The Jackson Brodie Series

Kate Atkinson 

Right, cards on the table! I can’t get enough of Kate Atkinson. I fell in love with her style and storytelling in ‘Life After Life’ and have voraciously consumed her work ever since. Having come to the Jackson Brodie series far too late with the latest, ‘Big Sky’, I have gone back to the beginning. ‘Case Histories’ is the first in what is currently a five-book series. I sincerely hope there will be more

Case Histories

‘Case Histories’ is a departure form Atkinson’s earlier work and involves three dark and gritty murders – two known, one presumed.  The counterbalance to these heartbreaking incidents is Jackson Brodie – ex-army, ex-police, ex-husband. Jackson believes there is a ‘ledger’ in life, with the lost in one column and the found in another. Having experienced tragedy of his own, as a teenager, he is the flawed hero who fights to right the wrongs. All three case are cold, very cold, and seemingly unrelated. But as the story unravels, connections begin to emerge.

Brodie is a reluctant Private Investigator unable to resist bringing truth and peace to his grieving clients. He’s compassionate and smart, with a policeman’s eye for detail, and a whole lot of personal baggage. Some of the characters are involved in this book only, whereas others (and I know this because I mistakenly read ahead!) appear in later novels. They come fully rounded with attributes, flaws and quirks. There are moments of intense horror as the murders are narrated by the clients themselves weaved into moments of humour. Atkinson’s social commentary is one of things I love about her style and is dropped in at regular intervals. The comments come mostly from Brodie himself, though one of the women who will have a role in his later life, has an off-beat perspective on life that acts as a foil and challenge to Bodie.

This is not a typical crime novel and is all the better for ploughing a different furrow. It is much less about the crime, the perpetrator and victim as it is about the survivors and how they continue to live their lives when they cannot reconcile with the past. A thoroughly consuming mystery and enjoyable read.

 One Good Turn

The second book in the Jackson Brodie series begins on the streets of Edinburgh during the festival. All the main characters are linked to one pivotal incident where a man performs ‘one good turn’: he saves another from a vicious beating during a road-rage incident. The events of that night set a disparate group of characters on new and different journeys. It is only as the story unfolds that connections between them begin to appear. A motif throughout is the matryoshka or Russian nesting doll, where each story contains the kernel of the next.

Jackson Brodie is ex-army, ex-police, an ex-husband and now an ex-private investigator on account of an unexpected financial windfall. Brodie is also bored and uncomfortable with his new lifestyle. He comes to Edinburgh to support his girlfriend, an actress, who is performing in an obscure play. For those who read ‘Case Histories’, she is a woman he met during his time investigating cold cases in Cambridge. He witnesses the road-rage incident too and when he has his own encounter with a dead body, he becomes involved with a female detective inspector from the local police service. Though under suspicion, Brodie’s charm and investigative skill allow him access to the details of the road-rage incident and other seemingly random crimes. The investigator in him proves not to be retired, after all.  The final chapters bring each story thread together resulting in a satisfying conclusion.

Brodie shares the story telling with several characters allowing each to reveal their own life story, attitudes and motivations. They are engaging and authentic, with lives and past experiences that feel real. They are all looking for change but, ultimately, discover their true self.

If you haven’t already read ‘Case Histories’ – the first novel in the Jackson Brodie series, STOP. Go back and start at the beginning. It’s worth it, I promise.

When will there be good news

When will there be good news is the third in the series of thrillers featuring Jackson Brodie – ex-Army, ex-cop, ex-husband to one woman and an ex-partner to several others. In this book, we also discover Brodie has a penchant for attracting huge dollops of bad luck.

Set in Edinburgh, the story initially focuses on a GP, Dr Joanna Hunter, and her nanny, Reggie Chase. Joanna Hunter suffered a terrible trauma as a child, which she chooses to keep hidden. Reggie is sixteen but old beyond her years as a consequence of her equally troubled past. Both dote on ‘the baby’, Joanna’s son. When Joanna suddenly disappears, Reggie is the only one who fears she is in danger.

Brodie shouldn’t be in Edinburgh at all. Nevertheless, he hurtles towards the city and into the lives of Joanna, Reggie and Detective Chief Inspector Louise Monroe. His last encounter with the latter, in One Good Turn, left their sizzling relationship unrequited. With Reggie as his unexpected, loyal and irrepressible sidekick, he helps unravel the mystery of Joanna’s disappearance.

The story is a celebration of strong women, surrounded by controlling, violent or weak men. Brodie is the exception, doggedly finding and saving the lost and endangered. There is a grand irony in his own fall into victimhood at the hands of a scheming woman.

As with every book in this series, the storylines twist and curl back and forth, bringing the lives of disparate characters together in a most satisfying way. At the same time, Brodie’s arc continues across the book series through his chaotic relationships, work and lifestyle.

Started Early, Took My Dog

This novel is the fourth in Atkinson’s detective series, featuring Jackson Brodie. Brodie shares the storytelling, mainly, with Tracy Waterhouse a recently retired detective superintendent. A smaller, role is given to Tilly Squires, an actress struggling with the early signs of dementia. The three story arcs intertwine, break away and come together in a final crescendo.

Brodie is looking for the birth parents of a woman in New Zealand, rescuing a dog along the way. Tracy Waterhouse is living out her retirement as head of security at a Leeds shopping centre. She comes to the rescue of Courtney, an abused child, but her Faustian exchange turns her life upside down. Tilly’s story is heartbreaking and appears to be tangential, until the final scenes where she also performs a rescue, of sorts.

Brodie’s search puts Waterhouse in danger, but not in the way she assumes. A separate timeline featuring Tracy and her work colleagues, set in the mid-seventies, brings back old crimes that can no longer be swept under the carpet. Both Brodie and Waterhouse attract the attention of people determined to keep the past secret.

Brodie continues to be a character with a good heart and a chaotic life, especially where relationships are concerned. Tracy is well-drawn as a battle-weary cop with a soft centre, who continues to be influenced by a murder that took place in 1975. Her fierce instincts to protect Courtney are both admirable and poignant. Courtney is beautifully characterised as a stoic child, used to sudden changes of plan, collecting ‘treasures’ along the way.

It is a story of identity and the role of family, particularly the part played by parents: birth and adoptive; present or absent; good, bad and indifferent.

 Big Sky

The fifth Jackson Brodie detective novel is the most recent and propels Brodie forward by nine years. His son, Nathan is now a surly teenager and his daughter Marlee is on the cusp of a wedding. Brodie remains a loner, a rescuer, a person plagued by accidental encounters that thrust him into intrigue and danger. When his story begins, sitting with Nathan at the side of a duck pond, gathering surveillance on a cheating husband, the reader has no idea how dark the storyline and his involvement in evil crimes will become.

For those who have read the entire series, we are treated to the reintroduction of characters from the past. Little Reggie Chase (Book Three) is now a detective constable; his on-off partner, Julia, ferocious protector of Nathan, continues to provide an amusing thread of internal dialogue for Brodie; and Tatiana, a Russian circus performer/femme fatal/possible assassin, who he met in Book Two, has a small cameo appearance. In addition we are introduced to an array of new subjects, three of whom appear to lead fairly normal, law abiding lives with common-place dramas, banality and mid-life relationship challenges who are the younger remnants of a paedophile ring thought to have been netted. When the daughter of a judge makes new allegations, the scene is set for Brodie and Reggie Chase (and her sidekick, DC Ronnie Dibicki – the Kray twins!) to unravel a new evil trade.

As before, there are minor characters that capture your heart. Whilst Nathan is monosyllabic and hooked to his iPhone, another teenage boy, Harry, is positively delightful, caring of his little sister, a friend with an eating disorder and slave to a beastly and politically incorrect comedian has-been. It is these gems who bring depth and delight to the whole.

Set on the north east coast around Scarborough, Bridlington and Whitby, it underscores the notion that bad things can happen anywhere. For me, the scenery was familiar – my grandparents and uncle lived in these parts. Atkinson deftly describes the faded glory of these seaside resorts, once teeming with holidaymakers from the industrial north, before the advent of package deals to Benidorm, and the like.