The Book: One Good Turn, by Kate Atkinson

The Story: Jackson Brodie (who has been in other books by Kate Atkinson) is walking down the street when he sees a fender bender followed by a pretty through beating. Also in the crowd is Martin, a writer, and Gloria, a millionaire’s wife.

On the same day, a comedian that was staying at Martin’s house was murdered and a cleaning lady from his cleaning service disappeared.

These seemingly unrelated people and unrelated events all become very, very interconnected and they are launched into a full scale mystery involving Russian spies. I kid you not.

What I Thought: I am a little…. no, a lot… obsessed with the idea of the six degrees of separation. I think it is fascinating to think about all the ways that we are connected to each other. Especially within the confines of a city, it is pretty possible that you are connected to every single person in one way or another. That’s wild, right?

I think that that is why I picked this book up. The cover talked a lot about how these people that had never met each other before end up having a huge bearing in each other’s lives and are more connected than they originally thought. This was a major theme in this book and I totally love that.

The other theme that seemed to weave through a lot of the plot was this idea of coincidence. Was it mere coincidence that these people were all in the same place at the same time, or was it fate or was it…. just something else. Each of the characters have their own views on this and it comes into play in pretty powerful ways.

Something I thought was weird: I read Saturday earlier this year, which was also about people coming together (in very similar ways, actually) through a car accident. Just earlier this week I read Run by Ann Patchett which is about, you guessed it, unrelated people, a traffic accident, and then connections galore. Is this a plot device that I have just somehow missed up until now? Is it weird that in just a few months I’ve read THREE books with this plot line? Are there others you can think of?

Anyway! I did enjoy this. I thought that the other Kate Atkinson books I had read were maybe better, but this one was very different I thought. It wasn’t exactly a mystery but wasn’t quite literary fiction either. It was kind of its own thing right in the middle. I like when authors kind of go away a bit from their comfort zone, and I think that the literary part of this was a departure for her.

There were a LOT of characters and stories here and I feel like this could have gotten way, way too big, but Atkinson really reined herself in and did it nicely. I thought that the result was a well constructed, literary mystery with some great, memorable characters. Pretty nice, huh?

Conclusion: I would start with Case Histories, but this is worth your time too!

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.