Product Description

Cambridge is sweltering, during an unusually hot summer. To Jackson Brodie, former police inspector turned private investigator, the world consists of one accounting sheet - lost on the left, found on the right - and the two never seem to balance. Jackson has never felt at home in Cambridge, and has a failed marriage to prove it. Surrounded by death, intrigue and misfortune, his own life haunted by a family tragedy, he attempts to unravel three disparate case histories and begins to realise that in spite of apparent diversity, everything is connected...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1020 in Books
• Published on: 2006-08-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 399 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Case Histories continues a winning streak for Kate Atkinson which began when her impressive novel Behind the Scenes at the Museum won the Whitbread First Novel Award. Since that book, Atkinson has gleaned a keen following of readers who are prepared to follow in the surprising directions the unpredictable author takes us on. And Atkinson--so far--hasn’t let us down.

The perfectly judged prose that distinguished Human Croquet is fully in evidence in Case Histories, and a new frisson here comes from the genre-stretching that Atkinson is indulging in. In some ways, this book could almost be seen as a new take on the crime novel (not the first genre one would expect the author to tackle), but the crime elements here Atkinson uses are peripheral. The protagonist here is a former police inspector who now makes a living as a private investigator. Jackson Brodie is making ends meet in a sweaty Cambridge summer and trying to deal with his own failed marriage. But if his life is adrift, perhaps Brodie can justify his existence via his belief that he can do some good for the people he encounters in his job. But he is to find that he will be irrevocably changed by those he is trying to help.

As a vividly created cast of characters surround the beleaguered Brodie, all the novelistic skills that shone in Atkinson's earlier books are fully in play. Those deluded into thinking they've picked up something resembling a standard private eye novel will find something much more rich and strange; Atkinson goes from strength to strength.--Barry Forshaw

Review
" 'Her best book yet, an astonishingly complex and moving literary detective story that made me sob but also snort with laughter. It's the sort of novel you have to start rereading the minute you've finished it' Guardian"

Synopsis
Cambridge is sweltering, during an unusually hot summer. To Jackson Brodie, former police inspector turned private investigator, the world consists of one accounting sheet - lost on the left, found on the right - and the two never seem to balance. Jackson has never felt at home in Cambridge, and has a failed marriage to prove it. Surrounded by death, intrigue and misfortune, his own life haunted by a family tragedy, he attempts to unravel three disparate case histories and begins to realise that in spite of apparent diversity, everything is connected...

Customer Reviews

A writer outside her comfort zone
Behind the Scenes... yes. Human Croquet... most definitely yes. But as brilliant a writer as Atkinson clearly is on her own territory, a crime writer she ain't. Unbelievable plot that relies almost exclusively on co-incidence, ridiculous and annoying characters and an ending so loose and stupidly unlikely (beyond any degree of suspension of disbelief!) this is almost like a teenager's attempt at a crime novel. Cack-handed, naive and woe-fully out of its depth.

Brilliant
This is one of those books that you keep in your hand when you get off the tube so that you can read one more paragraph going up the escalator. It is immediately engaging and written extremely well. You care for the characters and the author does a brilliant job of introducing them all well whilst keeping the mystery going so that you can't wait to turn the page. It is also very funny in parts and acutely sad in others. I was worried towards the end that I would be disappointed but I thought the book finished very well and I can't wait to order another from this author.

Wonderful Confusion
I really enjoyed this book of the lost and found centred around cases taken on by ex-policeman now PI, Brodie. Atkinson takes you into her characters musings on life after death and loss with witty observations. The cases are poignant, sad, inevitable and it is not just Brodie who is confused by the end. Not everything is tied up neatly leading to more confusion. Major and minor characters are rounded and full of life, even the sad ones.