Case Histories: A Novel (Jackson Brodie, 1)

I went into this with low expectations, because I thought the title was boring and the beginning was unpromising. Boy, was I wrong! This is a fascinating story with multiple narratives, tied loosely together by Jackson, an investigator who has some dark secrets of his own. Jackson has to solve the following mysteries: 1) Where is the child of a murdered father? 2) Where is a missing child? 3) Who is the killer of a teenage girl? The mysteries are all solved, in unexpected ways with big surprises, but it's not a plot driven book. The characters are fully developed and feel like real people. Although the beginning is a little stiff, Atkinson's trademark intelligence and dry wit take over pretty quickly. The book was a delight to read. I would say it was just as good as Behind the Scenes in the Museum, though completely different.

As an true and devoted mystery novel addict, I have had a growing annoyance with recent books in this genre; many have become predictable, boring, uninventive and sometimes just crass. Kate Atkinson has renewed my faith in the belief that a good mystery can be considered true literature as well as a real mental exercise. I was especially impressed by two elements in this novel. The first is simply the believability of her characters as full and faily regular people, most of whom carry emotional baggage not totally unlike the normal person. All characters appear to be returning from a trauma that has changed them and, in the short journey the reader takes with each one, they share a journey to realize who they are apart from their residual grief. The second source of ingenuity is Atkinson's gift for weaving a complex and compelling plot. The action of this story is vibrant and insists the reader tackle just one more page to see what's around this next bend. The grip of this story is immediate and intense enough to ensure that just the experience of reading becomes an active exercise of mind and heart rather than a passive, and sometimes frantic, turning of pages to get to the moment of revelation. The shape of the plot causes you to begin to care for all the characters whether or not you like them. All I know about myself is that I enjoy a great story. Atkinson's latest made me savor every page, especially once I realized how special and rare this work is. Just after I finished the last word I decided it wouldn't be a bad idea to flip to the first page and start over again.

Kate Atkinson's marvelous first novel, BEHIND THE SCENES AT THE MUSEUM, distinguished her as a gifted storyteller and a novelist to watch. Now, with her fourth work of fiction, CASE HISTORIES, Atkinson proves her mettle with a thoroughly engaging novel that is part thriller, part psychological study, and part consideration of the mysteries of fate. The novel opens with three "case histories." First come the Lands, the four daughters of a remote, unlikable Cambridge math professor. The youngest, Olivia, is universally beloved. When she disappears from a tent during a backyard slumber party, none of the Land sisters will ever be the same. The second case is that of Theo Wyre, a Cambridge solicitor who dotes on his younger daughter, Laura. He worries about her constantly: "He worried when she went out in a high wind that a piece of falling masonry might drop on her head, he worried that she would take a student flat with an unserviced water heater and die of carbon monoxide poisoning." That's why, when Laura takes a job in Theo's office during the summer before she is to start college, he's glad that he'll be able to keep an eye on her. Little does he know that what he imagines as the safest place for Laura will prove deadly. Finally, we have the case of Michelle Fletcher, a young mother who feels trapped by her marriage and her baby: "she hadn't 'bonded' with the baby, instead she was shackled by it." Isolated and lonely, Michelle snaps when her husband makes the mistake of waking the baby up from a nap. Some of these cases are more than thirty years old; others happened recently. Into the middle comes private detective Jackson Brodie, who, in the course of a few weeks, shifts from investigating adulterous wives and missing cats to pondering cases that the police had abandoned years ago. Jackson is having a personal crisis of his own, and he ends up getting personally and emotionally involved with too many of his clients. As the story unfolds gradually, shifting perspectives and timelines expose connections that no one had anticipated. Careful readers will delight in these revelations (one character reveals her identity by using a particularly odd metaphor, for example). All along, the careful plotting of Atkinson's story and the loveliness of her language make for a novel that is as thrilling as any mystery but has depth beyond most other thrillers. --- Reviewed by Norah Piehl

I bought this book in a mystery bookstore in Houston, TX. One of the managers of the store reviewed the book as her best of the year. I ultimately found the book to be less a mystery than a well-written and compelling story of the lives of some really interesting characters. The story was particularly resonant to me as the parent of young children.