I'm writing this as a rebuttal to some of the reviews here.Much has been said about how bad and depressing this book is.I feel that these reviewers went into reading this book with the wrong expectations.This book is a description of a modern tragedy.It is very clear from the title and the back cover that this is the backstory of Helen Lynley's murder, that there is no happy ending to be found here.And how can the lead-up to a murder be anything other than depressing?

But the writing is brilliant.Time and again I found myself pulled along with the characters, wanting them to make better choices, even though I knew the ending in advance.If you're looking for a fun way to pass the time, this is not the book for you.But if you're looking for a book to make you think and feel and maybe cry a little; a book you experience, rather than just read; pick up What Came Before He Shot Her.

This is a definite departure from the Lynley series and is quite absorbing for the first several hundred pages. But I started to skim sections at around page 300 as situations and dialogue got repititious and the central action of the book was delayed beyond reason. It's admirable that George focused on a little-known aspect of British life, but some of the characters started bothering me--did all the black women have to have insatiable libidos? All the black men have to be either sociopathic or narcissistic? And the piling-on of misfortune was almost insulting to the characters: With such a litany of woe, one would expect a Columbine at the end, not a single murder. George is no Doestoevsky when it comes to exploring the criminal mind.
No, what was more interesting to me was why GEORGE chose to commit the murder in question. After lovingly crafting an interesting character over a series of books, she brutally kills her off for no real reason. Now George is forcing her readers to suffer through volumes of doleful mourning from a character who was never a barrel of laughs to begin with.
What's your excuse, Elizabeth?

This book has no sign of Thomas Lynley and is not even a mystery.Instead, it is more of a social commentary about poverty, broken families and the gang lifestyle in a fictional setting.Language was often unpleasant.Perhaps necessary for realism, but not enjoyable reading.If you want a crime, investigation and to puzzle out the solution to a mystery, I doubt you would enjoy this book.It is baffling why the author would turn a highly successful series into a soap box.I'd recommend getting this book from the library before spending money on it.I wonder why I actually read it to the end.

Elizabeth George returns to "With No One As Witness" with a parallel backstory on the boy who murdered Helen Lynley. It is more case study than mystery, a grim in-depth look at one family trying and failing to survive in an impoverished London neighborhood. George moves us into a dreary universe where the characters seldom mean well or do better. It is 548 pages of lowlife crime, personal failure and inevitable disaster and we are dredged through it all, detail - we are told that the teen character is destined to meet Helen Lynley on the fateful day and we never doubt that collision. The book is written for the most part in ghetto-speak ("She been keepn it dat way. We go 'n to Willesden no way in hell we c'n tell who be dere you walk in.") that is both lmited and difficult to navigate. This is NOT a Lynley-Havers book; Lynley never appears and Havers shows up on page 547 and never utters a word. the last line -- "he knew that what would happen next had been long determinded - is a poor excuse for this book. So much writing, so little interest.

(Some minor spoilers may be discussed) I've been a huge longtime fan of EG.I've been to her readings and have always respected her as a writer and a person.But I was sorely disappointed with this book.Sure, I'm a huge Lynley fan and would've preferred to see her continue the series without a break to try a new kind of genre.But I can appreciate that authors sometimes like to have projects like these.

That said, this book just didn't work.George is a great mystery writer - give us a killer, a whodonit, etc. and run with it.I also LOVE her character development... but the characters I care about are people like Tommy and Simon and all those who we've gotten to know through the series.I had a really tough time caring about the characters in this story.For a while, I felt like I knew Joel, but then never got a feel for the rest of them.What the heck was wrong with To and sometimes that can make for a good mystery, to see what happens leading up to it.But that only works for stories where you see things like how the murder played out.With this, it just was Joel's boring backstory for 500-plus pages.

I understand EG had to kill off Helen.Fine.But at least make the next book about how everyone dealt with her murder, as well as developing a new case.I felt like this was falsely advertised since it did mention Lynley on the cover jacket, too, and there wasn't a single mention of him.

I love EG, and can't wait for her next MYSTERY.But even loyal fans could pass on this one and not be missing a thing.