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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780060545635
ISBN number: 0060545631
Label: Harper
Manufacturer: Harper
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 736
Printing Date: September 01, 2007
Publishing house: Harper
Release Date: August 28, 2007
Sale Popularity Level: 80201
Studio: Harper
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
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.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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I've read most of Elizabeth George's books and have loved them all. I think this might be my favorite. I had a hard time getting into it at first. I had to start over a number of times. Once I got past the rough start, I couldn't put it down. It's a great story. If you didn't understand the process of becoming a street thug, you will after reading this book. What a trap poverty is!
I'm all for authors trying new things and would like to see more of George's books with a "story behind the story" theme.
I think many negative reviews are a result false expectations.
Rated by buyers 
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I had read another of Elizabeth George's mysteries and mildly enjoyed it, and I very much enjoy the TV series "Inspector Lynley." This book was horrificly bad, horribly written. None of the characters seemed real, or interesting. The dialogue was painful. I read about the very first 75 pages, then skimmed through the rest just to see approximately what would happen. I was not rewarded by quality. Oh well, at least I only spent 25 cents for it at a bargain sale. Now I will donate it to charity for some other victim.
Rated by buyers 
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Though Elizabeth George thanks her editors for going along and supporting her decision to take up the Helen Lynley murder case once again, by digging deep into the London slum boy who committed the crime, anyone can read between the lines and imagine the strangled gasp of horror that must have attended the editors hearing this disastrous news.
They may have feigned enthusiasm to please a favored author, but inwardly they must have known what life would be like from now on. They would be forced to wade through hundreds of murky pages of seedy slumdwellers with improbable accents, the very bottom of the barrel sort of people whom their creator must have researched by multiple readings of LET NO MAN WRITE MY EPITAPH and also by watching Wesley Snipes in BLADE. Not since Nelson Algren have the lives of the wretched been told with so much camp value, and not since the days of Reconstruction has any white woman gone in and mangled so many clack and mixed race accents without a care in the world except telling a good story and pointing out racial injustice.
Oh well the world of the book editor, trying to rein in a bestseller with a bee in her bonnet, has never been a safe place, and these poor men and women probably at least told themselves, we will only be alienating about half of her former fans, and there will still be many more still standing to buy CARELESS IN RED, people who really love Barbara Havers and savor her interactions with Linley, and someday in the future the locution, "Jo-ell," will drop completely out of their brain banks.
All in all, it's a complete departure for Elizabeth George and a study in sociopathology to rival, well, not Dostoevsky.
Rated by buyers -
This book is a powerful and riveting account of what happens to children in poverty when they are faced with limited choices, inadequate or ineffective family support, and the laws of the street. The author absolutely knows and understands the issues of living in poverty, and indeed, she taught for many years in Santa Ana, CA. Part of the power of this book is the author's ability to empathize with her characters and explain their behavior to those who don't. But those of you who think this kind of environment is limited to the streets of West London, think again. Having worked and lived in poverty environments both in Boston, MA, and Long Beach, CA, I can attest to the similar challenges faced by our own urban poor.
Rated by buyers -
I read this book because I began to read "Careless in Red" and got the impression that I should read the prior book first. Oddly, I read "What happened before he shot her" and enjoyed it. I then started "Careless" and stopped reading it about a third of the way through. Enjoyed the other one though.
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