What Came Before He Shot Her

Their father is gunned down. Their mother is institutionalized. Their grandmother dumps them with their aunt. Elizabeth George's prequel to WITH NO ONE AS WITNESS relates the turbulent lives of the Campbell children up to the climax of the earlier book: the murder of Inspector Lynley's wife, Helen. Narrator Charles Keating is every bit as believable as the harried middle-aged aunt, the grandmother heading to Jamaica, and the ferociously angry 15-year-old Ness as he is the overburdened 12-year-old Joel and 8-year-old Toby, a child with developmental problems. Audio is the smart choice for this grim story. On the page, British street slang might prove daunting, but Keating slips in and out of the argot of black London with dexterity. S.J.H. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine


In this involving and unusual Elizabeth George novel, Donada Peters offers her usual superb narration. In her last book, George killed off the wife of Inspector Thomas Lynley. In this novel, she explores how and why an engaging 12-year-old pulled the trigger. Not as much a mystery as a novel with social and psychological overtones, George succeeds in creating a tense story and a fascinating array of characters. Peters brings them all magnificently to life. These are the people of many colors who now typify London, and Peters never falters in painting believable audio portraits of street kids and aristocrats. In between the dialogue, her melodic voice and faultless timing add to the pleasure. A.C.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

August 7, 2006
Bestseller George (With No One as Witness
) departs from the usual investigative nuts and bolts of her Thomas Lynley and Barbara Havers mystery thrillers with this searing examination of the lives of one horribly dysfunctional family and their immigrant London milieu. Switching uncomfortably at times from dialogue in a rough patois to exposition in a language both formal and sociological, George delivers a stinging indictment of a society unable to respond effectively to the needs of its poorer citizens. Kendra Osborne, a 40-year-old woman with modest ambitions and plans to achieve them, has no idea how to cope when her mother "dumps" her sister's three children on her doorstep and heads for Jamaica. Fifteen-year-old Ness, 11-year-old Joel and seven-year-old Toby each have a wealth of problems exacerbated by their mixed-race heritage. It's no accident that George refers to Dickens on the first page of this earnest but perhaps overly didactic novel, which focuses on the burdens borne by Joel as he's swept by forces he can neither understand nor control into a fatal encounter. 8-city author tour.