As I’ve said several times in these parts, I’m a bigger fan of the “whydunnit” than the “whodunnit.” The big reveal of the killer has never appealed much to me. I like to know what makes one person want to take the life of another. Murder is dismissed as a regular crime in fiction because of the prevalence of mystery novels but being an empathetic person, I need to have some sort of understanding as to the motivations of the players.
My love of the whydunnit was severely strained by Kate Atkinson’s Case Histories. It’s almost as if this book was a test to seek out the consistency in my tastes. Because in its entirety, it’s a whydunnit. Three (and then suddenly four) random cases that happen in the same geographical area over a period of 20+ years suddenly land in a private investigators lap. And he tries to solve them to varying degrees.
This book is really a study of family life and what it does to people. In that regard, Kate Atkinson can write. The characters are well-developed, as are their storylines. But she wants to tell this story in a non-linear fashion, which makes it difficult to keep up with what’s going on and why certain names are important. You get invested in one person and all of a sudden yanked to a different one. It made for an unsatisfying read at times.
This one got to the point where I actually was interested in the whodunnit, at least needing to know why these were connected. Without spoiling, that one isn’t resolved with closure, which usually doesn’t bother me but this time, it kind of did.
I guess the best way to put it is: I like what Kate Atkinson is trying to do here. I wish she had done it in a different way. I might have appreciated it more.