A clever story from Peter Robinson, a stand-alone that's not part of the Inspector Banks series.

Following his wife's painful death, composer Chris Lowndes returns from America to his native Yorkshire, buying, unseen, a rather remote house near Richmond. It turns out to have been the home of Grace Fox, hanged in the 1950s for murdering her husband.

The plot unfolds by the device of interspersing first of all a contemporary description of the trial, and later, Grace's own war time diaries (she was a nurse) with Chris's own tale: he becomes almost obsessive in wishing to discover te 'truth' about Grace's story.

As an investigation into this long-put-to-bed murder, it's involving and interesting. Chris's own developing love affair with Heather, and his detailed summaries of the music he's playing and the wine he's drinking are less so. He seems to have the leisure and the means to follow his whims at a moment's notice, and doesn't come over as a sympathetic person. But it's a good yarn, and one from which I learnt quite a lot about the role of nurses in the Far East during WWII.

A good page-turner. ( )

A fun read, good narrator. Very gothic. A different kind of mystery. Nice to have a twist on the genre. ( )

The Grace Fox murder case is so cold that hardly anybody still remembers it or, if they do, still considers it an open case — until Chris Lowndes, a Hollywood film composer, returns to England and unknowingly purchases the large house where Grace Fox supposedly poisoned her husband. She was hanged for the crime in 1953. Chris moves into the house in 2010.

This is the situation in Peter Robinson's amazing standalone novel “Before the Poison” (2012).

A fan of Robinson's Inspector Banks novels, I was initially disappointed when I started reading this book and realized it is not part of the series. Yet I was quickly engrossed and wondering why he hasn't written more novels that stand on their own. Before the Poison demonstrates even more clearly than his mystery series what a talented writer Robinson is.

Chris is a man not unlike Banks, especially when it comes to his love of music and his ability to solve mysteries. Unlike Banks, this man mourns his deceased wife and sees ghosts. Perhaps one of the ghosts is that of Grace Fox. At any rate, he decides Grace wasn't really guilty of murder and that there must be much more to the case than came out at the trial. And so he begins to dig.

Not many people remain alive who remember Grace Fox, but Chris travels to Paris and to South Africa to track them down. He works with Louise, Grace's granddaughter, who also wants to believe in her innocence.

In the end, Grace helps solve the mystery herself after her journal describing the horrors she experienced as a nurse in World War II is discovered

You wouldn't think the investigation of a murder case this old could have so many twists and turns and surprises, but Robinson gives us everything you might hope for. And more. ( )

A story without Alan Banks! A film music composer moves back to his native North Yorkshire from the USA, following the death of his wife from cancer. He discovers the remote House he's bought was the home of a woman hanged for murdering her husband in 1952. The story charts his search for the truth about the former occupants of his house, turning up surprising background details. An entertaining read. ( )

First half dragged for me but the second half was more engaging. I like his other books better. ( )