Synopses & Reviews
Two years after the events of Case Histories left him a retired millionaire, Jackson Brodie has followed Julia, his occasional girlfriend and former client, to Edinburgh for its famous summer arts festival. But when he witnesses a man being brutally attacked in a traffic jam the apparent victim of an extreme case of road rage a chain of events is set in motion that will pull the wife of an unscrupulous real estate tycoon, a timid but successful crime novelist, and a hardheaded female police detective into Jackson's orbit. Suddenly out of retirement, Jackson is once again in the midst of several mysteries that intersect in one giant and sinister scheme.
Review
"[A]n intricately plotted and quite amusing sequel....Although it's not as wonderful as its predecessor, this still makes for delightfully witty reading." Booklist
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"[A] soft-hearted thriller, short on menace but long on empathy and introspection....A technically adept and pleasurable tale, but Atkinson isn't stretching herself." Kirkus Reviews
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"Atkinson skillfully links the characters to one another, revealing twists from their various points of view, and in Brodie creates a likable star....Highly recommended." Library Journal
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"The pleasure here lies in watching the intricate branches of Atkinson's plot unfurl, and in savoring the tart, quirky character portraits that hang from them." Laura Miller, Salon.com
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"One Good Turn does some dawdling. Too much perhaps. Case Histories was a tighter book....This time Ms. Atkinson incorporates a good deal of the family histories of the characters, and some have similar backgrounds." Janet Maslin, The New York Times
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"Atkinson's tart prose still sparkles, but while all the plot pieces connect, they never quite click. (Grade: B)" Entertainment Weekly
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"One Good Turn and Case Histories lack a certain sense of ambition, of risk-taking, and use contemporary life without engaging it....Atkinson retains her always alluring style, but her vision has shrunk rather than expanded." Jane Smiley, The Los Angeles Times
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"One Good Turn crackles with energy and imagination." Chicago Tribune
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"Entertaining both as a murder mystery and as a sprawling multi-character study in the best post-Nashville tradition." The Onion AV Club
Synopsis
On a beautiful summer day, crowds lined up outside a theater witness a sudden act of extreme road rage: a tap on a fender triggers a nearly homicidal attack. Jackson Brodie, ex-cop, ex-private detective, new millionaire, is among the bystanders.
The event thrusts Jackson into the orbit of the wife of an unscrupulous real estate tycoon, a washed-up comedian, a successful crime novelist, a mysterious Russian woman, and a female police detective. Each of them hiding a secret, each looking for love or money or redemption or escape, they all play a role in driving Jackson out of retirement and into the middle of several mysteries that intersect in one sinister scheme.
Kate Atkinson "writes such fluid, sparkling prose that an ingenious plot almost seems too much to ask, but we get it anyway," writes Laura Miller for Salon. With a keen eye for the excesses of modern life, a warm understanding of the frailties of the human heart, and a genius for plots that turn and twist, Atkinson has written a novel that delights and surprises from the first page to the last.
Synopsis
Following her mystery debut Case Histories with this percipient, funny, and totally satisfying read, Atkinson once again features ex-cop turned private investigator Jackson Brodie except this time he is the prime suspect in a deadly crime.
About the Author
Kate Atkinson's first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, won the Whitbread First Novel Award and was then chosen as the 1995 Whitbread Book of the Year. She is the author of a short story collection, Not the End of the World, and three other critically acclaimed novels, Human Croquet, Emotionally Weird, and Case Histories. She lives in Edinburgh.