After the hanging

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.