Before the Poison - Couverture rigide

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. (Barry Forshaw, Daily Express)

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 (Wall Street Journal)

With adept professionalism, Robinson brings to the reader a story that is tantalisingly unravelled like a poisoned present . . . a haunting, moving tale that will get you thinking days after the last word has been read (crimesquad.com)

'Most admirers of Robinson will find themselves utterly involved in this haunting, textured mystery . . . 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.' (Barry Forshaw, Daily Express)

A gripping tale of guilt and self-sacrifice, it will haunt you to the final page - and beyond (Bella)

'Together with a stunning landscape, vibrant characters and an evocative story, Robinson has created a highly intelligent and well-crafted standalone novel . . . Gripping stuff and highly recommended.' (www.milorambles.com)

With adept professionalism, Robinson brings to the reader a story that is tantalisingly unravelled like a poisoned present . . . a haunting, moving tale that will get you thinking days after the last word has been read. (crimesquad.com)

'Admirers of the author will find themselves utterly involved in this haunting, textured mystery.' (Good Book Guide)

'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' (Wall Street Journal)

'Robinson outdoes Daphne du Maurier in creating the proper atmosphere for the imaginative fancies of a grief-stricken man. Winds wail, snows fall and floorboards creak, accompanied by the melancholy strains of the sonata Chris is composing on Grace's grand piano. But it's not all shadows on the wall and creepy sound effects. Once Chris gets his hands on Grace's journals, written when she was a battlefield nurse in World War II, the ghostly revenant whose presence he feels in the house is swept aside by the vital woman who emerges from these pages. So, in a sense, romantic suspense does turn out to be a woman's game -- but one Robinson plays very well indeed' (New York Times)

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.

Although Chris 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 discover what really happened over half a century ago—a quest that takes him deep into the past and into a web of secrets that lie all too close to the present.