One Good Turn - (Jackson Brodie) by Kate Atkinson (Paperback)

About the Book

Following her mystery debut "Case Histories" with this percipient, funny, and totally satisfying read, Atkinson once again features ex-cop turned private investigator Jackson Brodie--except this time he is the prime suspect in a deadly crime.

Book Synopsis

On a beautiful summer day, crowds lined up outside a theater witness a sudden act of extreme road rage: a tap on a fender triggers a nearly homicidal attack. Jackson Brodie, ex-cop, ex-private detective, new millionaire, is among the bystanders.

The event thrusts Jackson into the orbit of the wife of an unscrupulous real estate tycoon, a washed-up comedian, a successful crime novelist, a mysterious Russian woman, and a female police detective. Each of them hiding a secret, each looking for love or money or redemption or escape, they all play a role in driving Jackson out of retirement and into the middle of several mysteries that intersect in one sinister scheme.

Kate Atkinson "writes such fluid, sparkling prose that an ingenious plot almost seems too much to ask, but we get it anyway," writes Laura Miller for Salon. With a keen eye for the excesses of modern life, a warm understanding of the frailties of the human heart, and a genius for plots that turn and twist, Atkinson has written a novel that delights and surprises from the first page to the last.

Review Quotes

A "NEW YORK TIMES" NOTABLE BOOK OF 2006
"This is a detective novel packed with more wit, insight, and subtlety than an entire shelf full of literary fiction... the plot is an incidental pleasure in a book crammed with quirky humour and cogent reflections on contemporary life.... Highly recommended reading." "-- Marie Claire "(5/5 Stars)
"Atkinson's voice rings on every page, and her sly and wry observations move the plot as swiftly as suspense turns the pages of a thriller." "San Francisco Chronicle"
"Atkinson is a restrained, perceptive writer skilled at telling stories from multiple and hugely diverse points of view... Her prose is piercing, lucid and perceptive." "USA Today"
"Acerbic, eccentric, and maddeningly perverse, she is a writer I always read with my heart in my mouth, as if watching a trapeze artist perform a high-wire act between cockiness and courage. Here, as in "Case Histories," she is splendid at the stuff of people's lives... Her observations about Edinburgh are easily as funny as Alexander McCall Smith's, though less benign." "-- The Independent"
"Atkinson endows her cast with a fascinating richness of life. . . . Whatever she does is done to the highest of literary standards. She has produced an engrossing, enjoyable, complex novel packed with intriguing characters, vividly imagined scenes and a compelling plot."
-"Times Literary Supplement "(UK)
"Atkinson is best at the quiet desperation of middle-aged marriages, and characters revealed by the intricacies of a plot that exploits flashbacks and missed connections. Atkinson, while having fun with the murder-mystery genre, slyly slips us a muted tragedy."
-"The Telegraph "(UK)
"
""Itdoesn't really matter in which genre Atkison chooses to write. Her subject is always the irrecoverable loss of love and how best to continue living once you have glumly recognised that. . . . Her gift is in presenting this unnerving and subversive philosophy as a dazzling form of entertainment."
-"Sunday Times "(UK)
"Atkinson is frequently very funny - the extracts from Martin's Nina Blake novels, in particular, are a sustained comic highlight-but while the tone stays light, the plot continues to darken. . . . ÝOne Good Turn is¨ that rarest of things-a good literary novel and a cracking holiday read."
-"Observer" (UK)
Praise for "Case Histories":
"Not just the best novel I have read this year but the best mystery of the decade. This is the kind of book you shove in people's faces, saying 'You gotta read this!'"
-Stephen King, "Entertainment Weekly"
"To read it is to enter a hall of mirrors. . .Part complex family drama, part mystery, it winds up having more depth and vividness than ordinary thrillers and more thrills than ordinary fiction. . .A wonderfully tricky book."
-"New York Times"
"An astonishingly complex and moving literary detective story that made me sob but also snort with laughter. It's the sort of novel you have to start rereading the minute you've finished it."
-"Guardian"

"From the Hardcover edition."

"Atkinson endows her cast with a fascinating richness of life. . . . Whatever she does is done to the highest of literary standards. She has produced an engrossing, enjoyable, complex novel packed with intriguing characters, vividly imagined scenes and a compelling plot."
-"Times Literary Supplement "(UK)
"Atkinson is best at the quiet desperation of middle-aged marriages, and characters revealed by the intricacies of a plot that exploits flashbacks and missed connections. Atkinson, while having fun with the murder-mystery genre, slyly slips us a muted tragedy."
-"The Telegraph "(UK)
"
""It doesn't really matter in which genre Atkison chooses to write. Her subject is always the irrecoverable loss of love and how best to continue living once you have glumly recognised that. . . . Her gift is in presenting this unnerving and subversive philosophy as a dazzling form of entertainment."
-"Sunday Times "(UK)
"Atkinson is frequently very funny - the extracts from Martin's Nina Blake novels, in particular, are a sustained comic highlight-but while the tone stays light, the plot continues to darken. . . . ÝOne Good Turn is¨ that rarest of things-a good literary novel and a cracking holiday read."
-"Observer" (UK)
Praise for "Case Histories":
"Not just the best novel I have read this year but the best mystery of the decade. This is the kind of book you shove in people's faces, saying 'You gotta read this!'"
-Stephen King, "Entertainment Weekly"
"To read it is to enter a hall of mirrors. . .Part complex family drama, part mystery, it winds up having more depth and vividness than ordinary thrillers and more thrills than ordinary fiction. . .A wonderfullytricky book."
-"New York Times"
"An astonishingly complex and moving literary detective story that made me sob but also snort with laughter. It's the sort of novel you have to start rereading the minute you've finished it."
-"Guardian"

"From the Hardcover edition."

" Atkinson endows her cast with a fascinating richness of life. . . . Whatever she does is done to the highest of literary standards. She has produced an engrossing, enjoyable, complex novel packed with intriguing characters, vividly imagined scenes and a compelling plot."
- "Times Literary Supplement "(UK)
" Atkinson is best at the quiet desperation of middle-aged marriages, and characters revealed by the intricacies of a plot that exploits flashbacks and missed connections. Atkinson, while having fun with the murder-mystery genre, slyly slips us a muted tragedy."
- "The Telegraph "(UK)
"
"" It doesn't really matter in which genre Atkison chooses to write. Her subject is always the irrecoverable loss of love and how best to continue living once you have glumly recognised that. . . . Her gift is in presenting this unnerving and subversive philosophy as a dazzling form of entertainment."
- "Sunday Times "(UK)
" Atkinson is frequently very funny - the extracts from Martin's Nina Blake novels, in particular, are a sustained comic highlight- but while the tone stays light, the plot continues to darken. . . . [One Good Turn is] that rarest of things- a good literary novel and a cracking holiday read."
- "Observer" (UK)
Praise for "Case Histories":
" Not just the best novel I have read this year but the best mystery of the decade. This is the kind of book you shove in people's faces, saying ' You gotta read this!' "
- Stephen King, "Entertainment Weekly"
" To read it is to enter a hall of mirrors. . .Part complex familydrama, part mystery, it winds up having more depth and vividness than ordinary thrillers and more thrills than ordinary fiction. . .A wonderfully tricky book."
- "New York Times"
" An astonishingly complex and moving literary detective story that made me sob but also snort with laughter. It's the sort of novel you have to start rereading the minute you've finished it."
- "Guardian"

"From the Hardcover edition."

Praise for "Case Histories":
"Not just the best novel I have read this year but the best mystery of the decade. This is the kind of book you shove in people's faces, saying 'You gotta read this!'"
-Stephen King, "Entertainment Weekly"
"To read it is to enter a hall of mirrors. . .Part complex family drama, part mystery, it winds up having more depth and vividness than ordinary thrillers and more thrills than ordinary fiction. . .A wonderfully tricky book."
-"New York Times"
"An astonishingly complex and moving literary detective story that made me sob but also snort with laughter. It's the sort of novel you have to start rereading the minute you've finished it."
-"Guardian"

About the Author

Kate Atkinson's first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, was named England's Whitbread Book of the Year in 1996. Since then, she has written eleven more ground-breaking, bestselling books. She lives in Edinburgh, Scotland.