Kate Atkinson

This new novel from award-winner Atkinson is a breathtaking story of families divided, love lost and found, and the mysteries of fate. As Private Detective Jackson Brodie investigates three cases, startling connections and discoveries emerge.

Case Histories

This is my kind of crime mystery: well written, deft weaving of multiple storylines and character arcs, the solutions as afterthought because the focus is on how the story changes the characters. Still, not the biggest fan of this genre, but I love Atkinson’s voice and tone as an author.

Margaux Yiu

Kind of lost it towards the end but overall enjoyed the literary detective vibe. Surprisingly funny.

Molly Bridge

A Novel

Lauren Grey

I bought this book in a book buying frenzy along with nine other novels. I have been slowly making my way through all of them. I really didn't have any expectations, because I don't normally read the genre nor have I read anything by the author. I have been wanting to get into mystery novels and this one came with some really high praise (specifically Stephen King), but I did not enjoy it at all.

A couple months after I bought this book, I opened it up and thought I would give it a try. After reading the first page, I wasn't very interested, so I put it back on the shelf and read something else. I try and read every book I buy at least once, so I decided to bring it with me to a babysitting job, because I would have nothing better to do than read. Well that was not necessarily the case...

This book put me to sleep. On multiple occasions I found myself dozing off on the couch. It is a mystery novel for crying out loud. I figured it would have me on the edge of my seat trying to guess what happened, but it didn't. I felt that the characters were very dry and extremely unlikable. The only character I even remotely liked was Theo Wyre.

I kept telling myself that the book had to pick up, that it would get better, that I was already this far, so I might as well finish it. Well the book did pick up in the last twenty pages or so. I really didn't care enough about the characters to want to find out what happened to them. I am proud of myself for sticking it out, but I don't think it would have mattered if I had given up on it.

The synopsis on the back of the book gives it so much potential, but I found it to be quite boring. The concept of cold cases was intriguing. I have seen every episode of the TV show Cold Case and I was excited to find a book that was sort of like that, but it wasn't- at all. I googled a character from the book and a link to BBC One popped up. Out of curiosity I clicked on it and sure enough there is a TV show dedicated to this series (which I had no idea this book even belonged in a series). Maybe the story would be better in a show format.

I didn't even like the writing style. I found it confusing and hard to follow.

I will admit that I liked how all of the characters ended up intertwining toward the end. At least, Atkinson tied up the cases and didn't leave you hanging.

In conclusion, this book completely bored me. I will definitely not be reading more of this author, but I plan to give mystery novels another chance.

Sian Wadey

Case Histories by Kate Atkinson

I won this book as part of a competition and I really wanted to read it because I'd recently watched the Case Histories series starring Jason Isaacs. The writing was superb, Atkinson really delves into the characters and you learn a lot about the families of those missing or dead. I'd say only about half of the book is Jackson Brodie. It's not a traditional crime novel, which is brilliant and instead it tells the story as if someone is speaking to you, with little injections of thought. This makes it really easy to read, although it didn't have 'the pull'. Maybe that was because I already knew the plot, so I knew who the killers were. Unfortunately this means that all of the Jackson Brodie novels, that have been adapted for the BBC, won't be five stars, however I am eager to read something without Brodie as the main character, so I can use my own imagination!

Sarah Erle

Minjae

Kay Sutherland

The first Jackson Brodie novel: literary crime from the prizewinning, number-one bestselling author of Big Sky and Transcription. '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 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. Surrounded by death, intrigue and misfortune, his own life haunted by a family tragedy, Jackson attempts to unravel three disparate case histories and begins to realise that in spite of apparent diversity, everything is connected...

Case Histories

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