The WSJ Picks Its Poison
And it comes in the form of Peter Robinson's latest, Before the Poison:
“With this stand-alone novel, Mr. Robinson—best-known for his award-winning Inspector Banks mystery series—has fashioned a gripping tale that brings to mind not only old-time Hollywood but also British "golden age" storytelling in the Agatha Christie and Daphne du Maurier tradition.”
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FULL REVIEW: Old movies loom large on the mental landscape of Chris Lowndes, the chief narrator of Peter Robinson's ambitiously structured and captivating "Before the Poison" (Morrow, 358 pages, $25.99). British-born Lowndes lives in Los Angeles and composes film scores in the manner of such moody 1940s and '50s maestros as Bernard Herrmann and Franz Waxman, at least when his Hollywood bosses let him. But then, after the death of his wife, he moves back to England. He buys an old estate in a remote reach of Yorkshire and soon falls under the spell of the house's history. In short, he begins living a story redolent of the old movies he loves—romantic and suspenseful classics like "Vertigo," "Rebecca" and, yes, "Laura."
Entranced by a portrait of Grace Fox, the house's mistress from 60 years ago, Lowndes learns that this beautiful woman was hanged for the poisoning murder of her husband, a doctor. She is said to have killed him because he had discovered her affair with a young artist.
Lowndes, out of a compulsion he can't quite comprehend, begins exploring the dead woman's story. He interviews elderly locals and pores over old documents with the resourcefulness of a private detective. "You're certainly going to some lengths in this business," a potential new girlfriend, already jealous, observes. "Have you fallen in love with a ghost?"
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– Annie
