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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
Excellent plot. Interesting characters. My only complaint might be the slowness of this story. The writing is excellent and I like how author tells the story from so many viewpoints. It is also pretty funny at times. A farce at times. Maybe a French farce. Or a Russian one. Of course people die so that's not funny. The situations are funny and coincidental and unbelievable.
I've loved just about every Kate Atkinson book I've read. This one is the follow-up to Case Histories, & once again features sometime-detective Jackson Brodie. I generally shy away from serial mysteries, but this is so much more than a typical murder mystery series. Atkinson's emphasis is always on characterization, fun with language, and playing with plot in interesting ways. I especially enjoyed this one because it isn't as filled with dark, random violence as the others in the series. There's death & murder of course - but somehow you end up feeling it's all sort of justified! There's also a lot of things in this book that are just plain funny. I highly recommend this if you like well-written mysteries.
This is the second book in the series and it was kind of a let down. Most of the characters from the first book (well, the ones that survived anyway) are in this one, but I just didn't find it to be as well written as the first one. I'm excited to find out what the third novel in the series has to hold!
Kate Atkinson’s second book about Jackson has an almost entirely new cast of charichters (I missed Theo dearly and deeply). I felt like certain aspects of this book were too similar to Case Histories and that Julia should have been dealt with differently, but I must say that it is entirely worthy sequel.
For the first third or so of this, very little seems to happen - we switch between an apparently unconnected series of characters, for reasons which do not readily seem apparent. That's not to suggest its boring - far from it; we luxuriate in fine character development, getting to know people, understanding them, feeling them. Then, as the plot draws momentum and the strands weave closer together, it becomes hard to put down. It remains, however, a brilliant character study with some sentences so good I wanted to read and reread them repeatedly. It's also touches on the idea of being a mystery story about writing mystery stories, hinting at parody towards the end and raising the lurking possibility that the author herself might make a John Fowles-like appearance in her own novel (she didn't). It doesn't reach the heights of Case Histories, but that's a high bar. It's still a cut above many of its type, and a great read in its own right.
One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson
One Good Turn is another dark little book of set pieces featuring (former) P.I. Jackson Brodie muddling his way through a confusing web of crimes, relationships and mysteries. Atkinson manoeuvres her large cast of characters into the inevitably violent climax in which everyone looks around in confusion: "You? Here? Why?".
This book was a joy to read and moved at a rip-roaring pace, never outstaying its welcome. While not shying away from the bleakly disappointing world's tendency to kick us when we’re down, there are some chuckles along the way to keep the spirits up.
Lovely stuff!
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ½
One Good Turn is another dark little book of set pieces featuring (former) P.I. Jackson Brodie muddling his way through a confusing web of crimes, relationships and mysteries. Atkinson manoeuvres her large cast of characters into the inevitably violent climax in which everyone looks around in confusion: "You? Here? Why?".
This book was a joy to read and moved at a rip-roaring pace, never outstaying its welcome. While not shying away from the bleakly disappointing world's tendency to kick us when we’re down, there are some chuckles along the way to keep the spirits up.
Lovely stuff!
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ½
I'm not as huge of a fan of this one as I was the first in this series, and so far, this series is definitely not my favorite from Atkinson. Still, I will give book #3 in this series a whirl.
I listened to this as an audiobook (which is fairly new to me), and one thing I realized is that I hate the use of music as an effect in audiobooks. Who knew I was such a purist? I also didn't love the narrator of this particular book, although I did like that his name was Robin, which is particularly apt.
I listened to this as an audiobook (which is fairly new to me), and one thing I realized is that I hate the use of music as an effect in audiobooks. Who knew I was such a purist? I also didn't love the narrator of this particular book, although I did like that his name was Robin, which is particularly apt.
Book 2 in the Jackson Brodie series. This one takes place in Edinburgh. I love a Scottish burr, and the narrator was excellent. The story was a little confusing to listen to, and the music at the end of each chapter was a little disconcerting. But I liked it despite of this. On to the next one.