Atkinson will choose this route.Īs a detective story, the Jackson Brodie books seem to involve little detection and the plots ultimately reveal themselves like a collection of jigsaw puzzle pieces which ultiately come together to make a different picture than the one you had imagined. If something can be described in a way that will make you smile. Some of the ideas in this book might be considered to be tropes yet this writer has a way with words which recasts things in a very amusing fashion. The humour is sometimes very dark yet for the most part Kate Atkinson is writing about things with which we will all nod our heads in agreement.

In fact 'Collier' almost feels like parody within itself and a measure by which the book's own detective is judged. The funniest element of the book for me remains the regular reference to the fictional TV detective series 'Collier' where one of Jackson's ex's is an actress as well as one of the other characters in the ensemble piece who is a witness to the abduction of the child in the mall. They are still funny and put in mind of the Ed Reardon on Radio 4 where cultural issues are similarly skewered and dispatched. The writing is absolutely brilliant although I felt that the book is starting to show it's age with the numerous cultural references throughout the book.

This is a really good read even if not Kate Atkinson's or even Jackson Brodie's finest effort. The plotting is all rather clever even if I had guessed the source of the confusion about 2/3rds away through the story. This becomes a strong element of the story but running parallel is the case of a woman in New Zealand who has employed detective Jackson Brodie to find her origins prior to her adoption, Jackson's research is indicative that this is connected to a case Tracy was involved with during her time as a policewoman, Ultimately Brodie's probing starts to unmask the truth although this is actually only revealed by Atkinson and the major villain ultimately gets 'punished' even if not as you might have envisaged. Subesequent events will only serve to make her even more paranoid. The story concerns the abduction of a girl from a shopping mall by a well-meaning woman called Tracy who utlimately becomes paranoid that the child she has bought and rescued from an awful mother will be taken away from her. Kate Atkinson is someone who is completely on the same wave length as me. If you like, this is the kind of detective novel Victoria Wood might have written albeit I think Atkinson is actually far, far funnier. For me, Kate Atkinson seems to be the ultimate example of this and her books seem to be crammed with wit and well-observed comment which means that they are hugely entertaining to read even when the plot might not necessairly be her best. A point I never really considered about writers until I read Phillip Kerr's writing was just how much of their own character an author actually invests in their novels.

Kate atkinson started early