What Came Before He Shot Her

The twelfth novel in the bestselling series that inspired BBC’s Lynley

The wife of New Scotland Yard’s Thomas Lynley has been gunned down in the street outside her home. Under arrest for the crime is a twelve-year-old boy, Joel Campbell.

What possible motive could he have? What chain of events could have led such a child from the housing estates of North Kensington to the elegant streets of Belgravia with such deadly intent?

The answer to these questions is a complex mixture of fate and circumstance. Abandoned by his parents, Joel and two siblings are dumped on the doorstep of his aunt’s house. He does his best to look out for his family, but something clearly isn’t right with his younger brother, Toby.

And when Joel desperately makes a Faustian pact, the devil comes to collect.

Praise for What Came Before He Shot Her

‘A very powerful novel’
Kate Mosse

‘It shifts the way you look at things – I was completely drawn into this world I knew nothing about and I’m full of admiration’
Sarah Harrison

‘A tour de force from a writer flexing her muscles as she’s never done before . . . Absolutely riveting’
Entertainment Weekly

‘Why haven’t I read Elizabeth George before? Maybe because someone told me she was a serious crime writer, and I listen to thrillers to escape, not to think. All this will change; she’s brilliant’
Sue Arnold, Guardian

‘George’s best since her debut. Read it and weep’
Kirkus