Skip to main content

When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson

... the field of wheat had closed around her like a golden blanket. [Jessica] was lying with her arms around the body of the dog and their blood had mingled and soaked into the dry earth, feeding the grain, like a sacrifice to the harvest.
from page 11

When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson is actually the third book to feature British private investigator Jackson Brodie. I haven't read the other two. But Atkinson does not write or present this novel like your stereotypical series novel; it is not even your stereotypical mystery novel setup. The story is much more intricate and complicated with several threads of story unspooling simultaneously that in time are revealed to be connected. Each chapter generally shifts from one of three main characters' viewpoints until later in the book when the fourth main character's viewpoint is introduced.

Reggie is a lonely, isolated sixteen year old orphan; she works for Dr. Hunter as a mother's helper caring for Hunter's baby boy. Reggie's tragic history is revealed in pieces of flashbacks throughout the first part of the book.

Jackson Brodie, former soldier, former policeman, former private investigator and newly minted millionaire, is on a mission to prove that his ex-girlfriend's son is indeed his own despite her claims otherwise; ultimately, a massive disaster literally forces his path to collide with Reggie's.

Dr. Hunter, a general surgeon, has survived and thrived in spite of a past devastating tragedy that altered her family forever. Now that the man who caused that tragedy has been set free, Dr. Hunter is missing with her infant son; her squirrely husband appears unconcerned, but Reggie, who knows how to recognize trouble when she sees it, is very worried.

Finally Detective Chief Inspector Louise Monroe is obsessed with a domestic abuse case that sparks its own bloody, violent tragedy, and she searches for the husband involved in that case; meanwhile, a new case involving Dr. Hunter's husband and the mysterious burning of one of his businesses sets Monroe on the trail of this new mystery.

Ultimately the various mysteries set forth involving different characters take a backseat to the focus and attention that Atkinson gives to developing and illuminating her characters' inner lives. These intricately intertwined stories' connections are slowly revealed. This is a beautifully written novel with surprising turns of phrases that illuminate the characters' personalities and brings them to life.

I highly recommend this novel; and perhaps you'll even enjoy the two Brodie novels preceding this one. It is available upstairs in adult fiction here at the Matthews Public Library and upon request from Annville Free Library, Myerstown Community Library and Palmyra Public Library.

--Reviewed by Ms. Angie
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In The Woods by Tana French

"What I warn you to remember is that I am a detective. Our relationship with the truth is fundamental, but cracked, refracting confusingly like fragmented glass. It is the core of our careers, the endgame of every move we make, and we pursue it with strategies painstakingly constructed of lies ... and every variation on deception. The truth is the most desirable woman in the world and we are the most jealous lovers, reflexively denying anyone else the slightest glimpse of her. We betray her routinely ... This is my job ... What I am telling you, before you begin my story, is this--two things: I crave truth. And I lie." opening lines of In The Woods chapter 1, pages 3-4 In The Woods by Tana French, an Irish writer, is an extremely well-written and well-crafted mystery novel. The downside is that this is French's debut novel, and her website (located at http://www.tanafrench.com/ ) does not off...
24 comments
Read more

Broken by Karin Slaughter

Before I begin the formal review there are a few things I need to get off my chest in the wake of finishing this book; I'll do so without giving away too many (or any) spoilers. The OUTRAGE!: the identity of Detective Lena Adams' new beau; the low depths to which Grant County's interim chief has sunk and brought the police force down with him; agent Will Trent's wife, Angie's, sixth sense/nasty habit of reappearing in his life just when he's slipping away from her. Thank God for small miracles though because while Angie was certainly referred to during the book, the broad didn't make an appearance. One sign that I've become way too invested in these characters is that I'd like to employ John Connolly's odd pair of assassins, Louis and Angel, to contract out a hit on Angie; do you think Karin Slaughter and John Connolly could work out a special cross over? Hallelujah: Dr. Sara Linton and agent Will Trent are both back. There is no hallelujah fo...
3 comments
Read more

Generation Kill by Evan Wright and One Bullet Away by Nathaniel Fick

Non-fiction books aren't really my thing; generally, this is how my relationship goes with non-fiction books: I see a really interesting one, I borrow it, I start to read it, and then I ditch it a chapter or two later when the dry, boring writing and non-existent plot fail to hook me. However, this a review of two non-fiction books that I read back to back after a five year old three article series that I dug up on the internet; it was written by Evan Wright and preceded his book Generation Kill , which is basically a book version of the article series that he wrote and published in Rolling Stone Magazine . Recently HBO adapted Generation Kill into a mini-series that ran sometime last year; I got the series on DVD and in the midst of watching it, I decided I wanted to get my hands on the book to read. In the meantime, I stumbled across One Bullet Away by Nathaniel Fick, the lieutenant of the platoon that Wright embedded with, and I read that book while I waited for Generation K...
1 comment
Read more