Kate Atkinson’s fourth book in the Jackson Brodie series, Started Early, Took My Dog is another intriguing crime mystery novel that illustrates just how wonderful her characterisations and plotting are. What I appreciate Kate for is that while Jackson Brodie is the series protagonist, she will place other characters at the heart of a new plot. This gives us a fascinating character Jackson Brodie, who we watch negotiate the disorder and struggle with life as he travels through the series. In addition, new characters come into focus that bring a unique blend of personality and background to a specific novel. The strategy is brilliant!

Ex-police officer, current security officer, Tracy Waterhouse, steps into a scene at a Shopping Centre in Leeds to rescue a young child, Courtney, from a nasty abusive woman. In a step aimed at helping a child from a dreadful situation she buys the child and opens up issues that her settled life maybe wasn’t ready for. I found this element too far-fetched to accept, but putting it aside, the relationship between Tracy and Courtney is very engaging as it develops. The realisation of just having bought a child and its ramifications bring a completely different life to Tracy and Courtney, especially as Courtney grows in confidence. The dialogue is masterful, drawing on the humour and crazy situation they find themselves in and learning so much about each other.

Witnessing the infraction in the Shopping Centre, is Tilly, a retired actress, an elderly lady experiencing the onset of dementia. She has an episode at the Shopping Centre where her confusion leaves her feeling frightened and unsettled. I had a real soft spot for Tilly and felt for her during her states of confusion, where the public can be either understanding or impatient.

At the same time Jackson engages with Tilly and shortly after rescues a dog from a brutal bully that has the dog cowering after being beaten. Ex-cop, current PI, Jackson is now working for a New Zealander to help her find her estranged mother.

Three threads that weave imperceptibly through each other at different energies and timings. This is something Kate does really well as each POV comes into focus the others are not entirely dropped. That little touch of connection keeps everything alive and spinning.

The characters in a Kate Atkinson novel and the clever way she brings about their connection with each other are just wonderful. She is a very talented writer but there is something that holds me back giving 5 stars to her books and I think it’s because there’s always a bit too much coincidence and some steps of believability that don't sit well with me.

I would recommend reading this book and I’d like to thank Random House UK, Transworld Publishers, Black Swan and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC copy in return for an honest review.

Another great installment in the Jackson Brodie series. I enjoyed it a lot and really like Ms Atkinson's style of writing, the characters, the observational humour and the way it always comes together seamlessly at the end. Thank you for the opportunity.

I found myself challenged by the plot at times, especially towards the end and in differentiating between the Golf Club boys. No matter, though, as I don’t read Kate Atkinson’s books for anything but the main characters and her observations on life. In this story, Tracy takes centre stage and here KA has created another terrific character. Hardened by years working in the macho world of the police force in the 70s, she still has a soft, squidgy centre and is entranced by the little girl she finds herself caring for. Her police experience comes in handy, though, when the bad guys come calling and she shows herself to be a formidable mama bear. Tracy is a hoot, as is the child, and their interaction made for much entertaining dialogue and situations. Jackson Brodie is as he is, accident-prone as ever, this time accompanied by a small dog, and the irrepressible Julia makes a welcome return.

All very enjoyable and sets me up nicely for the new instalment in the Brodie series. Counting down the days …..

Love Kate Atkinson, and started early, took my dog is now a firm favourite. Her writing is superb, transforms me in a way that not many authors can. I read her books into the middle of the night. Loved this, and will read all her others.

I have enjoyed all of Kate Atkinson’s Jackson Brodie series, but this one perhaps a little less than its predecessors.

As always, Atkinson uses the detective plot largely as a device on which to hang her brilliant character portraits (or case studies). This time, Jackson has been hired to find the real origins of a woman in New Zealand who was adopted in the mid 1970s in Leeds shortly before her adoptive parents emigrated. He becomes involved in a story of ancient malfeasance and murder, tangled up with a present-day imbroglio involving elderly police officers, an abducted child and – almost wholly irrelevantly – and old actress who is succumbing to Alzheimers.

The writing is excellent, of course, and the character studies are again penetrating and exceptionally well drawn. The attitudes of the 1970s are very well portrayed. The continuing arc of Jackson’s story runs through the book as a couple of loose ends from When Will There Be Good News are pursued, of not always tied up. This time, though, the plot wasn’t really sufficiently well done for me and often proved a distraction rather than an asset. There are several characters who feature in the present day and in flashback to 1975 who weren’t sufficiently well-distinguished and became a rather confusing blur to me, and the reliance on coincidence bordered on the absurd at times.

Although Started Early, Took My Dog may not be Kate Atkinson’s best, it is still a good book and significantly better than the vast slew of quite-good thrillers around at the moment and I am still very much looking forward to the next one.

(My thanks to Random House for an ARC via NetGalley.)

I think Jackson Brodie is becoming my favourite modern detective ever. (Sorry Inspector Gamache!) No one can write like Kate Atkinson. I just get mesmerised by her style of writing.
This book is a bit like Case Histories, a few "cases" are interwoven into each other, of course, blended with excellent dialogue, witty observations, as in every Atkinson book. This is not only a crime fiction novel but a fine example of literary fiction, I love each character she introduces and the fact her "detective", Jackson, being one of them, but not in the centre somehow, is making me like this series even more.

Always a joy to return to Kate Atkinson's brand of offbeat literary crime fiction, the in depth case studies of complex characters and their interior lives, of past tragedies and murder, the repercussions and the weaving of coincidences and connections into the narrative set here in Leeds and Whitby in Yorkshire. The retired police officer, Tracy Waterhouse, lives a quiet ordinary life of routines, and working security in a mall. Upon seeing a child being abused by a known offender, the courageous Tracy steps out of her well ordered life into the extraordinary and morally ambiguous territory as she tries to do the right thing. She purchases the child in an act loaded with good intentions after a life of the horrors she has seen, an act that brings complications and repercussions.

An elderly actress, Tilly Squires, is fighting the growing grip of dementia, haunted by past errors and loss. The lonely and flawed Jackson Brodie is bedevilled by his messy and chaotic personal life, and looking into a past life of a New Zealand woman to identify her birth mother. Jackson does a good thing when, without thinking twice, he takes an abused dog from his thuggish owner. There is much to love about this addition to the series, the dark humour, the cultural references, the way Atkinson deftly weaves in the connections between the characters, and in her stellar writing skills. I particularly loved the relationship between Tracy and Courtney. Many thanks to Random House Transworld for a copy.

I'm binge reading this series and enjoying it so much. This book wasn't any different!
Atkinson's delicious writing, intrigue and characters made this book perfect. I really enjoyed it and will definitely read more.
Definitely recommended.
Thanks a lot to the publisher and Netgalley for this copy in exchange for an honest review.