Books 13-14: Case Histories and One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson
Book 13: Case Histories (Jackson Brodie #1) .
Author: Kate Atkinson, 2004.
Genre: Crime Fiction. Detective
Other Details: ebook. 428 pages
Cambridge is sweltering, during an unusually hot summer. To Jackson Brodie, former police inspector turned private investigator, the world consists of one accounting sheet - Lost on the left, Found on the right - and the two never seem to balance. Surrounded by death, intrigue and misfortune, his own life haunted by a family tragedy, Jackson attempts to unravel three disparate case histories and begins to realize that in spite of apparent diversity, everything is connected… - synopsis from UK publisher's website.
The novel opens with three case histories and once we move to the present day private investigator Jackson Brodie is drawn into trying to solve them.
I loved this novel. It was a very character driven tale and like the more recent Cormoran Strike series has a down-at-the-heels private eye undertaking quirky cases. Although quite slow paced I was enthralled and found great pleasure in the experience. I plan to read this short series in the next few weeks.
Book 14: One Good Turn (Jackson Brodie #2).
Author: Kate Atkinson, 2006.
Genre: Crime Fiction. Detective.
Other Details: ebook. 386 pages.
It is summer, it is the Edinburgh Festival. People queuing for a lunchtime show witness a road-rage incident - a near-homicidal attack which changes the lives of everyone involved. Jackson Brodie, ex-army, ex-police, ex-private detective, is also an innocent bystander - until he becomes a murder suspect. As the body count mounts, each member of the teeming Dickensian cast’s story contains a kernel of the next, like a set of nesting Russian dolls. They are all looking for love or money or redemption or escape: but what each actually discovers is their own true self - synopsis from UK publisher's website.
The second in this series is subtitled 'A Jolly Murder Mystery' and was quite untraditional in its format of a cast of eccentric characters and mysteries that were nested within each other like the Russian nesting dolls that feature in the story. Again loved this novel finding it captivating. Atkinson is such a brilliant writer and I plan to read her entire body of work.