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Chris Lowndes built a comfortable career composing scores for films in Hollywood. But after twenty-five years abroad, and still quietly reeling from the death of his beloved wife, he decides to return to the Yorkshire dales of his youth. To ease the move, he buys Kilnsgate House, a rambling old mansion deep in the country. Involved in a massive work project before he left L.A., Chris had no time to view the property, relying on his capable real estate agent to handle the details.
Though he finds Kilnsgate charming, something about the house disturbs him, a vague sensation that the long empty rooms have been waiting for him - feelings made ever stronger when he learns that the house was the scene of a murder more than fifty years before. The former owner, a prominent doctor named Ernest Arthur Fox, was supposedly poisoned by his beautiful and much younger wife, Grace. Arrested and brought to trial, Grace was found guilty and hanged for the crime.
His curiosity piqued, Chris talks to the locals and searches through archives for information about the case. But the more he discovers, the more convinced he becomes that Grace may have been innocent. Ignoring warnings to leave it alone, he sets out to find the truth - a quest that takes him deep into the past and into a dark web of deadly secrets that is all too close to the present.
"Robinson has done swimmingly with his Inspector Banks novels, which routinely make best sellers lists and have won a bushel of key mystery awards, but this standalone could win him new readers - especially those looking for dark and twisty psychological thrillers." - Library Journal
"Robinson manages a melancholy tone without veering into the maudlin, and the presence of Grace Fox permeates every page." - Publishers Weekly
"[I]t has an exciting quest culminating in a shocking climax, underpinned with big issues of evil, punishment, retribution and self-sacrifice." - Oxford Times
"If Robinson is to turn out one-off novels as assured as this perhaps we wouldn't mind too much if Alan Banks was to retire and take up beekeeping in Sussex." - Daily Express
This information about Before the Poison was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: Marion Ettlinger
Peter Robinson was a Canadian crime writer born in Britain. He is best known for his crime novels set in Yorkshire featuring Inspector Alan Banks.
He has also published a number of other novels and short stories as well as some poems and two articles on writing. He was the winner of numerous awards in the United States, Britain and Canada. He died in October 2022 aged 72.
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