Lives intercept, collide and threaten to shatter when a
seemingly senseless act of road rage propels a group of
strangers into the same orbit.
Ex-private eye Jackson Brodie is tagging along with his
girlfriend Julia to the Edinburgh Summer Festival when he
witnesses the attack. Knowing he should stop and give a
witness statement, Jackson doesn't want to get involved in
the red tape that always accompanies these things, so he
walks away. Also on hand is successful and very shy mystery
writer Martin Canning. Martin has the presence of mind to
hurl his laptop at the attacker, "Honda Man," who jumped
out of his car to beat another motorist (a man in a rented
Peugeot who goes by the ordinary name of Paul Bradley, even
though he is neither ordinary or Paul Bradley) to death
with a baseball bat. Gloria Hatter has just stepped out
with a friend to catch a comedy show and is standing
outside in line when the event takes place.
A street full of rubbernecking witnesses and the cops get
zip in way of description. Everyone remembers the dog, but
no one can describe him or his master to the authorities.
It goes without saying that no one got a plate number from
the Honda. In the end, the crowd drifts away. Each going
back to their own lives, their own problems, their own sad
and mostly solitary orbits. But Atkinson has other plans
for her characters. No longer at cross purposes, now this
group is connected. Their paths cross, their fates are
intertwined and they all have a part to play in this dark
and deadly little thriller.
Something's definitely up Bertie! Like her previous Jackson
Brodie book CASE HISTORIES, ONE GOOD TURN is a page-
turning, plot-twister of a book. Point of view frequently
changes, giving the reader time to get to know the main
characters. This is a thriller but so much more. Atkinson
takes time to weave her plots and people together so at the
end you've gotten more than your basic crowd-pleasing
whodunit. She gives you more, makes you work a little
harder and wants you to think and consider more. A lot of
internalizing going on here. Except for maybe "Honda Guy,"
there are no cardboard cutouts. Every character is drawn
with depth and perception. Martin Canning is especially
entertaining. Spending time with the characters is every
bit as important as solving the "mystery" of dead bodies.
Two years after the events of Case Histories left him a
retired millionaire, former detective Jackson Brodie has
followed Julia, his occasional girlfriend and former
client, to Edinburgh for its famous summer arts festival.
But when he watches a man brutally attacked in a traffic
jam--the apparent victim of an extreme case of road rage--a
chain of events is set in motion that will pull the wife of
an unscrupulous real estate tycoon, a timid but successful
crime novelist, and a hardheaded female police detective
into Jackson's orbit. Suddenly out of retirement, Brodie is
once again in the midst of several mysteries that intersect
in one giant and sinister scheme. A triumphant novel filled
with wit and surprise and intrigue, ONE GOOD TURN will
delight the many fans who applauded Kate Atkinson's first
foray into thrillers, and it will win her even more devoted
readers as she continues to blur the boundaries that divide
literary and crime fiction.
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