I'm obviously a sucker for a title like that, even if I wasn't already a huge Kate Atkinson fan. A couple of novels ago, Kate fooled the book-buying world into believing she was a crime writer - a clever ruse since genre fiction tends to breed a devoted following and often sell more than the literary gems she was previously credited with.
This then is the third "Jackson Brodie adventure", though perhaps it would be more appropriate to call it the second "Louise Monroe adventure" as by now it's the Scottish DCI introduced in Atkinson's previous novel One Good Turn who's become the real star of this series. She's witty, she's short-tempered, she's extremely self-aware... and this time, for better or worse, she's married.
Joining Jackson and Louise in this third installment is another character I hope we'll see more of in the future, 16 year-old amateur sleuth Reggie Chase. In many ways she's the smartest cookie in the book, though not at all precocious, and a worthy addition to this dysfunctional family of detectives.
Atkinson's writing deviates from genre in two notable areas. Firstly the plotting. Although the novel begins with a gruesome murder, this isn't the crime we're charged with solving, merely an introduction to a couple of important characters. The central dramatic event is a train crash, though that's an accident not a crime. Indeed, for a large part of the book we're left wondering just what we're actually investigating. It's not so much a whodunit as a whodunwhat... though just as gripping.
Secondly, the writing. It's not formulaic, neither is it self-consciously literary. The omniscient narrative follows multiple perspectives, sometimes leaping from one character's mind to another's mid-chapter. The writing - and thinking - is extremely conversational - at times almost frustratingly colloquial. Occasionally I found myself wishing some of her characters wouldn't speak with so many cliches... not novelistic cliches, but the kinds of dull cliches we use in everyday life. It's very real, but sometimes you want your heroes to speak the way you only wish you could.
A small criticism of an otherwise hugely entertaining novel. When Will There Be Good News? As soon as Atkinson releases book 4.
