I enjoyed reading Death at the Sign of the Rook and I thought I would read the Brodie novels that I had missed. I listened to the audio version (it was very good).
Here’s the blurb …
Kate Atkinson began her career with a winner: Behind the Scenes at the Museum, which captured the Whitbread First Novel Award. She followed that success with four other books, the last of which was Case Histories, her first foray into the mystery-suspense-detective genre. In that book she introduced detective Jackson Brodie, who reopened three cold cases and ended up a millionaire. A great deal happened in-between.
In One Good Turn Jackson returns, following his girlfriend, Julia the actress, to the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh. He manages to fall into all kinds of trouble, starting with witnessing a brutal attack by “Honda Man” on another man stuck in a traffic jam. Is this road rage or something truly sinister? Another witness is Martin Canning, better known as Alex Blake, the writer. Martin is a shy, withdrawn, timid sort who, in a moment of unlikely action, flings a satchel at the attacker and spins him around, away from his victim. Gloria Hatter, wife of Graham, a millionaire property developer who is about to have all his secrets uncovered, is standing in a nearby queue with a friend when the attack takes place. There is nastiness afoot, and everyone is involved. Nothing is coincidental.
Through a labyrinthine plot which is hard to follow because the points of view are constantly changing, the real story is played out, complete with Russians, false and mistaken identities, dead bodies, betrayals, and all manner of violent encounters. Jackson gets pulled in to the investigation by Louise Monroe, a police detective and mother of an errant 14-year-old. There might be yet another novel to follow which will take up the connection those two forge in this book. Or, Jackson might just go back to France and feed apples to the local livestock.
I think these novels should be read in the published order. There were a couple of references in Death at the Sign of the Rook that passed my by when I was reading it, but I understand more now.
I enjoyed this. Atkinson is a fabulous writer who has a soft spot for her characters. It’s told from various perspectives, Jackson, Martin, Louise, Paul Bradley (although not much from him) and Gloria. Then there are the other characters, ‘Honda man’, Tatiana, Pam, Archie. It’s funny, but also moving, and it ends in a satisfying way.
I am definitely going to read the rest – in the right order!