Case Histories

I would've given this two stars, but two of the four cases had unexpected resolutions, so props for that. I was probably expecting too much and should've been tipped off by the ‘family saga' descriptor, which I guess is code for child abuse. I was expecting unconventional, morbidly funny, literary detective fiction, and got none of these things.

The funniest part of the book was the Land sisters' complete lack of sadness upon their father's death, and it went downhill from there. Jackson wasn't a terribly compelling character. The prose style was kind of unnoticeable to me, which is supposed to be a good thing, but it's kind of disappointing when the writing doesn't do anything more than get the job done.

There are no motives for the crimes in this novel, which I think may have been part of what bothered me. The narrative focused on those suffering the aftermath of the crimes, with little to none of the usual attempts at discovering the criminal's motivation. That's usually one of the key problems to be solved in detective fiction. Instead, Atkinson just described what really happened to tie up the loose ends. The detective angle seemed to be a slapdash addition thrown in to pull the stories together, without any actual detecting happening. Perhaps it was because these were all cold cases, but there was no interest in the criminals themselves, just the victims.

Should that really bother me? I haven't read enough detective fiction to know whether that matters, but it just seemed too – okay, fine, I'll say it – sentimental. Call me heartless, whatever; I have not the heartstrings of parenthood that most adults have, but it was too easy to see the tugging for it to work for me.