One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson

This second in the series features the same main character, Jackson Brodie, as Atkinson's first foray into mystery writing. This one has Jackson following his 'girlfriend' to Edinburgh where she's acting in a performance at the summer arts festival. Again there is a disparate cast of characters who are related by unlikely plot threads, but the character development is excellent and the plot(s) keep you guessing. The 'good turn' is the throwing of a laptop case at a thug which stops him from killing another driver in a case of road rage. The thrower, Martin, is in a queue for a performance and the incident is viewed by the other characters in the subplots. The wide-ranging novel includes crooked developers, brides from Russia, writers and writing, acting, parenting, and of course the chain of events that 'one good turn' can set in motion, for good and for bad. And there's also a nice twist at the end! I'll be looking out for her newest mystery.

Case Histories by Kate Atkinson

I'm having trouble with series lately. I got One Good Turn out of the library, only to discover that it took place a couple of years after this first mystery novel by a normally 'literary' author. So I managed to get this one to read first. Great choice. Atkinson does write well--especially character creation which she used particularly well here. Each case history is a different murder, many years apart, all taking place in Cambridge, that are taken on by private investigator Jackson Brodie. At first I was somewhat bothered by the crossed paths of people, until I realized that the smaller, permanent (non-student) population of Cambridge make this quite likely. People do all see the same homeless girl on the street, or see other residents in the Emergency Room at the hospital. All the mysteries revolve around the family reactions to murder and grief, including parent-child and sibling relationships. If you are a mystery fan and love well developed characters, and are not bothered by plots that meander, this is an excellent book.

First of the new year

Well, it's not a great start for my project to record and review every book I read this year. I started Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. I'd been meaning to read it for ages because it's so highly praised. She has a follow up out now, so I wanted to read this one first. Boy, I don't know what mood I'm in after the holidays, because although I found her writing wonderful, it was such a slow read that I finally put it aside. I have a book I have to re-read for my book club and I knew I wasn't going to get to it at this rate. I needed a faster read, so I found one.