Lovely Little Shelf

The Book: When Will There Be Good News?, by Kate Atkinson

The Story: The book starts out with a young mother taking a walk with her kids.  A man comes to them and kills 2 of the kids and the mother.  The other girl runs away and hides until rescuers find her.

Next, we hop 30 years in the future, to another town with another dude who seems like a creeper.  He sneaks around then snatches some hair off of a kid’s head, then gets on a train going the wrong direction.

Hop again.  Now we’re with a 16 year old girl who is the nanny for a doctor and her weird husband.  The doctor is beyond nice and has pretty much taken the girl into her family.

Another hop.  A middle aged woman police officer who is unsettled in her marriage and is obsessed with watching over this mother and children after the father flipped out and killed some people at a party and is now after this family.

Little by little, these four stories start to weave together through several ways.  Phone calls, train wrecks, crazy brothers, dead teachers, a dog… you know, just the normal plot devices.  The suspense comes from a kidnapping and everyone else out looking for whodunit.  

What I Thought: I got this book because I had read Case Histories by Kate Atkinson and really enjoyed it.  While I remember enjoying it while I read it, I now have not even the most remote clue what it was about.  I’m sure in a few weeks this one will have worked its way out of my brain too.

Not that it wasn’t good. It was.  I loved Reggie and how she was young and scarred but really tough and able to hold her own. I also liked how quickly everything moved.

However, (isn’t there always a however?) I had a hard time with the crazy amount of plot devices and ridiculous “coincidences” that took place to bring everyone together.  It just seemed too contrived to me.   The first 150 pages took me forever to read. I couldn’t get into it at all.  The last half was much better and just sailed along for me. I read it in one night.

Conclusion: A good mystery, but not very memorable.