What Came Before He Shot Her
by Elizabeth George
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Book Summary Information
Author: Elizabeth GeorgeEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2007-09-01
ISBN: 0060545631
Number of pages: 736
Publisher: Harper
Book Reviews of What Came Before He Shot Her
Book Review: A Wretched Look at Wretchedness in London
Summary: 2 Stars
If you read Elizabeth George because you like mysteries solved by Thomas Lynley and Barbara Havers, you should take careful stock before taking on What Came Before He Shot Her. This isn't another mystery of that sort in that series.
Instead, this is a modern version of Dickens in looking at the poor and downtrodden in London to see how bad genes, a horrible environment and rotten luck can combine to bring down those who mean well. In making that comparison, however, I must note that this book lacks the humor, wit and energy of Dickens.
In the books 548 pages, Ms. George does save some interesting surprises. But I didn't find those surprises worth wading through the first 250 pages to find.
So what is the book about? A grandmother has been raising three of her grandchildren after their father has been killed and their mother has gone off the deep end. As the book opens, the grandmother dumps the three on the doorstep of another daughter who is recently divorced while the grandmother heads off to Jamaica to be with her boyfriend. The oldest child is a fifteen-year-old, Vanessa (Ness), who finds herself fascinated by fashion, drugs and getting attention from men. Naturally, all that leads her into deep trouble. The middle child, Joel, is the surrogate father for his younger brother, Toby, who isn't quite right in the head. In suburban circumstances with a normal family life, Joel would have done well. But placed in an impossible situation, he finds that the family's troubles just escalate. As Joel tries to solve those problems, the problems just seem to get worse. Before the end of the book, Joel finds himself being drawn into the gang culture to achieve other purposes than furthering the gang.
To describe the book that way is to make it more interesting than it really is. I didn't find myself identifying with any of the characters. As a result, I found that I wasn't drawn into the story. I also found the dialect to be challenging to read and understand. I was tempted to stop before I got to the end. Having finished the book, I can see that that decision would have been a good one. This book just didn't work for me.
If you want to read a book about the problems of parentless children in London who live on the edges of society, this book may be of some interest. I suspect, however, that there's probably an autobiography of someone who really came from such a background that you can read . . . which would be more interesting and relevant.
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