One Good Turn
Ratings16
Average rating3.7
15
Ratings16
Average rating3.7
Case Histories, once again featuring ex-cop turned private investigator Jackson Brodie. It is summer, it is the Edinburgh Festival. People queuing for a lunchtime show witness a road-rage incident – an incident which changes the lives of everyone involved. Jackson Brodie, ex-army, ex-police, ex-private detective, is also an innocent bystander – until he becomes a suspect. With Case Histories, Kate Atkinson showed how brilliantly she could explore the crime genre and make it her own. In One Good Turn she takes her masterful plotting one step further. Like a set of Russian dolls each thread of the narrative reveals itself to be related to the last. Her Dickensian cast of characters are all looking for love or money and find it in surprising places. As ever with Atkinson what each one actually discovers is their true self. Unputdownable and triumphant, One Good Turn is a sharply intelligent read that is also percipient, funny, and totally satisfying.
Reviews with the most likes.
Her writing is a pleasure to read. If you like the genre she is a must read
Took me a long time to finish, which is saying. It's a detective novel set in modern Edinburgh during Art Festival. Technically book is very, very well written, full of background details for a dozen of main characters, but the main plot left me cold, it's just not engaging enough. Also, it's a story that treats every character with russian origin as some kind of “deus ex machina”, I'm getting tired of that.
I expect to enjoy this kind of crime stories much more when I get old, though.
I love Edinburgh and the return of Jackson Brodie pulled me in. I enjoyed the Dickensian way it ‘all comes together in the end', however Case Histories remains my favourite Atkinson novel thus far.
True, Case Histories was a clever, fun mystery, but I've been mysteried out for years. I suddenly found myself in the mood for light and clever and One Good Turn made a fortuituous arrival at my house. Exactly what I wanted. Characters so miserable they couldn't help but be based on real life. A bit of wit or wisdom on almost every page. No great truths here, but a perfect way to spend a cold wet afternoon.
Featured Series
6 primary booksJackson Brodie is a 6-book series with 6 primary works first released in 2004 with contributions by Kate Atkinson.
