Case Histories: A Novel

Kate Atkinson

Oct 2007 · Sold by Little, Brown

About this ebook

The first book in Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie Mysteries series, called "The best mystery of the decade" by Stephen King, finds private investigator Jackson Brodie following three seemingly unconnected family mysteries in Edinburg.

Case one: A little girl goes missing in the night.

Case two: A beautiful young office worker falls victim to a maniac's apparently random attack.

Case three: A new mother finds herself trapped in a hell of her own making - with a very needy baby and a very demanding husband - until a fit of rage creates a grisly, bloody escape.

Thirty years after the first incident, as private investigator Jackson Brodie begins investigating all three cases, startling connections and discoveries emerge . . .

Ratings and reviews

Simply wonderful. Kate Atkinson manages to inhabit a large set of diverse characters skillfully and effortlessly. Even as the brilliant mystery unfolds, she catches you off guard with the intimate inner observations of these characters, mixing the terrifying, comic and banal in perfect balance. I was blown away by "One Good Turn" and this is perhaps even better.

Despite having read this four or five years ago, I really didn't remember it all that well! I was both disappointed at my loss of memory, and happy to enjoy this book all over again. I remember loving it so much the first time I read it, I immediately went out and bought the rest of her books, and my love of this book was not in any way diminished by the re-reading. It is a well-crafted novel, pulling everything together in a neat and interesting manner. I really enjoyed it and am really looking forward to reading the next two Brodie books!

I was delighted by this book. Reading it required a full range of sentiments; laughter, sorrow, love and a walk through the lives of others I came to love and others, not so much. Yet a pure delight, which I could not stop reading. Highly Recommended.

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.