This is the first of Kate Atkinson’s books which I have read, and the first to feature the private detective Jackson Brodie. The book seems to start strangely, and you wonder what is going on: you are presented with three quite distressing ‘case histories’ – a young girl goes missing without trace; a young woman dies in an apparently senseless attack at a solicitor’s office; a new mother murders her husband with an axe. None of these stories seem related, but when the book proper starts, all of these tales are explored and are seen to intertwine. Enjoyable and well-written, with really interesting characterisation.

On the strength of this I went out and bought the other books in the Jackson Brodie series, all as ebooks, at a great price from Kobo Books. ( )

Disjointed mess ( )

(2004) BBC Masterpiece Mystery series based on this novel brought me to read it. Pretty good procedural that suffers from the constant jumping around of points of view and time the author uses from chapter to chapter. Will give others in series a try, but not a top read. (Booklist) Jackson Brodie, the world's most empathic private eye, who seemingly channels his clients' grief while attempting to provide closure. Addicted to the plaintive songs of female country-and-western singers and heartsick over the breakup of his marriage and his separation from his daughter, Jackson becomes friend and confidant to the people who seek his aid. One of his cases involves the florid, bickering Land sisters, who, after cleaning out their father's house upon his death, are stunned to find the bedraggled blue bunny that was their sister's most prized possession before she went missing 30 years ago. Another case concerns lonely, obese Theo, who, out of concern for his daughter's safety, insisted that she work in his law office rather than as a bartender, only to find that he put her directly in harm's way. As Jackson methodically tracks down decades-old clues, Atkinson employs omniscient narration to step in and out of crime scenes both past and present. Playful humor, an impressive technique, and an offbeat detective with a penchant for weeping are the most obvious pleasures of a page-turner that succeeds in being both brainy and thoroughly entertaining.

I like the writing, but this book didn't do a lot for me. The first few chapters are extremely strong, but the blend of zany humor and suspense didn't really work for me, and I didn't get much out of the characters' (poignant, to be sure) meditations on the lost girls whose tragedies propel the narrative. ( )

I came to this series of books from the TV adaptation. I had enjoyed the series and expected to find the books to be the same entertaining, but run of the mill, crime books. Imagine my surprise to find that they are so much more.

Yes, there is the expected crimes, each of which are brought to a satisfying conclusion but, there is so much more. The characters are not the cardboard cut outs that I am so used to meeting in books of this genre: they are 'real' people, doing things other than being a suspect.

I can't wait to read the next book in the series. ( )