(blurb) Cambridge is sweltering, during an unusually hot summer. To Jackson Brodie former police inspector turned private investigator, the world consists of one accounting sheet - Lost on the left, Found on the right - & the two never seem to balance.

Jackson has never felt at home in Cambridge, & has a failed marriage to prove it. Surrounded by death, intrigue & misfortune, his own life haunted by a family tragedy, he attempts to unravel three disparate case histories & begins to realise that in spite of apparent diversity, everything is connected...

(ex-library book)

I loved this book, an intriguing mix of mystery, drama & Atkinson's (sometimes) warped humour. The characters leap into life & situations are so easy to visualise.
This scene from very early in the book has particulary stuck in my mind & for some reason makes me smile...Julia, five years-old, at the time has just cut off her finger...
Rosemary (the mother) threw a tea towel over the bloody hand, scooped up Julia & ran to a neighbour who drove them in a screech of barkes to the hospital, leaving Sylvia & Amelia (older sisters) with the problem of what to do with the tiny, pale finger, abandonded on the kitchen linoleum. (An ever resourceful Sylvia thrust the finger into a bag of frozen peas & Sylvia & Amelia caught a bus to the hospital, Sylvia clutching the defrosting peas all the way as if Julia's life depended on them)
(The book I read before this The Mermaid Chair also involved amputated fingers...hope it's not some sort of omen....)

I think this is my favourite Kate Atkinson book....well so far anyhow :o)

Future readers please note...
There's a chunk of page 299/300 missing! Luckily, all it affects is the first 3 lines of page 300...just thought I'd better tell you :o)


Read as part of the 2009 ULTIMATE CHALLENGE
& the 2009 REDUCE MOUNT TBR CHALLENGE (#43)

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

On it's way to the winner of karen07814's "Never Won A RABCK" Draw....hope they like it!

Released as part of the 2009 ULTIMATE CHALLENGE &
the 2009 RABCK RELEASE CHALLENGE (#31)

This book arrived in the mail this morning. Thank you so much for the RABCK! I am very much looking forward to reading it. And thank you for the lovely postcard and stickers too. Much appreciated. :)

I thoroughly enjoyed this roller-coaster of a book. The characters felt like real people, and the story felt like it could really (and sadly) happen. Very believable. It made me want to wrap my own children in cotton wool and never let them out of my sight again. I'll be looking out for more of Kate Atkinson's books.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Posted to PurpleElephant as a 'Thank you' for sending her books for our "Picnic in the Park" release.

Wow! Thank you deludeddaydream, I really wasn't expecting this. I've been wanting to read this book for ages and am realy looking forward to jumping right in!
Thanks once again.

I've only just got round to reading this book and I really enjoyed it. I hadn't expected that it was going to have a slight comical touch to it. can't wait to read the rest in the series.

Sent to Shahrun. Hope you enjoy it!

Thank you so much for this RABCK and really cool little card. I can't wait to read it. I will release it as soon as I've read it.

Blimey! What have I just read. Three seemingly unconnected cold cases are woven together with the story of Jackson Brodie - the private investigator who is hired to solve them. It makes for an interesting read, albeit one that is difficult to get a handle on what exactly is going down and by who. I did figure out one of the threads and bits of the others. Not really like anything else I’ve read before. As intrigued to see where the rest of the books in the series go. Lucky for me I have them at hand to read. I will try to find this a new home as soon as I can.

Found this a new Book Crosser to read it. Safel travels book.

I also did a repair on page 300 and added the missnig paragraph.

Thank you for sending this to me - another one ticked off the wishlist :)

What a strangely compelling story? Jackson Brodie is sort of your stereotypical private eye, with a broken family, boring cases and dreams of retirement. But he ends up taking on three different cases and as he stumbles from one to another, he finds odd links between them and his own mixed-up life.

This isn't your average mystery novel - while Jackson does investigate the cases, a lot of his clues are arrived at by accident and only because he recognises them as clues does he get the job done. I quite like the way in which the reader doesn't get to find out what happens until the last few chapters, where each history is revisited and the actual events narrated. There are a few surprises in store and none of the cases are as straight forward as you would first think.

The characters are a little potty, definitely eclectic and wonderfully drawn. Despite it not being a action packed, crime thriller, you can't help but gobble up the pages as you need to find out what these people do next and why.

A great read - can't wait to pick up the next one in the Jackson Brodie series.

MERRY CHRISTMAS
Here’s a special box of goodies from one booklover to another. I hope you enjoy reading your books and enjoying the Christmas candy.
HAVE A GREAT FESTIVE SEASON

received as a surprise parcel from another book crosser. I look forward to reading this