Great thriller which I could not put down. Brilliant characters, and twists and turns. Highly recommend to others!

One Good Turn is the second book in the Jackson Brodie series. I really enjoyed the introduction of Louise in particular and how Atkinson connected all the different storylines. I look forward to reading the next book in the series.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC

Thank you - we featured Kate Atkinson on Caboodle (website and newsletter) in 2019! We look forward to working with you in 2020.

Told from multiple perspectives this book builds the plot layer by layer. I feel I may have benefited by reading the previous books in the series prior to this one, but overall, enjoyed

After reading and being disappointed by a previous book by this author I was slightly reluctant to read this one however I was pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed the concept of the story and it was very well written.

Thanks to Random House UK and NetGalley for the Advance Review Copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is the second Jackson Brodie novel I've read, the first being Case Histories. The story picks up a few years from the events of the first book. Jackson and Julia are still together and Jackson has been living it up with his millions in France.

This story largely takes place in Edinburgh during the Edinburgh Festival. I went to university in Edinburgh and spent five years of my life there so it was fun to take a mental trip down memory lane although being a resident of Edinburgh during the festival is really NOT fun.

Similar to Case Histories, this novel has a number of different points of view. As well as Jackson's perspective we have Martin, a crime novelist, Gloria, the wife of a bigwig properly mogul and Louise, a newly promoted Police Inspector.

There are some very quirky characters in this novel, some perhaps a little too quirky to be entirely believable. Jackson continues to be utterly irresistible to almost every woman he meets, except Julia apparently and we begin to see cracks forming in their relationship. I really liked Gloria, I identified with her a lot, probably because sheis a a pedantic and judgemental cow. Guilty as charged.

I really liked the representation of Edinburgh and I think Atkinson did a great job of bringing the setting to life, she clearly knows the city well. I didn't like the plot so much, it all felt a bit muddled and the pacing was just a bit too slow. I think the core story itself just wasn't that interesting. The good news about this instalment however? NO MARLEE! Sadly, even that joy wasn't enough to elevate it for me.

I'm going to persevere with the series because I really like the author's writing style, sense of humour and her clever character observations, but this book just didn't really do it for me.

Nope!

After thinking Case Histories was really pretty poor, I had low expectations going into this, and Atkinson has fully met, even exceeded, them. I wouldn't have tried it at all except that in a moment of supreme foolishness I acquired the first four books in the series from NetGalley on the mistaken assumption that I'd like them. You'd think I'd know better by now.

11% in, and no plot has peeked through the miasma of tedium that Atkinson exudes so well. Character sketch after character sketch, all of characters who would bore me to a frenzy in real life. The blurb mentions Dickensian - what an insult! Dickens would never have produced a character as banal as these! Nor would he resort to swearing every few minutes in a failed bid to sound hip.

Nope! Abandoned, and books 3 and 4 will have to struggle on without me. An author to strike from my list of temptations - hurrah! Hopefully the next crime novel I read will actually be about a crime.

NB This book was provided for review by Random House Transworld.

5★
“Somehow it seemed unlikely it was a coincidence. What had Jackson said? A coincidence is just an explanation waiting to happen.”

Kate Atkinson is one of my favourite writers, and the quote above describes the nature of her Jackson Brodie mysteries. There are seemingly random incidents and events involving separate characters around whom Atkinson builds back stories. Not for every character, but for the ones we’re going to become interested in, even if we don’t know why.

Jackson is in Edinburgh with girlfriend Julia for the Fringe Festival, where she is performing in a low-budget, (dreadful) play which Jackson has helped to bankroll with his unexpected windfall inheritance. With his windfall, he’d also bought a place in France, which he now considers home, but he still misses his young daughter and ex-wife, although we don’t see them this time around.

While Julia’s rehearsing, he’s amusing himself with the sights of Edinburgh and stumbling across things you and I wouldn’t. A dead body, for example.

But I’m ahead of myself. The book opens with a case of road rage. Serious road rage, and it happens in the middle of the day, right in front of people queuing to go into various festival events, and Jackson, who was just leaving Julia’s theatre.

Ray is the driver of the first vehicle.

“He looked in the rear-view mirror. A blue Honda Civic, the driver climbing out – big guy, slabs of weightlifter muscle, gym-fit rather than survival-fit, he wouldn’t have been able to last three months in the jungle or the desert the way that Ray could have done. He wouldn’t have lasted a day.”

We get some back story on Ray. Then there’s Martin. Martin has chucked his laptop at the driver of the second car who is just about to beat Ray to death, jungle training or no jungle training. Martin has shocked himself.

Atkinson gives us a fair bit of Martin’s background – a timid child, a quiet man, but a surprisingly successful author of cosy mysteries under pseudonym, Alex Blake. We learn a lot about Martin, while waiting to see what’s happening in the road, but I never mind Atkinson’s diversions. I like her people too much. And she brings us back to the incident.

“Martin tried to make himself an anonymous figure in the queue, tried to pretend he didn’t exist. He closed his eyes. He had done that at school when he was bullied, clinging to an ancient, desperate magic – they wouldn’t hit him if he couldn’t see them.”

Also nearby is Gloria, whom we will come to know very well later. She’s been dragged along by a friend to a comedy show she’s not looking forward to, but she’s fine with lining up to wait.

“Queuing was like life, you just shut up and got on with it. It seemed a shame she had been born just too late for the Second World War, she possessed exactly the kind of long-suffering spirit that wartime relied on.”

Again, we are diverted into Gloria’s life with her husband who became rich building dodgy houses. And again, I didn’t mind the diversion.

So where’s former detective Brodie? He’s been trying to escape the rather dingy venue where Julia and the cast are gathered to rehearse.

“Theatre for Jackson, although of course he would never say this to any of them, was a good pantomime, preferably in the company of an enthusiastic child.”

He’s ‘escaped’ outside just in time to see the action. Martin’s laptop has clipped the shoulder of the attacker, who’s just driven off, while self-described superman Ray is curled up bashed and bleeding on the ground. Martin is talking to him as the police arrive, so Jackson isn’t needed.

By this time, we know a fair bit about several people, none of whom know each other and each of whom we will follow (with interest, I must add), to find out how they become connected to Jackson and Julia.

I read this several years ago, and while I remembered some scenes, it was just as much fun this time around. Because Atkinson writes such whole people, it’s good to see them again. She ties up all the plot threads nicely, and if you were watching it like an old movie, you’d find yourself saying things like “Look behind you! See that guy? That’s the guy you’re looking for!!”

But of course, only we know that because we read someone’s story. There’s no way Jackson Brodie would know it. In this case, what he said in the opening quotation applies.

“A coincidence is just an explanation waiting to happen.”

I must say, the sights of Edinburgh are nice, but because it’s Festival time and there is no accommodation available, the hotels we see are dreadful.

“He was not alone in his shoebox cell, however. The first night he was there he got up to go to the bathroom and almost stood on a cockroach pasturing on his bedroom carpet.”

Detective Sergeant Louise Monroe is a major character, interesting as a woman, a single mother with a surly 14-year-old son and an ancient cat. Her love life has been stifled, now that her son is a teen and she has no privacy to speak of. She adores him but has no idea how to handle him. (Who does?)

“They said love made you strong but in Louise’s opinion it made you weak. It corkscrewed into your heart and you couldn’t get it out again, not without ripping your heart to pieces.
. . .
The front door crashed open and was slammed shut again. Archie’s passage through the house was marked by the noise of things thrown and dropped and walked into. He was like the ball in a pinball machine. He exploded into the kitchen, nearly falling over his own feet. After he was born the midwife said, ‘Boys wreck your house, girls wreck your head.’ Archie seemed intent on doing both.”

I’ve included so much of the background because this is not a quick pot-boiler mystery. This is a wonderful, complete work of fiction, and even if you can’t find the first in the series, Case Histories, you can certainly enjoy this one anyway. They are more fun read in order, but rules are meant to be broken, aren’t they?

Jackson Brodie is at the Edinburgh festival with his girlfriend enjoying a working break away together, when everything starts to go wrong. A mad man attacks a passerby and then Jackson finds the body of a young woman on the shore. Lots of clues and lots of different strands, the story gradually reveals itself as you read. You’ve got to love a Kate Atkinson book and this one doesn’t disappoint! Intriguing, well written and exciting to read. A great read for the summer!

This wasn't my favourite in the series. The characters were still good and the plot was okay and complex but it just felt weaker than Case Histories. I liked it but it could have been a bit tighter in places.

Having enjoyed other novels by Kate Atkinson this was one I was really excited about- especially because it takes place at the Edinburgh festival. An incident of road rage happens outside one of the venues and things escalate. I can see that the book is cleverly written but it was almost too clever and I felt as though I maybe didn't quite 'get' it. I normally read quite quickly and it took me a long time to get through this one. It's a great story but not quite for me.

I loved all the twists and intrigue in this book. Well worth reading. It kept me wondering to the end how all the story lines would come together. Highly recommended

Second in the Jackson Brodie crime mystery series by Kate Atkinson. Told from multiple perspectives.

Hot on the heels of my reading Case Histories, I have just finished One Good Turn. I am now Ms Atkinson's biggest fan and would like to read everything that she has written! This is a brilliant read, the writing, the story, the characters, I loved all of it.

Jackson Brodie is back, this time in Edinburgh with his lady love (from book 1), Julia. Julia is appearing in a play during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Jackson is left to his own devices while she rehearses. Trouble finds Jackson no matter where he turns. The story starts off with a road rage incident in Edinburgh City Centre and gradually draws you in, building a story around Graham Hatter and his wife, Gloria, directors of Hatters Homes, a dead Russian girl, a mild mannered cozy mystery writer, and a few other brilliant characters. Similar to Case Histories, the book is a study of the various characters, their lives, their personalities and mannerisms (so much so that you feel as if you know them personally by the end of the book!), but there is a good solid mystery in there too, which I wasn't sure how it was going to play out, but the ending was so good bringing everything together, including a couple of real surprises I really didn't see coming. The writing keeps you invested in the story and the characters with a mixture of emotions and wit. I couldn't put it down and can't wait to read Jackson Brodie 3, "When will there be good news?" 5/5*

I found Kate Atkinson through Life after Life, drawn to time travel and do-overs and the promise of good writing. I've followed that up with A God in Ruins and quite a lot of her back catalogue, although I haven't yet been able to read Transcription as I'm 'saving it', For what, I don't know!

One Good Turn was originally published in about 2006, and features at least one familiar character, Jackson Brodie. I didn't know that when I read this book so it doesn't seem to make a difference.

I really enjoyed this - it's set in Edinburgh, the nearest big city to my hometown, and in the festival too so the narrative takes place around lots of familiar sites and sounds. The characters are many and I would have expected them to be hard to keep track of, but their voices and lives are so distinct it wasn't difficult at all.

Atkinson expertly weaves the story around the people, knitting them together and drawing them in closer until the dramatic climax, a combination of satisfying connections and surprising revelations that left me wishing it was longer. I guess now I can read the rest of the Jackson Brodie novels though, so thank you to Netgalley for introducing me to them!

Second in the Jackson Brodie series but can easily be read as a stand alone. The characters and setting overshadow the main plot a little, but Atkinson writes so well that it's not that much of a let down. While it could have been a little bit shorter, the characters were compelling enough to continue on to the end.

Certainly enough here to keep fans of Atkinson happy.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the arc.

What a treat for me to receive the second in the Jackson Brodie series so soon after discovering him. I’m not a natural crime fiction reader but I do enjoy Kate Atkinson’s writing - her characters, their dialogue, so many entertaining observations on human frailty. I loved the atmosphere of Edinburgh Old Town she conjures up, especially reminders of Festival Fringe venues I visited years ago. The plot almost (but not quite) defeated me, a mass of interweaving threads, but I clung on and was rewarded by it all coming together with a tantalisingly open-ended final scene that I look forward to picking up in the next book in the series.

I have a seriously low tolerance for abuse of animals, though, and there is rather too much of this here for my liking, none of it necessary to the story in my opinion, often just unrelated anecdotes that had me hastily flicking over pages. This spoiled my overall enjoyment of the book, hence my rating.

With thanks to Random House, Black Swan via NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC.

I love Jackson Brodie series and this wasn't a disappointment. Kate Atkinson's writing is delicious and engaging. Brodie is a very interesting character that I'd want to read about. Really enjoy the mysteries. So, definitely a very good series for me.
Thanks a lot to the publisher and NetGalley for this e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

A classic, one of the best Jackson Brodie's with am intriguing central story, well worth a reread before the eagerly anticipated new mystery later this year.

Kate Atkinson continues her Jackson Brodie crime fiction series in her own original style of indepth characterisation, case studies if you will, and with plentiful doses of wit and humour. There is a road rage occurrence outside a Fringe Theatre at the Edinburgh Festival, a theatre in which Brodie's actress girlfriend, Julia, is performing. Amongst numerous others, Brodie, in a queue observes the incident. What we get from the author is a major focus on the circumstances and interior lives of a random range of characters, including Brodie, a crime fiction writer, a female police detective sergeant, and the spouse of a rich builder under investigation. None are known to each other, but as the narrative continues, coincidences arise, it appears good acts come back to bite and connections begin to emerge. Through circuitous routes, the characters stumble towards who they are, even if that is not what they are seeking. A great read and a great series. Thanks to Random House Transworld.