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Book Nook provides readers with insights into the world of books. Vick Mickunas takes you into the center of the publishing world with the latest book buzz, book reviews, and exclusive chats with authors..Home > Blogs > Book Nook > Archives > 2008 > October > 05 > Entry
When Will There Be Good News?
“When Will There Be Good News?” by Kate Atkinson, (Little, Brown, 388 pages, $25).
Books can remind me of food. Some are fast food - quick, predictable, nothing special. Some books are like fine meals, readers become immersed in wonderful flavors and textures. We don’t want these books to end, but when they do we feel very good.
Kate Atkinson’s “When Will There Be Good News?” is one such delicious book. Atkinson is a British writer who lives in Scotland. This latest novel is set mostly in Edinburgh. Atkinson has cooked up a medley of crime fiction, mystery, and thriller here that left this reviewer’s literary palate intrigued.
This is her third book that features private detective Jackson Brodie. As the story begins a sickening crime is about to occur. A young mother and her children are taking a stroll in the countryside with their dog. They encounter a homicidal maniac. One child manages to escape the attack.
Then we move forward thirty years. The sole survivor of the attack has become a doctor. She is married and has a new baby. The infant is being cared for by a sixteen year-old au-pair named Reggie Chase. Word has just reached the family that the killer is about to be released from prison after serving his thirty year term.
Atkinson introduces a number of narrators and story lines right away. Jackson Brodie is hanging around a playground looking for a young boy who he believes could be his son. Reggie, the young au-pair, is dealing with the tragic death of her mother and the criminal behavior of her brother.
Then there’s Louise, an Edinburgh cop who has had a major crush on Brodie from the days when he was a police officer. Atkinson keeps casting out seemingly unrelated plotlines then brings many of them crashing together in a train wreck that leaves Brodie clinging to life. Reggie just happens to be there to give Brodie the CPR that saves his life.
I’m reluctant to give away much more of Atkinson’s tricky plotting. Suffice it to say that she comes up with some twists and turns that will have readers teetering on the edges of their chairs. Okay, I will reveal this: right after the killer is released from prison Doctor Hunter and her baby vanish into thin air.
Reggie thinks of Doctor Hunter as a surrogate mother and she adores the baby. She suspects foul play. The doctor’s husband is acting very suspicious and the doctor’s dog seems upset. Reggie does everything that she can to bring this matter to the attention of the police.
Atkinson ratchets up the tension with lines like; ” Reggie’s heart wasn’t even in her chest anymore. it was too big and too loud to fit anymore, it was filling the whole of the bedroom. Boom, boom, boom.”
“When Will There Be Good News ? ” surges to a finale so clever and shocking that you will surely be amazed. Atkinson spins a flawless web of intrigue crafted with spider like precision. And that is good news.
Vick Mickunas
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