What Came Before He Shot Her
by Elizabeth George
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Book Summary Information
Author: Elizabeth GeorgeEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-08-28
ISBN: 0060545631
Number of pages: 736
Publisher: Harper
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780060545635
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of What Came Before He Shot Her
Book Review: Not what I exspected
Summary: 3 Stars
What Came Before He Shot Her by Elizabeth George was not a book I enjoyed reading, not because it wasn't well written, it was, but because the author and those who assisted her seemed to know so little about the life children lead in ghettos and slums. This gave the story a feeling of being viewed from a foggy periphery instead of pulling you into the action. The problems people face in the slums where this tale takes place are the same kinds of problems that all families, rich or poor, face. Dealing with obnoxious, rebellious teenagers and children with mental problems is devastating; no matter where you live and because of that the good kids are more likely to end up in trouble since the family is too busy dealing with the problem kids. Protecting children from child psychos and bullies are also problems parents face everywhere, but this story makes it sound like these problems are due to social inequity, which they are not.
In Well Schooled in Murder, George wrote a similar story, but it was better because you could recognize the motives and bonds of the school tie, the characters behavior fit the situations. That story happened among the rich, but it happened for the same reasons, setting this story in the slums made it sound like only poor people face these problems and the characters behavior didn't match up well with the situations. In slums, ghettos, hoods and gang turfs, people NEVER touch each other casually and Muslim girls do not offer friendship to boys they don't know. Also most people who stay in the `Hood' are chronic poor decision makers, pathologically afraid of change or just like the fast, easy life on the dole. Life is a numbers game and even in the slums, sometimes it all works out, but in this story every situation turned out badly and to top it off there was no ghetto humor to go with it. This made the characters appear like cardboard victims instead of the dynamic survivors most slum kids are. The middle class is loaded with people who grew up dirt poor and decided to change things.
There are also a lot of phony street rules in the story that never existed anywhere but in the movies. On the street there is only one rule; survive, if that means talking to the cops or teachers or social services that's what happens. The `don't tell' rule is pretty much a literary device; serious people just shoot anyone who knows something they shouldn't. Also drug dealers do not live in roach infested squats, they do business in the neighborhood, but make enough money to live well elsewhere.
I also thought that the author failed miserably by showing only one side of social services issue. What was left out is that there are parents that fear social services because they will put kids somewhere safe, where they get a clean bed, food and an education and maybe the kids will prefer that to stealing or turning tricks for money to pay the rent, after mommy or daddy blow the support check on booze, dope or dice. Lose two or three kids to social care and the parents lose a lot of financial support.
In today's world everyone pretty much knows that the difference between being born with money and opportunity and having nothing is not the only reason people end up in the slums, some poor people start life as rich people. There is a story behind every face and this book failed to tell any of those stories. The truth about social inequity is that everybody is born an individual and into an individual situation and what they make of their lives is up to them. If Joel was going to kill someone, the whole thing would have worked out better for everyone (including the author), if he just killed the guy who was threatening him in the first place. To be good, fiction needs to feel real and the truth is feeling sorry for kids just makes them feel sorry for themselves and makes them think the world owes them a living, which it doesn't. Having dysfunctional parents, being born poor, mixed or black, whatever, the kid made choices. He could have gotten social services to take him and his brother.
Summary of What Came Before He Shot Her
A kind and well-loved woman was brutally and inexplicably murdered?the pregnant wife of a respected police inspector?and her death has left Scotland Yard shocked and searching for answers. Perhaps most horrifying of all, the trigger of the weapon that killed her was apparently pulled by a stranger . . . a twelve-year-old boy.
The anatomy of a murder, the story of a family in crisis, What Came Before He Shot Her is a powerful, emotional novel full of deep psychological insights, a novel that only the incomparable Elizabeth George could write.
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