Even when she’s not at her best, Atkinson is still pretty good.
In his sixth outing, Jackson Brodie finds himself trapped in an Agatha Christie novel that is also a Jackson Brodie novel.
The story begins with Jackson attending a murder-mystery weekend at “one of England’s premier stately homes.” Lady Milton, the doyenne of Burton Makepeace House, is confused by the large cast of characters. The private investigator himself can’t wait for this farce to be over. “It hasn’t even begun properly yet,” Detective Constable Regina Chase informs him. This setup is as delicious as it is improbable; there is no one in popular fiction less likely to enjoy a whodunit starring Reverend Smallbones and Countess Voranskaya than Atkinson’s world-weary (but intensely empathetic) private investigator. Before we get a chance to see how this situation unfolds, though, the narrative jumps backward a week to introduce Jackson’s latest clients. Hazel and Ian, the twin offspring of the late Dorothy Padgett, have hired the former police detective because someone—probably Dorothy’s carer—has stolen a Renaissance painting that hung in her bedroom. Next, Atkinson reintroduces Lady Milton, whose estate boasted a Turner until someone—probably the housekeeper—absconded with it. This chapter, which is just over 20 pages, is followed by a chapter spent in the company of Reverend Simon Cate. This is 16 pages that feels like a lot more. Rereading the opening scene at this point gives one the sense that Atkinson is describing her own novel: There are too many characters, and it’s a bit slow. This is funny in the way that Atkinson is often funny, but the critique stands. By the time he returns, even Jackson seems attenuated. Reading about him reading about art theft is about as exciting as it sounds. The pace does pick up, eventually, and fans who stick around will get what they came for.
Even when she’s not at her best, Atkinson is still pretty good.Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2024
ISBN: 9780385547994
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
A top-class cozy infused with dry wit and charming characters who draw you in and leave you wanting more, please.
Four residents of Coopers Chase, a British retirement village, compete with the police to solve a murder in this debut novel.
The Thursday Murder Club started out with a group of septuagenarians working on old murder cases culled from the files of club founder Elizabeth Best’s friend Penny Gray, a former police officer who's now comatose in the village's nursing home. Elizabeth used to have an unspecified job, possibly as a spy, that has left her with a large network of helpful sources. Joyce Meadowcroft is a former nurse who chronicles their deeds. Psychiatrist Ibrahim Arif and well-known political firebrand Ron Ritchie complete the group. They charm Police Constable Donna De Freitas, who, visiting to give a talk on safety at Coopers Chase, finds the residents sharp as tacks. Built with drug money on the grounds of a convent, Coopers Chase is a high-end development conceived by loathsome Ian Ventham and maintained by dangerous crook Tony Curran, who’s about to be fired and replaced with wary but willing Bogdan Jankowski. Ventham has big plans for the future—as soon as he’s removed the nuns' bodies from the cemetery. When Curran is murdered, DCI Chris Hudson gets the case, but Elizabeth uses her influence to get the ambitious De Freitas included, giving the Thursday Club a police source. What follows is a fascinating primer in detection as British TV personality Osman allows the members to use their diverse skills to solve a series of interconnected crimes.
A top-class cozy infused with dry wit and charming characters who draw you in and leave you wanting more, please.Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-98-488096-3
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Pamela Dorman/Viking
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship.
An artwork’s value grows if you understand the stories of the people who inspired it.
Never in her wildest dreams would foster kid Louisa dream of meeting C. Jat, the famous painter of The One of the Sea, which depicts a group of young teens on a pier on a hot summer’s day. But in Backman’s latest, that’s just what happens—an unexpected (but not unbelievable) set of circumstances causes their paths to collide right before the dying 39-year-old artist’s departure from the world. One of his final acts is to bequeath that painting to Louisa, who has endured a string of violent foster homes since her mother abandoned her as a child. Selling the painting will change her life—but can she do it? Before deciding, she accompanies Ted, one of the artist’s close friends and one of the young teens captured in that celebrated painting, on a train journey to take the artist’s ashes to his hometown. She wants to know all about the painting, which launched Jat’s career at age 14, and the circle of beloved friends who inspired it. The bestselling author of A Man Called Ove (2014) and other novels, Backman gives us a heartwarming story about how these friends, set adrift by the violence and unhappiness of their homes, found each other and created a new definition of family. “You think you’re alone,” one character explains, “but there are others like you, people who stand in front of white walls and blank paper and only see magical things. One day one of them will recognize you and call out: ‘You’re one of us!’” As Ted tells stories about his friends—how Jat doubted his talents but found a champion in fiery Joar, who took on every bully to defend him; how Ali brought an excitement to their circle that was “like a blinding light, like a heart attack”—Louisa recognizes herself as a kindred soul and feels a calling to realize her own artistic gifts. What she decides to do with the painting is part of a caper worthy of the stories that Ted tells her. The novel is humorous, poignant, and always life-affirming, even when describing the bleakness of the teens’ early lives. “Art is a fragile magic, just like love,” as someone tells Louisa, “and that’s humanity’s only defense against death.”
A tender and moving portrait about the transcendent power of art and friendship.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9781982112820
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
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