One Good Turn: A Novel
by Kate Atkinson
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Book Summary Information
Author: Kate AtkinsonEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-09-10
ISBN: 0316012823
Number of pages: 418
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Book Reviews of One Good Turn: A Novel
Book Review: SO much more than a murder mystery
Summary: 4 Stars
Just some quick back story...I did read "Case Histories" by Atkinson, which is the prelude to this book. I remember hearing RAVE reviews about that book, but I was disappointed by it. The story was interesting enough, but I just wasn't captured by any of the characters.
And this book...seemed to be the same way (except that I spent the first 124 pages trying to remember which characters were in "Case Histories" because I can't seem to find my copy)...until I hit page 125. And then - she got me. I was sucked in. At that point - I had to know what happened, had to know more about these very interested and extremely flawed characters. And? All the coincidences that were piling up were intriguing as well. Atkinson dances right up to the line of cheesiness with all of the coincidences...but doesn't cross it. Instead, she just got me turning the pages faster.
The magic of this book is that it is so well written that the reader doesn't feel guilty for devouring a page turning mystery. Descriptions like: "...the kind of books that Martin wrote, in the person of his alter ego, Alex Blake. They were old-fashioned, soft-boiled crime novels featuring a heroine named Nina Riley, a gung ho kind of girl who had inherited a detective agency from her uncle. The books were set in the forties, just after the war. It was an era in history that Martin felt particularly drawn to, the monochrome deprivation of it, the undertow of seedy disappointment in the wake of heroism. The Vienna of The Third Man, the Home Counties of Brief Encounter." So well written - I feel exactly what she is describing.
Also - there are little asides that each character has that are both insightful and humorous. "Gloria didn't believe in heaven, although she did occasionally worry that it was a place that existed only if you did believe in it. She wondered if people would be so keen on the idea of the next life if it was, say, underground. Or full of people like Pam. And relentlessly, tediously boring, like an everlasting Baptist service but without the occasional excitement of a full immersion." What seems like a serious musing has that twist of British humor that gets me every time.
Another example of that is this (also from Gloria): "She imagined the little factory of cells that was her body taking in the chocolate and fat and flour (and probably carcinogenic additives) and sending them off on conveyer belts to different processing rooms. This industry, dedicated to the greater good that was Gloria, was run on cooperative, profit sharing lines. In this model Gloria factory, the cells were a cheerful, happy workforce who sang along to Worker's Playtime from a Tannoy radio. They were unionized and benefited from subsidized housing and health care..."
In a mystery? I love it!
The characters of Gloria and Jackson were the most compelling to me. I kept finding myself wanting to steer them in different direction because I was worried about them. They were the most optimistic, sometimes absurdly so...and I wanted their hopes to prove true, even when pitted against certain doom.
Though I am nothing like an Anglophile, I always enjoy the feeling of tea, chintz, dark woods and musty drawing rooms that seem to accompany many books set in the United Kingdom. This book has that feel as well...plus many mentions of biscuits and takeaway. Which I am a sucker for.
Like I said, when I started this book, I was reminded of my disappointment with the first book. When I finished One Good Turn, however, I was filled with delight that there is another book coming in the series.
And the end? THE END? I sooooo didn't see that coming - but I loved it!!!!!
Summary of One Good Turn: A Novel
"Atkinson's bright voice rings on every page, and her sly and wry observations move the plot as swiftly as suspense turns the pages of a thriller."-San Francisco ChronicleTwo years after the events of Case Histories left him a retired millionaire, Jackson Brodie has followed Julia, his occasional girlfriend and former client, to
"Compelling and always entertaining." -
"One Good Turn crackles with energy and imagination." -
"Atkinson's tart prose sparkles." -Entertainment Weekly
"Entertaining both as a murder mystery and as a sprawling multi-character study in the best post-Nashville tradition." -The Onion
"A remarkable feat of storytelling bravado." -
Kate Atkinson began her career with a winner: Behind the Scenes at the Museum, which captured the Whitbread First Novel Award. She followed that success with four other books, the last of which was Case Histories, her first foray into the mystery-suspense-detective genre. In that book she introduced detective Jackson Brodie, who reopened three cold cases and ended up a millionaire. A great deal happened in-between.
In One Good Turn Jackson returns, following his girlfriend, Julia the actress, to the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh. He manages to fall into all kinds of trouble, starting with witnessing a brutal attack by "Honda Man" on another man stuck in a traffic jam. Is this road rage or something truly sinister? Another witness is Martin Canning, better known as Alex Blake, the writer. Martin is a shy, withdrawn, timid sort who, in a moment of unlikely action, flings a satchel at the attacker and spins him around, away from his victim. Gloria Hatter, wife of Graham, a millionaire property developer who is about to have all his secrets uncovered, is standing in a nearby queue with a friend when the attack takes place. There is nastiness afoot, and everyone is involved. Nothing is coincidental.
Through a labyrinthine plot which is hard to follow because the points of view are constantly changing, the real story is played out, complete with Russians, false and mistaken identities, dead bodies, betrayals, and all manner of violent encounters. Jackson gets pulled in to the investigation by Louise Monroe, a police detective and mother of an errant 14-year-old. There might be yet another novel to follow which will take up the connection those two forge in this book. Or, Jackson might just go back to France and feed apples to the local livestock.
Atkinson has written an enjoyable and lively story of no degrees of separation among the most unlikely cast of characters. Some plot lines have been left to drift, but it does hang together in a satisfying fashion. --Valerie Ryan
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