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When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson
3rd Jackson Brodie mystery

Pages: 348
First Published: Sept, 2008
Genre: mystery, psychological suspense
Rating: 5/5

First sentence:

The heat rising up from the tarmac seemed to get trapped between the thick hedges that towered above their heads like battlements.

Comments: This is the story of three women, one who survived a brutal family crime when she was a child, another who recently experienced the same and one who grieves from a particularly unsettling sudden family death. While all three characters are delved into; it is the grown woman who finds that her past is about to meet up with her present when the criminal’s release date from prison (after thirty years) comes and goes. She is advised to get away for a while just to make sure she’s safe and can keep her mind off it and then the next day she simply disappears without a word to anyone. The local DI believes her advice was taken, one person thinks she’s been kidnapped and one person knows what really happened to her. This is a thrilling ride of psychological suspense.

I found the setting of Scotland to be very interesting and different as most of my crime reading takes place in either England or the US. The Scottish way of life certainly added a unique flavour to the story. The writing is skillful as the author slowly releases a plot that unravels page by page. The reader does not know where the story is going until each secret is revealed. Even though the story slowly unravels I still found this to be a page-turner as I couldn’t help but need to know just where this story was going and where it would end up.

Each chapter is written from the point of view of several different characters. This is a little bit unsettling at first as each of the first few chapters seem unrelated but when connections are made a light goes off in your head and you realize just how intricately interwoven the lives and crimes of several people are intertwined. Simply brilliantly written. I will be going back to read the first two books in this series quite soon.

When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson , 348 pages

Jackson Brodie, previous detective from Case Histories and One Good Turn, is back for Kate Atkinson’s newest novel. The title hints at the bad news following some characters that permeates this page turner. There are some desperately sad people in this book, and as several stories overlap and intersect they prove Jackson’s line near the end of the book,  ’A coincidence is just an explanation waiting to happen.’

This story is more straight forward than One Good Turn. Atkinson takes some time to weave several characters and stories together, and then the twists started that had me rapidly turning the pages to see how it would end. Great characters and plot twists and humor and suspense.

Reggie Chase, sixteen but looks younger, is a nanny for Dr Joanne Hunter’s baby. Reggie spends her time avoiding her no good brother, trying to get her high school degree, and being followed by bad luck. I wanted to hug her and cheer her on the whole time.
Dr Hunter’s husband is having some business cash flow issues and then Dr Hunter herself goes missing.
Joanne Mason was six years old when her family was butchered by a serial killer, only she and her novelist father survived. The killer, Andrew Decker, is about to be released from prison after thirty years in jail.
Louise Monroe, Detective Chief Inspector in Scotland, has moved on from her attraction to Jackson in the last book, but hasn’t stopped thinking about him (who could?) She is still a strong protector of women and the baddest ass cop around.
Jackson Brodie, he used to be a policeman. He always has to look for a missing woman; he can’t turn that mystery down.

Once a train wreck is added to this assortment of characters, lives get intertwined and some blood is shed. I liked how so many nursery rhymes were woven into the writing, and pop references are flying everywhere. I’m sure I missed a lot, not being a British native, but I was able to identify many. The ending was a little vague but as hopeful as could be expected for these sad, sad people. Louise and Jackson are terrific characters, full of angst and both are the typical lone-wolf cop with commitment issues. Hopefully, they will be back to another book.