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 Before He Shot Her” as a title.
The Campbell children are met with bad fortune from the beginning. The three children, Vanessa, Joel, and Toby, are mixed race children. Their father is west Indian, and their mother is White. Their father is shot and killed because he is in the wrong place at the wrong time. Their mother has a psychotic break and is committed to a psyche ward. The children must move in with their grandmother who is more interested in her useless husband, George and his pals. And when her husband decides he wants to go back to Jamaica and offers Glory a chance to go with him, minus the children of course, she dumps the three children, without warning to them, or to her daughter, upon Kendra, the only member of the family who is managing to pull together and make something of herself. There are tensions from the beginning with first Vanessa getting in with the wrong crowd and aligning herself with The Blade. Then, after she leaves him, (something a woman never does, not to mention a 15-year-old girl) the Blade takes it out on their family. Joel and Toby are having their own trouble with Neil Wyatt, who took an instant dislike to Joel, and who threatened to harm Toby as a way to get at Joel. Joel, the one child of the three who had potential, figured out that he would have to align himself with the right people in the street to protect himself and his brother. And therein lies the tragedy of this book. I know it sounds like hyperbole, but the tragedy of this book is of the magnitude of Shakespearean tragedy. The worst of it is that there are people along the way who want to help each of the children, including the police and their social worker, and their aunt. But the help is too little too late. This book describes the harshness of urban street life for mixed race children in London. The haves and have-nots are different in different cities, but this book describes the tragedy of children who must make adult decisions too early, and who live with mistakes that they, or other family members, make. It’s not so much a mystery as a character study. I don’t know if Elizabeth George plans to let us know what happens to Joel and the rest of the family in future books. I don’t know if the Lindley-Havers series is at an end. It will be interesting to see what Elizabeth George does next.