Big Sky
Private investigator Jackson Brodie is on an assignment to spy on a cheating couple. He has taken his thirteen year old son along with him. The son is bored and, quietly, so is Jackson. One night, he meets a desperate-looking man, standing at the edge of a crumbling cliff. Though Jackson manages to get the man off the cliff, the chance encounter leads him to something far more sinister.
I love Kate Atkinson and I’ve read the entire Brodie series up to this point, yet for some reason I had never finished this book. The thin stir stick from a Café Nero’s in London, where I bought this book, attested to the fact that I did start it (got all the way to page 39!), but at the time I was dragging four to five dozen students through England’s largest metropolitan area; I love that part of my job but it doesn’t exactly allow you to focus on anything other than herding other people’s children and stop them from accidentally throwing themselves onto the middle rail of the underground.
Anyway, that was in 2020, a few weeks before the whole Covid shitstorm occurred, and the book ended up lost in the mire that is my personal library. I picked it up again when I realised Atkinson had a new book out.
I enjoyed this one a lot. As the series has progressed, we’ve gone from wistful (Case Histories) to something akin to a well-written cozy crime. The whole cozy genre is not really my cup of tea, but Atkinson writes well enough that it transcends genre barriers. And Jackson himself is likeable, mild but inoffensive. A decent bloke with a knack for being in the right – or wrong, depending on your perspective – place at the right time.
The odd thing about this book is the tonal mixing that occurs. Most of it is quite light-hearted and most of the characters are actually quite sweet, like Crystal, a trophy wife to constructor Tommy. Crystal seems superficial at first, but we soon learn she’s both hiding a traumatic past, and she’s a lot braver than she gives herself credit for. She’s also stepmother to teen Harry, a smart kid with big aspirations who doesn’t really fit in. Crystal doesn’t understand him, not one bit, but she tries and she’s kind to him. There’s also Reggie, small but determined and indefatigable, and seriously annoyed with Jackson.
The entire book is almost farcical in the way coincidences happen, characters misunderstand each other and events collide. It’s a decidedly light-hearted romp, which is odd because at the heart of it is a horrible human trafficking plot. I’d complain about the tonal mixing, but Atkinson almost pulls it off, or at least comes close enough that I didn’t mind.
Death at the Sign of the Rook
This one is a more recent addition to the series. We meet characters we’ve met before (Reggie Chase, also present in Big Sky; callgirl slash superspy Tatiana; DCI and will-they-won’t-they Louise Monroe) and it’s like slipping into a warm bath, though in all fairness it’s been a while since I read parts 2-4 of the series and I’ve forgotten quite a bit about them.
Here, Atkinson goes full Agatha Christie: while tracing some stolen paintings, Brodie ends up in a mansion where a murder mystery is being performed. And wouldn’t you know it, someone actually dies. Don’t be deceived by this plot description; the murder mystery in the snowed-in mansion doesn’t happen until the last 20% or so of the book. Atkinson, as per usual, takes her time to let us get acquainted with the cast of characters: aside from Reggie and Brodie, there’s a former Major who lost his leg in Afghanistan and is still trying to cope with the aftermath; the Lady of the house, snobbish and befuddled by the world around her as her house crumbles; her suitably horrible children with names like Pierce, Cosmo and Agatha (who, in turn, has twins named Flora and Fauna); and the town Vicar, who has lost his voice after suffering a crisis of faith. Oh, and there’s a homicidal maniac running around on the moors, though that doesn’t really seem to gain much traction.
It’s a comforting read. It’s also deeply funny, from the dowager’s sneers (her son wants her to be like Maggie Smith in Downton Abbey. She’s worse) to the country Vicar, befuddled by his life choices). I do wonder how often Atkinson is going to give us Jackson Brodie obfuscating essential evidence to keep the technically guilty out of trouble. Other than that, it’s pure, light-hearted fun.