One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

This is the second book that features Jackson Brodie as the main character. He first appeared in Case Histories. You could say he's the hero of the books, but doesn't really solve the crimes he's surrounded by.

The central inciting incident in this book is a car accident in downtown Edinburgh that is witnessed by many people. All these people, I think six or so, are given their own viewpoint chapters. And like Atkinson's previous book, she starts with the scene and then rambles on for page after page of back story so you are quite unsure of what is going on until you are back to the original scene. It's odd. But the writing is really good so you follow and try to keep up.

There is a lot going on in the story besides the car accident but it all ties back to that one scene. People die because of it. there are robberies. It unearths other stories. It's weird twisty I don't know where we are going sort of plot. But it all does come around in the end. But it's only right near the end that it all snaps into focus.

I will be reading further of Mr. Brodie's adventures.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

This story had far fewer viewpoint than the last one and was far easier to follow. Or maybe I'm just getting used to the writing style.

For a long time, I wondered what the mystery was going to be in this book. And it occurs almost as an afterthought. But like all of her other stories, the central mystery is at the center of a web of other stories. Jackson Brodie continues to appear and does do some actual work in this book, but he's got other stories going as well. You could say the main character is Joanna Hunter who watches her mother and sisters get murdered when she's a young girl. It could be Reggie's story, the young girl who takes care Joanna's baby. Detective Louise returns and again finds herself trying to clean up a mess that Jackson Brodie seems to be mired in.

Basically, Atkinson finds a bunch of characters and wants to tell their stories. She gives them involved back stories and lots of different motivations. And you see these characters through the eyes of the other characters as well as through their own monologues. It's all kind of a whirl of a story. This story was far easier to track and had some good twists.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

It's like you walked in on the middle of a conversation and you are trying to catch. And the story teller has no compunction about rambling on with back story and flash backs.

Jackson Brodie comes in by name about a quarter of the way through the book. Once again he seems to be flitting about in other people's story. Not seems to be. He is. This time Brodie is trying to track down the parents of a girl given up for adoption. His questioning makes people in the town of Leeds very nervous. But there are other stories too. There is the actress suffering from Alzheimer who has plenty of story but not a lot that connects to the main mystery but it does. There are the cops who are running scared from Brodie's question, but there are other murders happening in town. And one of the ex-coppers does something very unusual.

In the end, there are a lot of questions left unanswered. Brodie's mystery is solved but not really by him.

The problem is the books are really well written but they never wrap up neatly. I constantly wonder if there were clues for the mystery that I was supposed to solve and if I was a better reader I would have solved it. Grrrr.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Sounds like it needed a sword-fight or two.