|
[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
Elizabeth George brought us to a tragic and shocking ending in her previous book, WITH NO ONE AS WITNESS, with the brutal and inexplicable death of Helen Lynley, Inspector Thomas Lynley's pregnant wife. WHAT CAME BEFORE HE SHOT HER is the account of nearly a year's worth of events which ultimately led to that horrific moment. At first, I couldn't help but wonder whether this book may have begun as an attempt to justify a decision that was sure to dumbfound even the most die-hard of George's fans. But in reading it, I found myself absorbed in a tale desperate to be told, where the means to the end were in no way a justification in the traditional sense and yet still seemed a logical sequence of choices in the skewed reality the central characters called home. The story follows the path of a young boy trying to keep his family intact despite their unfortunate circumstances. It opens with 11-year-old Joel Campbell, along with his teenage sister Ness and eight-year-old brother Toby, literally being dumped on his aunt's doorstep by his grandmother, who can't be bothered with the care of three children any longer and is on her way back to Jamaica. With their father dead and their mother in a mental hospital, the Campbell children have no one left to look after them save their well meaning but thoroughly under-qualified aunt. Each child deals with what he or she perceives as further rejection in a different way. Toby retreats into his own mind, a place called Sose where he spends a good deal of time away from the rest of the world and its dangers. Ness turns to drugs and wild boys, hooking up with a couple of rough girls and one very dangerous street thug known only as the Blade. Joel attempts to restore the normalcy they had come to know, but falls into an inescapable pattern of doing whatever he can to protect his siblings from the gangs and the street violence that eventually become the driving force in his life. Joel's primary antagonist is a boy called Neal, the boyfriend of a girl Joel meets at his new school. After a series of run-ins with the street-tough youth, the danger of their acquaintance escalates to the point that Joel seeks counsel from none other than the Blade to help sort Neal out. Unfortunately, to be indebted to the Blade entails the performance of a criminal act of his choosing, and Joel's choice to carry out his assignment is what leads to the story's unfathomably devastating conclusion. The tragedy of Joel's predicament is that he is convinced that the only way to handle matters is to become the very thing against which he's struggling in order to protect his family. He refuses the assistance offered by the fair number of adults in his life – his aunt, her live-in bodybuilder boyfriend, the social worker assigned to look into the Campbell children's situation, and his mentor, a soft appearing but intriguingly solid teacher from Joel's school – all of whom are ready and willing, albeit unable, to help him find a detour from the path to destruction that he inevitably chooses. George once again explores the darkness of violence as a consequence of choice with intricate depth and meticulous detail. She differentiates the castes of London, from the lowest street rats to society's upper crust, while illustrating the total lack of understanding between them, a testament to her ability to capture fully the essence of each character, both individually and as part of the whole. Her dialogue employs an exquisite use of the vernacular, especially in the language of the lower class, although at times Joel does seem to understand, think and speak at a level far beyond what a 12-year-old should be capable of. While the focus of this book is different from her series, George uses this opportunity to supplement WITH NO ONE AS WITNESS with the story behind the story and the unforeseeable but altogether inevitable decision that makes the death of Helen Lynley all the more catastrophic. In context, WHAT CAME BEFORE HE SHOT HER is not an account of the means to justify an end, but rather a compassionate look at the consequences of choices born from desperation.
Reviewed by J. B. Thompson, January 2007
[ Top ]
QUICK SEARCH:
Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]
| 
