Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Started Early, Took My Dog



by Kate Atkinson  384 pages

This is the fourth book in the Jackson Brodie detective series. Brodie is semi-retired and returns to his hometown of Leeds to trace the biological parents of Hope McMasters. The theme of adoptees continues as we meet Tracy Waterhouse, a retired police detective who works a retail security job. Worried about the fate of a small child she sees at the shopping center, she finds herself buying the child from a habitual offender she knows from her police work. The author alternates between past and present, and between the viewpoints of Brodie, Waterhouse, and Tilly, an actress suffering the early stages of Alzheimers. This is both a satisfying mystery as well as a character driven story in which we learn more about Brodie's murdered sister, ex-wives, children and the dog he forcibly adopts from an abusive owner. Brodie is an interesting character, and I hope that Atkinson will continue to write more about him.

No comments:

Post a Comment