural Yorkshire. As he settles in, he learns that a previous owner of the house, Grace Fox, was tried and hanged for murdering her husband. The story intrigues him and he wants to know more. As he locates and reads a write-up of...more
Chris Lowndes had been making a lucrative living in Hollywood writing the music for big-budget films and his dream had always been to retire to his native Yorkshire to try his hand at more serious composition, with his much-loved wife Laura. However, Laura had died, and we meet him when he returns to England alone, struggling with his grief.
He buys an old mansion, Kilnsgate, in a lonely spot near some kilns on the moors. He learns that sixty years ago, a woman who lived there, Elizabeth Fox, wa...more
I, personally, had never read any of Peter Robinson's books prior this novel. 'Before the Poison' is written as a stand alone and that was right. The book is a complete and satisfying experience all in one story.
It opens with a Hollywood composer returning home to England after many fulfilling years in California. The Character, Chris Lowndes is sixty and a new widower. The draw to continue his life in England in the Yorkshire dales is a mystery to his mother and brother, but, you quickly realiz...more
It opens with a Hollywood composer returning home to England after many fulfilling years in California. The Character, Chris Lowndes is sixty and a new widower. The draw to continue his life in England in the Yorkshire dales is a mystery to his mother and brother, but, you quickly realiz...more
Although I read one of Peter Robinson's Inspector Banks mysteries some years ago (In a Dry Season), I confess that I don't remember much about it, other than that it concerned a crime in the past.
Before the Poison
is a stand-alone, and what attracted me to it was that same kind crime-in-the-past setting. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch proclaims that Robinson is “The equal of legends in the genre such as P.D. James and Ruth Rendell,” and it’s obvious from the first chapter alone that Robinson has...more
The narrator of this novel, though not an omniscient one, is Christopher Lowndes an Oscar winning composer and a native of Leeds in Yorkshire. He has moved back to Yorkshire in October 2010 after 35 years in Hollywood and buys Kilnsgate House near Richmond.
He discovers that Doctor Ernest Fox had died in this house on January 1, 1953 and that his wife Grace Elizabeth had been tried and convicted of poisoning him. Grace was hanged on April 23, 1953.
Chris Lowndes being a very imaginative fellow soo...more
He discovers that Doctor Ernest Fox had died in this house on January 1, 1953 and that his wife Grace Elizabeth had been tried and convicted of poisoning him. Grace was hanged on April 23, 1953.
Chris Lowndes being a very imaginative fellow soo...more
I have greatly enjoyed the PBS series, DCI Banks, which is based on the novels of Peter Robinson. I decided to read one of his books and picked this novel, which is a stand alone. The result was a very entertaining read and greater admiration for the author and his writing skills.
Chris Lowndes was a successful movie score composer in Hollywood. After his wife's death, he decided to relocate to the Yorkshire area of his younger days.
He purchases an old mansion and finds that many years ago, it wa...more
Chris Lowndes was a successful movie score composer in Hollywood. After his wife's death, he decided to relocate to the Yorkshire area of his younger days.
He purchases an old mansion and finds that many years ago, it wa...more
Peter Robinson writes the Inspector Banks series. He has also written a few stand alone novels and Before the Poison is one of them.
Chris Lowndes is a semi-retired composer who has returned to his native England after his wife's death. Sight unseen, he buys a large home in the Yorkshire countryside. After he moves in, Chris finds out that Kilnsgate was formerly the home of Grace Fox who was hanged for the murder of her husband, Dr Ernest Fox. Chris dives into Grace's history and is soon obsessed...more
Chris Lowndes is a semi-retired composer who has returned to his native England after his wife's death. Sight unseen, he buys a large home in the Yorkshire countryside. After he moves in, Chris finds out that Kilnsgate was formerly the home of Grace Fox who was hanged for the murder of her husband, Dr Ernest Fox. Chris dives into Grace's history and is soon obsessed...more
Through years of success in Hollywood composing music for Oscar-winning films, Chris Lowndes always imagined he would come full circle, home to Yorkshire with his beloved wife Laura.
Now he's back in the Yorkshire Dales, but Laura is dead, and Chris needs to make a new life for himself. The isolated house he buys sight unseen should give him the space to come to terms with his grief and the quiet to allow him to work.
Kilnsgate House turns out to be rather more than he expected, however. A man die...more
Now he's back in the Yorkshire Dales, but Laura is dead, and Chris needs to make a new life for himself. The isolated house he buys sight unseen should give him the space to come to terms with his grief and the quiet to allow him to work.
Kilnsgate House turns out to be rather more than he expected, however. A man die...more
I give Peter Robinson's "Before the Poison" a 3 star rating only. I thought the use of the journal in revealing the wartime experience of Grace Fox was the book's strongest points. The story of Grace and her experiences with the men in her lives kept my interest throughout this well-written novel. I sensed that this novel was a quite personal novel for Robinson through the character of Chris. As the narrator mentions his favorite novels or movies, which were nearly all British, I could identify...more
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Peter Robinson was born in Yorkshire. After getting his BA Honours Degree in English Literature at the University of Leeds, he came to Canada and took his MA in English and Creative Writing at the University of Windsor, with Joyce Carol Oates as his tutor, then a PhD in En...more
More about Peter Robinson...
Peter Robinson was born in Yorkshire. After getting his BA Honours Degree in English Literature at the University of Leeds, he came to Canada and took his MA in English and Creative Writing at the University of Windsor, with Joyce Carol Oates as his tutor, then a PhD in En...more
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“The only difference was, you could play the music again and again; a life plays only once.”
—
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Jul 04, 2012 07:15pm
Sep 18, 2012 10:49am