Book info

• Title Case Histories
• Author Kate Atkinson
• Year 2004
• Genre Mystery

Cambridge is sweltering, during an unusually hot summer. To Jackson Brodie, former police inspector turned private investigator, the world consists of one accounting sheet - Lost on the left, Found on the right - and the two never seem to balance. Surrounded by death, intrigue and misfortune, his own life haunted by a family tragedy, Jackson attempts to unravel three disparate case histories and begins to realise that in spite of apparent diversity, everything is connected...

Thoughts

I saw the TV adaptation of this a while ago - long enough that I had forgotten most of the plot, but not so long to stop scenes and images coming back to me as I read through. It’s a good start, with the three separate cases, and you wonder how they will be investigated and how they can possibly be connected.

It takes a long time for the story with Jackson to really get going, but the slow burn nature of it makes it that much more enticing towards the end. I liked that there was no huge showdown or big reveal, but Jackson just gradually worked things out, and then the stories were told in their own way around Jackson’s activities.

It’s a good read, intriguing, and with some unique and unusual characters. Jackson is the second protagonist I’ve read recently that is supremely over-protective of their child. Totally natural, particularly in his line of work, but it can make for some frustrating paragraphs. Nevertheless, overall, I enjoyed it, and might work on the next book in the series soon.

Rating: 3 / 5