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88 of 89 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Thoroughly enjoyable., October 29, 2004
This is my first venture at Atkinson, and I have to say she's a delightful writer to read. She really knows how to hook you.
The story opens with the accounts of three crimes from the perspectives of those who were there at the time. Then, in the present, we meet private investigator Jackson Brodie (a former police inspector) who is dealing with his painful divorce, serious dental problems, and his ever-maturing eight-year-old daughter. Jackson's perspective guides the rest of the narrative through new leads in the three cases, and it isn't long before all three cases are entwined via their connection with Jackson.
While this sounds like a stock mystery novel or something straight off a British crime drama, Atkinson's style offers a little more than the standard mystery fare. She leaps one perspective to another with admirable grace, always managing to keep the many characters and their intertwining narratives totally distinct and completely engrossing.
My only qualms with the story had to do with the plot itself: it's pretty easy to pick up the clues Atkinson drops, and thus, figure out the conclusion well before the ending; and as for the ending--it wasn't as satisfying as it could have been. But her writing is so fluid, by turns funny and poingant, that I couldn't put it down.
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61 of 63 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good but not Great, July 24, 2006
This is the first book I've read of Atkinson's, and while it's fairly entertaining, I'm not quite sure what all the hype is about. The story revolves around 30something ex-cop Jackson Brodie, who plies his private investigative skills in present-day Cambridge, England. He is called upon to look into three cases from the past, which are introduced in the three opening chapters. The first involves the disappearance of a small girl in 1970, the second involves the apparently random murder of teenage girl in 1994, and the third involves the whereabouts of a woman who killed her husband in 1979. As Jackson looks into these different blasts from the past, we also see him struggling with his personal life. Like so many fictional police and detective protagonists he's divorced and estranged from his ex-wife, and barely able to connect with his 8-year-old daughter. He also has a family secret in his past which is alluded to several times before being revealed at the end.
The cases are all quite dark, and Atkinson does a very good job of conveying the sense of sorrow and loss that surrounds each. Jackson pursues them without a lot of hope but with due diligence and as in so many procedurals, discovers threads to each that went unexplored. It's diverting enough, but many of the characters are somewhat superficial, which keeps the book from being as good as it might have been. In the first case, the father is the archetype distracted, brusque professor, each of the four sisters is a "type" (the golden child, the outgoing dramatic one, the repressed lost middle one, the weird religious one), and there's a crone who lives next door with a gazillion cats. In the third story, the murderess is a typical teenage mother with postpartum depression, and the victim is a typical dashing young man who settles down into a somewhat less dashing adulthood. Theo, the father of the victim in the second story is better developed, and a genuinely sympathetic character who still mourns the loss of his daughter. Perhaps most egregiously, we never really get to know Jackson all that well.
The chapters hopscotch between the different storylines, and the plot unravels in the manner of a good airplane or beach read. The writing is all very fluid and professional, although there's no sense of style to mark it. There's some nice bits of humor, some nice bits of human insight, a decent irony here and there. However, there are other elements that are rather clumsily handled, such as the true reason which is unveiled for the missing little girl from the first case, as well as the adult development of one of the two sisters, which is ridiculously forced. Similarly, the dark secret about Jackson's past is totally over-the-top and unnecessary, serving no real purpose in relation to his character. There's also a homeless girl who appears throughout the book whose identity should be pretty obvious very early on, and although Atkinson leaves it unspoken, it's kind of a groaner. To her credit, it's nice that she doesn't quite spell everything out and tie up every loose end in a neat bow. On the whole, it's fairly enjoyable, and I would read another set of Jackson Brodie investigations, but there's nothing particularly groundbreaking here. For a more interesting recent take on the modern British detective story, try Patrick Neate's "City of Tiny Lights."
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54 of 58 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very Enjoyable, Well-Written Character Studies in Mystery Format, December 30, 2005
The Washington Post review has it right. You will like this novel if:
--You enjoy strikingly crafted, humorous phrases that make you applaud the writer's insights regarding the human condition.
--You like stories written in non-linear fashion, where points of view and major characters change from one chapter to the next, incidents are not always revealed in the order in which they occur, new characters suddenly enter the story for no apparent reason, and you get to use your smarts to deduce what is happening. (Fear not; all is eventually and clearly explained.)
--Several engrossing mysterious threads keep you on edge to find out what the explanations are going to be.
--"Howtodealwithit"--conflicted, troubled people trying to straighten out their lives--is as interesting to you as whodunit.
You will not like this novel if:
--You want a slam-bang action thriller with little or no introspection by the characters.
--You're turned off by major changes in story line and characters from one chapter to the next.
--You'd rather not read about incest, (occasional) casual sex, and dysfunctional families with parents who seem incapable of giving love.
--You strongly object to unlikely coincidences that tie plot elements together.
Stephen King rated this as the best novel of the year in ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY. I couldn't put it down. This was my first Kate Atkinson novel, and I'm going to read all of her others.
Addendum to review: Sorry to report that I did not enjoy Atkinson's earlier novels; found them tedious, difficult, slow, hard to relate to. Think twice before buying any of them.
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