One Good Turn: A Jolly Murder Mystery

by Kate Atkinson, Kate Atkinson | Mystery & Thrillers |
ISBN: 9780552772440 Global Overview for this book
Registered by livrecache of Hobart, Tasmania Australia on 8/30/2009
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2 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by livrecache from Hobart, Tasmania Australia on Sunday, August 30, 2009
Kate Atkinson's One Good Turn is an amazing book with a deceptively simple title. The plot has so many layers that a more apt title might have been Matryoshka, for those Russian dolls that nest inside one another and make an appearance in the story. One Good Turn is also like a rich chocolate dessert made with the best ingredients - delicious, filling, satisfying and leaving you planning the next time you can have some.

Jackson Brodie is not your ordinary English crime novel series protagonist. Divorced, middle-aged, a little grumpy but still in good shape, he has achieved his dream of retiring to France. An ex-cop-cum-ex-private detective, he's got a house in the foothills of the Pyrenees, and he has Julia, his actress girlfriend from Cambridge whom he loves, so life should be good. That it's not does not escape Jackson's notice, but the notion is just dawning on him. As the book opens he has accompanied Julia to the Edinburgh Festival, where she will be appearing in an avant-garde play, and he promptly witnesses an incident of road rage. One man is about to beat another to death after a minor traffic accident when a bystander intervenes, which is the good turn of the title and kicks off all the action.

Told alternately through the point of view of the major protagonists — a writer of formula crime novels, a has-been comedian, a female detective, the wife of a crooked real estate developer, and Jackson — the narrative bobs and weaves and connects many dots over the course of the three days covered by the tale. "There are no coincidences, only explanations waiting to happen," Jackson says, and in One Good Turn, he is right. Atkinson reveals elements slowly, however. Associations show themselves piece by piece, as if a covering page was were being slowly drawn back from a picture, the subject of which is not clear until the whole image is laid bare. As a mystery, this book is excellent.

Journal Entry 2 by livrecache from Hobart, Tasmania Australia on Sunday, November 15, 2009
One of my favourite authors, and because I've been given another copy, I'm including it The Women Plus Bookbag. I hope someone else enjoys this author's writing as much as I do.

Journal Entry 3 by livrecache at A BookCrosser, A Bookcrossing member -- Controlled Releases on Sunday, November 15, 2009

Released 14 yrs ago (11/15/2009 UTC) at A BookCrosser, A Bookcrossing member -- Controlled Releases

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On its way to another bookcrosser, with the The Women bookring. hope you enjoy it.

Journal Entry 4 by DrCris from Templestowe, Victoria Australia on Monday, November 16, 2009
Never read this author before, but it seems right up my alley. I will take this from the Bookring Plus and hopefully read it on my holidays. I will have to search out something good to replace it with.

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