Case Histories by Kate Atkinson

Case histories starts in an unusual way, with a vivid description of three separate cases in Cambridge. In the first a little girl disappears from a tent during the night. The second case describes the awful attack of a young girl working in her father’s office, and in the third there is a grisly scene of a young mother overwhelmed by the demands of a new baby and her husband. It is not until later in the book that Jackson Brodie, a private investigator, appears and is thrown into these old cold cases. He is asked by Julia and Amelia Land to find out what happened to their sister, the little girl who disappeared, another client wants him to find the murderer of his daughter and Shirley want to find her long lost niece. Connections gradually appear and Jackson must tie the threads together.

Atkinson has woven together a complex series of plots that are gripping and kept me engrossed to the end. Her description of all the characters is wonderful and it is easy to imagine each of them. Brodie is going through a challenging time after his divorce and is dealing with all the emotions that come with grappling with an ex-wife and his daughter. He becomes embroiled in the lives of his clients as he tries to make sense of three cold cases.

I missed reading this when it was first published in 2004 and it has stood up to the test of time. It is an outstanding literary crime novel and deserves the Orange Prize Nominee for Fiction Longlist (2005), and Saltire Society Literary Award for Scottish Book of the Year (2005). I look forward to reading the rest in the series.

Themes: Murder, Private investigators, Missing children.

Pat Pledger