Okay so started this book not knowing that it was included in a series of books she writes involving a detective..I believe I have read another one of her books and loved it and do still appreciate her writing style, I just kinda had a problem with the plot, or lack thereof..In this book you follow the lives of three troubled children whose father is dead and their mom is institutionalized, they are dropped off by their grandmother with their aunt who is forced to uproot her life and begin to ra More...

Let me start by saying that I am a loyal fan of Elizabeth George. I started reading her mysteries in high school, and even had the fantastic opportunity of interviewing her for a high school research paper. I have been to her readings a half-dozen times in a number of different cities. I will read anything she publishes.

This is the second book of hers that I just didn't like. The other one was a collection of short stories called I, Richard. I was completely onboard to love this book. In her las More...

I have always enjoyed the mysteries of Elizabeth George. She writes the types of stories that are more about the characters than the mysteries. She invites you into the lives of the detectives, the victims and even the perpetrators. In this novel, she leaves the mystery genre to explore the life of the 12-year old boy responsible for the murder of one of her primary characters. She takes you deep into the live of North Kensington, a poor, working-class neighborhood in London and shows the strugg More...

This was quite possibly the worst book I have ever read. Not because it was badly written. It was actually very true to life and I was easily able to picture what was happening.

However, it was so damn depressing. You know that the main character, Joel, shot someone, that's the whole premise. But the book starts way before that, leading up to the shooting. I wanted to scoop up Joel and take him away from his life, to try and save him. He was a good kid, all he was trying to do is keep his family More...

At first, pure shock factor carried this book. I got through it, but it was the worst Elizabeth George book I have read. Oh sure, she did her homework and the details were there and all of that stuff she does so well. But I read George for the mystery part of her books. This was more akin to a novel and it wasn't my cup of tea. I guess it all boils down to this: this book was supposed to show the background of a person guilty of a crime and how his circumstances led up to this crime. The reality More...

I quite like Elizabeth George so I thought I'd see if WCBHSH could justify the the conclusion of With No One As Witness. Well written and compelling but I found it a little too bleak. And at its conclusion, there isn't the slightest inkling of hope for any of the Campbell children. In particular, Joel (who is so well-intentioned) and Toby. While I wasn't expecting a happy ending, it would have been nice if she could have thrown us a bone for at least one of the kids. Perhaps the problem is that More...

Sommige kinderen worden geboren als adolescent om er bij het begin van hun tienertijd achter te komen dat hun leven al voorbij is. Naast een spannende thriller is dit verhaal ook en vooral een sociale aanklacht. In Londen leven mensen – niet toevallig vooral van buitenlandse origine – in de schaduw van weelde en spilzucht terwijl hun eigen toekomst weinig hoop biedt op ook maar iets meer dan het strikt noodzakelijke om te overleven.
De volwassenen hebben de klok rond hun hoofd bij de vraag hoe z More...

I may have to mark this one "will not finish" rather than "on hold." Can we say "false advertising"? The dust jacket implies that this book is part of the Inspector Lynley series, and I suppose it is, in a very peripheral way, but about a third of the way into it, having had nary a mention of any of the usual cast of those books, I flipped forward and found that apparently Lynley et al do not feature in it until perhaps the last few pages, when their lives collide with that of the main character More...

This is such a sad book also. If you are keeping up with the Inspector Lynley series, you have to read this book. In it, everything changes for Inspector Thomas Lynley & Barbara Havers. Inspector Lynley & his wife are expecting their first child & she's all excited trying to figure out what the baby should wear at it's christening. Should she go along with the clothes her mother-in-law has sent to her, that all the Lords have worn through the generations, or should she start a new tr More...

What Came Before He shot her, by Elizabeth George. A-plus.
Borrowed on CD from the public library
I think this book is the best one Elizabeth George has ever written. The concept for it is intriguing as well. In her last book, “With No One as Witness” we saw the unfolding of the needless and tragic shooting of Inspector Lindley’s wife. We learn that the alleged shooter is twelve years old. In this book, Ms. George takes us back for an explanation of how this shooting occurred. Hence, “What Came Be More...

I read lots of novels, but I regard most of them as snacks - they don't stay with me very long. This one, however, has. I've read most of Elizabeth George's books, and am familiar with her characters, I think they're even a TV series. But this book was so different. The 'Her' is one of Ms George's well-known characters, but you don't really know that until the last few pages of the book.

The story is that of Joel and his older sister and younger brother. Their dad was murdered, their mum's in a m More...

I am a big fan of Elizabeth George and will read anything that has her name on the cover.

That said, I was disappointed with What Came Before He Shot Her. First of all, it isn't so much a mystery novel as an answer to the question: "Why would a twelve-year-old boy walk up to a complete stranger and put a couple bullets in her belly?" Second, the story was too noire for my taste. Normally when I'm reading one of her books, I'm incapable of putting it down; this book, I had no choice but to put it More...

I was terribly disappointed in this book since it previewed a character I liked -- Inspector Thomas Lynley (the death of his wife) -- but, he barely makes it into the novel. The book is considered a "mystery" but it is a long, drawn out account of a very dysfunctional family set in the slums of London. No spoiler, but the 12 year old Joel is the person who kills Inspector Lynley's wife and the first half of the book is spent primarily on describing his anti social sister who becomes involved in More...

Having advance warning that this book is not part of the Lynley series, but gives a background (or second point of view) of one of the things that happens in Lynley's life, I found this book amazingly brilliant. I should not have been amazed. Elizabeth George is a spectacular writer.

I was so ensconced in Joel's life that I could not stop thinking about the book when I was not reading it. Whenever I had a free moment, I wanted to be reading it. When I had a free moment, and had committed to doing More...

Scotland Yard detective Thomas Lynley is all but missing from this novel, and critics aren't sure what to make of his absence as well as that of most of the other popular series characters (only two of Lynley's police sidekicks appear__as minor walk-ons). The majority of critics cite this psychological crime novel as a deeply disturbing and unrelenting, yet illuminating, portrayal of a dysfunctional family and of the ways its members can go tragically astray. Two reviewers, however, cited a disc

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The first paragraph of "What came before he shot her" reads:

"Joel Campbell, eleven years old at the time, began his descent towards murder with a bus ride. It was a newish bus, a single decker. It was numbered 70, on the London route that trundles along Du Cane Road in East Acton."

I was hooked, and I hung on to every word through 548 pages, trying to guess which of the various "she's" in Joel Campbell's life would get shot. Not telling if I guessed right or wrong!

This was a fascinating read. I w More...

If, in any given year, I find an author that I recognise I will definitely seek out again, then it’s a real bonus. Elizabeth George is this year’s Le Carre, Bill James, Robert Wilson or James Lee Burke. I knew after a hundred pagers that this was writing of a class above the norm. A crime thriller, but much more than that, there was a realistic edge to the characters that made you interested both in them and what happened to them. Wrecked lives which, in an effort to be untangled, just tangled u More...

I think that listening to this book made a difference. It drew me into the lives of the characters, and so real their lives were. I am not sure that one can tag this book as entertaining, as it was so very real and with reality there is true heart break and frustration. I read another review that said that this was the worst book she had read not because it was awful but because it was so depressing. Reality is often not pretty. It is a story reflecting life and one that is to often repeated aga More...

I've read all of Elizabeth George's Lynley novels, and even though I didn't like the one in which He Shot Her very much, I quite liked this one - however, I went into it without any expectation for it to be in any way related to the Lynley story. I know that some of my friends were immensely bored with this because it does not advance the long saga of Lynley and Havers. If that is what you expect, you will find it long and unsatisfying.
Also, you shouldn't expect this to be a crime novel as such, More...

4 & 1/2 stars. 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 More...

Although this book has to do with a crisis that has affected Inspector Thomas Lynley's life, it is more about the tragedies of another family connected with the crisis. The story reveals the three Campbell children: half breed
children living with their Aunt Kendra in North Kensington in London.
The children's grandmother dumps the kids on the aunt's doorstep without warning to anyone, so that she can run off to Jamaica with her boyfriend. Kendra is unprepared to take on her dead brother's childre More...

Some spoilers included here though they are vague. I gave this book 3 stars only because it is true to Elizabeth George's excellent writing skills. I started several times to abandon it. I found it sad and depressing and almost without a redeeming virtue. There were, however, a few characters trying to help the inhabitants of this poor housing area but were unsuccessful. I grieved for the family whose story was told in this novel. Each individual seemed to take one step forward and two steps bac More...

I am a avid reader of the Inspector Lynley books and although this book was completely different, I thought it was not only well written - but one of her best. It is not easy to read, and the subject matter is depressing; however, it actually tackles and shows how a child can transition into someone who can do horrible things.

The actions this child took were horrific, but his life offered offered poor choices that were difficult to escape. It is too simplistic to say that one thing or another co More...

Took me a bit to get into this one... not because it isn't about Lynley and Havers and the crew, but because I had already read a following book, and so I know the 'her' that gets shot, so I was a little leary to read such a tragedy.
But this is still a haunting story, and a tragedy in it's own right. The lives of those just barely getting by, skulking along the fringes, trading in goods and services for lack of cash. Not a new culture, but not a culture that everyone sees. A reminder of the grit More...

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 More...