One Good Turn, by Kate Atkinson

One Good Turn is wonderful! From the very first sentence I was entranced by Atkinson's use of words and her terrific low-key sense of humor. I was surprised to find that the book is actually a mystery, but there is nothing genre-like about it, no standard investigation or even single investigator. I was further surprised to find that it makes use of characters first developed in another of Atkinson's books, again a genre technique. It doesn't matter as we learn what we need to know from this book alone.

The story begins with a "road rage" incident in Edinburgh involving a suspicious name-changing character and a beefy guy who wields a baseball bat. The incident draws together an interesting group of characters, but the story reads rather like strings spreading further and further apart, or perhaps more like a web built by a spider. Each chapter develops the story for one or two of the characters, and only near the end do the paths intersect, in a crazy, hilarious episode, rather like the punchline in a shaggy dog story.

The writing is superb. The insights into character are well-informed. The humor is delicious.

One Good Turn reviewed by raidergirl3

One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson

New York Times Notable Book 2006

I like books like this: a murder mystery, with a seemingly unconnected cast of characters. The first half of the book is spent setting the stage and I felt like a juggler keeping track of all the people and motives and backstories. And then, gradually, people become connected and the story really picked up.

Jackson Brodie is the main character, I suppose, and according to the back cover, he was the investigator in Atkinson's last book, Case Histories. I would mention that it wouldn't be required to read the first book, as I didn't feel I missed any back story in reading the sequel, but I would be very interested in seeing what happens with Jackson next. Jackson witnesses a road rage incident that sets off the chain of events and characters. A meek writer, an obnoxious comedian, a dirty rich developer, his fed up wife, and a few Russian immigrants round out some of the characters, along with a tough female detective for Jackson to butt heads with.

Although it felt a little long, the action is continuous and a thread of humor is woven throughout so that I enjoyed reading it a lot. The summer arts festival in Edinburgh provides the background, and Atkinson kept my interest with so many different characters.

also posted on my blog here

Joy Completes Challenge!

I'm having difficulty posting, so here's my list of books with links for this completed challenge:

New York Times Notable Book Challenge

I will be doing a synopsis of the challenge at the end of the year.

"Thoughts of Joy..." ~ One Good Turn (Atkinson)

"Thoughts of Joy..." can be found here.

One big disappointment was my feeling as I concluded this chunkster. I loved the cover and title, the author was new-to-me, the plot was intriguing and unfortunately I was let down. An "okay read" ends up as a real literary bummer when you anticipate something great.

The "across the pond" setting produced mixed emotions in me. I like exploring cities that I've never physically been to, but I also like to be familiar with (or made to feel familiar with) the lingo, names of places and buildings, etc. I sometimes felt like I had to read at a slower pace just to make sure I didn't miss an important piece of the puzzle. I was at a disadvantage.

The beginning opens with a road rage scene that really drew me in and then I was flooded with a stream of characters that ultimately held no water. Their personalities did not entice me, yet I thought it was going to happen at any moment. There were plenty of hopefuls and with a very prolific author I was surprised that none of them panned out. I experienced the same with the plot. Great ideas and some really good scenes, but something was missing or maybe it was just too bland for a thriller. I don't know. ???

Making the NYT Most Notable Books of 2006 is interesting. I'm not sure how that whole process works, but this book doesn't qualify in my opinion. Rating this book a 3 seems like a gift, but it's not. I'm just miffed that I spent hours and hours reading it (a chunkster no less) and wasn't satisfied.

Laura's Review: One Good Turn

One Good Turn (original review can be found here)

Kate Atkinson

418 pages

First sentence: He was lost.

Reflections: One Good Turn is a mystery set in Edinburgh, and begins with a horrible "road rage" incident in which a man named Paul Bradley is brutally attacked on a busy street in the middle of the Edinburgh Festival. There are several witnesses who play key roles in the story: Martin Canning, an author, who stops the attack by throwing his laptop bag at the attacker; Gloria Hatter, unhappily married to Graham, a corrupt real estate developer; and Jackson Brodie, an ex-cop and the only one to note the attacker's license plate number. I can't say much more without giving it all away, but like any good mystery I was drawn into the lives of these characters and the plot infiltrated my dreams (which was not necessarily a good thing!).

This book was a "New York Times Notable Book" for 2006 and while I would recommend it, in my view it was not quite as "notable" as others like Suite Francaise and Half of a Yellow Sun.