Sarah Broadhurst's view...
A 2011 World Book Night selection.
Wow! You are in for a treat here. Kate has a tremendous reputation but in my mind she has never really lived up to Behind the Scenes at the Museum, her Whitbread winner. Well now she has, and surpassed it. More plot-driven than is her norm, it has her expected trademark of glorious language and subtle humour, here all wrapped in the cloak of a literary detective story with a warm, original and totally believable private investigator, Jackson Brodie. It was shortlisted for the recent Whitbread Best Novel prize and was only pipped to the post by Small Island (you must definitely read that too).
Our Editorial Guru, Sarah Broadhurst, has suggested others book and authors that would be perfect for you to read next or to pass on the recommendation - so your gift will keep on giving enjoyment. Her selections for this title are: Louise Welsh, Reginald Hill
If you like Kate Atkinson you might also like to read books by Helen FitzGerald, Andrea Levy and Elizabeth George.
Who is Sarah BroadhurstSynopsis
Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
Investigating other people’s tragedies and cock-ups and misfortunes was all he knew. He was used to being a voyeur, the outsider looking in, and nothing, but nothing, that anyone did surprised him any more. Yet despite everything he’d seen and done, inside Jackson there remained a belief – a small, battered and bruised belief – that his job was to help people be good rather than punish them for being bad.
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.
Jackson has never felt at home in Cambridge, and has a failed marriage to prove it. Surrounded by death, intrigue and misfortune, his own life haunted by a family tragedy, he attempts to unravel three disparate case histories and begins to realise that in spite of apparent diversity, everything is connected…
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Reviews
‘Her best book yet, an astonishingly complex and moving literary detective story that made me sob but also snort with laughter. It's the sort of novel you have to start rereading the minute you've finished it’
Guardian
'Brilliantly detailed and unexpectedly funny'
Mirror
'Shot through with sharp, black humour, and introducing a loveable hero in Brodie, this is storytelling that satisfies at every level'
Marie Claire (Book of the Month)
‘As satisfying as anything dreamed up by Raymond Chandler, but the beauty of the novel lies in its spot-on characterizations, pitch perfect observations of contemporary culture and a sharp, wisecracking narrative voice’
Time Out
'Intriguing and affecting... she has also created a compelling central chracter in world-weary private investigator Jackson Brodie, who is determined to bring justice to all the lives that lie fractured around him'
Red (Book of the Month)
‘To read it is to enter a hall of mirrors…Part complex family drama, part mystery, it winds up having more depth and vividness than ordinary thrillers and more thrills than ordinary fiction…A wonderfully tricky book’
New York Times
'Perceptive and engaging'
Independent
About the Author
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Book Info
Publication date
1st June 2005Author
Kate AtkinsonMore books by Kate Atkinson
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Author's Website
www.kateatkinson.co.uk/
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Publisher
Transworld Publishers LtdFormat
Paperback432 pages
Categories
Thriller / SuspenseCrime / MysteryLiterary FictionRelationship StorieseBook Favourites
Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)ISBN
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