Case Histories : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: A return to form
Review:
Case Histories is both a departure and a return to form for Kate Atkinson. A departure in that she utilises the framework of the detective plot. A return to form in that it's her first readable novel since Behind The Scenes in The Musuem.
In her debut, Atkinson showed a talent for dialogue, humor, and the mysteries, frustrations, and incidental day-to-day details of family life. The darkness of the story was always lifted by the flashes of comedy and the vividness of the characters she created. In Case Histories, it is this dark underbelly of domestic life that comes to the fore. These are families that have been struck by random tragedy and in explicating their stories, Atkinson depicts the fine line between ordinary everyday happiness and cursed extraordinary tragedy.
It's a compelling read, humane and sympathetic. If it doesn't quite work, it's due to Jackson Brodie, the central character, who at times, seems more like a conceit than a fully rounded person. A device to pull the different plots together rather than a totally engaging character.



Rating:
Summary: beautiful engrossing novel, ending too pat
Review: I have read all of Kate's novels, and love them. She knows how to grab the reader, and does. The characters are fascinating (although I wasn't as impressed with Brodie as some other reviewers are, he's too good). For most of the others, you want to reach out and help them (or kill them, depending on the character),
The only weakness of the novel is the ending - too many ends neatly tied up.
Nevertheless, this is a must read for any reader.


Rating:
Summary: More beautiful and moving than a typical "detective story"
Review: "Case Histories" is a beautiful, moving novel. It begins by describing three ostensibly unrelated, heartbreaking family tragedies. The cornerstone of the book is the Jackson Brodie character, who is hired as a private investigator in the hopes of bringing closure to each of the families involved. As the plot develops, links between the cases emerge, and the lives of the survivors become intertwined.

Do not be fooled into thinking that this book is just another detective novel that resolves everything with one tidy ending. Although we do eventually discover who committed each of the three murders, these discoveries are almost beside the point, and there is no sense of justice or resolution being reached in each of the cases. The victims are still long dead, and the survivors are still dealing, more or less effectively, with their grief and loss. Indeed, the primary theme of the book focuses instead on the nature of loss, grief, and ultimate redemption. One finishes this book with a deep sense of sadness that we live in a society where people abuse and kill each other and where the victims' loved ones must cope with the knowledge of this loss and pain. But one finishes the book also with a glimpse of hope that survivors can and do cope with this loss and pain, and that life must and should go on.

Rating:
Summary: A piece of literature for true mystery lovers
Review: As an true and devoted mystery novel addict, I have had a growing annoyance with recent books in this genre; many have become predictable, boring, uninventive and sometimes just crass. Kate Atkinson has renewed my faith in the belief that a good mystery can be considered true literature as well as a real mental exercise.

I was especially impressed by two elements in this novel. The first is simply the believability of her characters as full and faily regular people, most of whom carry emotional baggage not totally unlike the normal person. All characters appear to be returning from a trauma that has changed them and, in the short journey the reader takes with each one, they share a journey to realize who they are apart from their residual grief.

The second source of ingenuity is Atkinson's gift for weaving a complex and compelling plot. The action of this story is vibrant and insists the reader tackle just one more page to see what's around this next bend. The grip of this story is immediate and intense enough to ensure that just the experience of reading becomes an active exercise of mind and heart rather than a passive, and sometimes frantic, turning of pages to get to the moment of revelation. The shape of the plot causes you to begin to care for all the characters whether or not you like them.

All I know about myself is that I enjoy a great story. Atkinson's latest made me savor every page, especially once I realized how special and rare this work is. Just after I finished the last word I decided it wouldn't be a bad idea to flip to the first page and start over again.

Rating:
Summary: A Real Treat
Review: Great writing, compelling plot, strong and vivid characters, I really enjoyed this novel. It is a mystery, but not exactly, its scope is larger. I had a hard time breaking away the few times I did. Some of the scenes are very wrenching, and the theme of the death of a child is portrayed with an emotional intensity that is sustained throughout the novel and which I felt weighing heavily. I say this not as a criticism of the writing, but quite the opposite. I would enthusiastically recommend this novel and I hope it receives the attention it deserves

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: I don't know where to start my raving. This has to be one of my all time favorite novels. The characters are wonderful, the plot so tightly woven, and everything interconnects. Within 50 pages you are absorbed in three different stories: each as compelling as the last. Just read it!

Rating:
Summary: Engrossing from page one
Review: I really enjoyed this book. After having been in a fiction slump, I have hit upon a few winners lately, and this is one.

Summary (no spoilers):

The novel starts out with three separate chapters taking place at various points in time, from 1970 to 1994. Each of the chapters tells about a horrible crime, or "case history".

The book then goes on to the present, where private detective Jackson Brodie has been hired by various persons to look into these past crimes.

By the end of the book, there is resolution to the three case histories, and a mention of a fourth case history, that has to do with Detective Brodie himself.

This is a moving, funny, sad, but always interesting novel. Guaranteed to grab you from the first page and keep you entertained until the end.

With the exception of one annoying coincidence (for me), the novel works as a mystery tale and one of psychological suspense.

Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Delightful novel, filled with irony and mordant wit.
Review: Jackson Brodie, a private detective, is investigating three old cases, which soon begin to converge and overlap. Three-year-old Olivia Land disappeared without a trace thirty-five years ago while sleeping outside with one of her sisters, two of whom have hired Jackson to find out what happened. Theo Wyre has hired him to investigate the death of his daughter Laura Wyre, who was killed by a maniac ten years before while working in her father's office. Shirley Morrison, Jackson's third client, is trying to locate her sister and her niece. Her sister Michelle, living with her husband and young daughter on an isolated farm, has vanished from Shirley's life, and after twenty-five years, Shirley wants to find her.

Atkinson's suspenseful and dramatic cases pique the reader's interest in the characters and their lives, especially the female characters. Most have faced traumatic events and suffered through less than ideal childhoods, which unfold inexorably as the cases become more complex. Not a linear narrative, the novel focuses on different characters in successive chapters, moving back and forth in time to provide background and to set up the overlaps which eventually occur. The characters are sometimes bizarre, baffling, and even unsympathetic, but they are always memorable for their behavior and their justifications for it.

Filled with ironies and noir humor, the novel also reveals Atkinson's astute observation of social interactions, as she skewers some aspects of her characters' lives while also creating sympathy for them. While the first two case histories-that of the missing Olivia and the murdered Laura-are genuinely sad and regarded overall as tragedies, the story of Michelle Fletcher, and peripherally, her sister Shirley, is much darker. Neither Michelle nor Shirley elicits much empathy after the opening chapter, but the occasional interjection of their story line stirs up the action, changes the pace, and keeps the novel from being overly melodramatic. Atkinson's eventual revelations about Michelle's life provide Atkinson with some of her best opportunities for social satire and wit.

Readers will delight in Atkinson's characterizations, and the ironies are priceless, with the biggest noir twists saved for last. Though the cases are, in fact, all "solved" by Jackson, they are not really resolved. At least five important "loose ends" regarding the perpetrators of these murders and disappearances remain, showing that even murder cases are not as "cut and dried" as one might expect. (4.5 stars) Mary Whipple


Rating:
Summary: Not exactly top drawer
Review: Kate Atkinson is quick out of the gate with several sharply drawn vignettes. The mid-story causes her problems. She attempts to reach beyond the detective genre and add "Literary" depth to her story by in-depth interior monologues of all the major characters. The problem is that there is no differentiation between these. Everyone thinks in the same syntax, same vocabulary, about the same trite, shallow and soap opera-like subjects. She's also fond of couching some of the most trites thoughts in parenthesis, which adds to the annoyance. Amateurish. The "detective in peril" sublot is also a problem, as it is poorly developed. It feels as if it were bolted on after someone explained to Atkinson that the detective is usually in fear of his life in one of these things. Overall, it missed the mark as crime fiction and missed by a mile as literary fiction. I would suggest Ruth Rendell as someone who writes this sort of novel successfully.


Rating:
Summary: Another of those "hurry up and end it" books
Review: Up until the last chapter, I would have given this book a "4" or "5" (even though there are a few too many incredible coincidences). Hey! Authors! There's supposed to be a Beginning, a Middle AND an ENDing (that isn't inspired by Steele or Roberts).