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The first book in Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie Mysteries series, called "The best mystery of the decade" by Stephen King, finds private investigator Jackson Brodie following three seemingly unconnected family mysteries in Edinburg.Case one: A little girl goes missing in the night.
Case two: A beautiful young office worker falls victim to a maniac's apparently random attack.
Case three: A new mother finds herself trapped in a hell of her own making - with a very needy baby and a very show more demanding husband - until a fit of rage creates a grisly, bloody escape.
Thirty years after the first incident, as private investigator Jackson Brodie begins investigating all three cases, startling connections and discoveries emerge . . . show less
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RidgewayGirl Both books are written by highly acclaimed authors and feature an unhappy private investigator specializing in missing persons.
20
BookshelfMonstrosity These two books are domestic fiction in which father and daughter is a main topic.
KayCliff The sisters of the heroes of both books were raped and murdered when the characters were children.
Member Reviews
Case Histories tells the story of three separate cases that private detective Jackson Brodie has been hired to investigate. Two of the cases are cold cases, one a child that disappeared decades earlier and the the other a murder of a young woman one decade earlier. The third case involved domestic violence that resulted in murder. As Jackson investigates the cases, the reader learns more about the people that have hired Jackson and about Jackson himself. Although the book takes you through Jackson's investigation, it is unlike most mysteries I have read because it is not really about the mysteries. It is more about how sudden tragedies change people and how those around the victims cope and became the people they were when Jackson meets show more them. In the end, although the reader does find out what happened, it does not really matter as much as how much knowing or no knowing changed everyone, including Jackson. I enjoyed this book and I am looking forward to reading more of the series. Jackson might have his flaws, but I liked his character and I am curious to see how he does or does not evolve in subsequent books. show less
The first in Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie series, Case Histories brings the left behind family members of three cold cases to Brodie's door. Three-year-old Olivia Land disappears overnight during a heatwave in 1970. Eighteen-year-old Laura Wyre is killed one lunchtime at her father's office. A young mother reaches the end of her tether and grabs a wood axe when her seven-month-old baby won't stop crying, fracturing her family forever.
Jackson Brodie, former military and then civilian police officer and now private investigator, already has two, less interesting, cases on the go when two of Olivia's sisters contact him 34 years later, having made an unexpected discovery in their late father's study. Their story is a distraction from show more tailing the wife of a client who thinks his wife is having an affair, and drinking tea with an old South African woman who claims her black cats are being stolen to be made into gloves.
It's not long before Laura's father also seeks him out, much to Brodie's discomfort. He was a detective investigating another case when Laura died and spoke to her father briefly. Ten years later, Theo Wyre is seeking closure and has reached the end of his own amateur investigative abilities. Brodie's connection to Wyre is the first of many subtle links that join the stories together. It takes time for the truth to reveal itself but I really enjoyed the way Atkinson carries it off. There are themes in this novel that are present in each of the books I previously read: a wishing that life could be relived and done differently; the loneliness of not being loved adequately as a child; the fear involved in loving too much; the half attention paid to things that turn out to be important; the infinity of grief buried just beneath the surface waiting to send up shoots. At times, it reminded me of Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate.
With four cases under investigation and the discovery that his ex-wife is moving to New Zealand with her new partner, taking her and Brodie's eight-year-old daughter with her, the last thing he needs is a fifth case - a local nurse looking for her missing niece, behaving shiftily and turning to seduction to get Brodie on side.
Meeting Brodie in the book was a reminder of the tv show. Atkinson writes him beautifully into existence so that, over only a few pages, we have a good idea of the man, his situation and his future dreams. As with all the best fictional sleuths, Jackson is single (unhappily divorced) and hides his humanity beneath a gruff exterior of weary misanthropy.
Throughout the book, Atkinson captures perfectly the changeable, unpredictable nature of thought processes and people's speech, darting from one thing to another, leaving out crucial parts, needing to be brought back into focus, whether its a reluctant mother trying to see a way out of her situation, Jackson brooding while waiting on a case, or two sisters baffled by their discovery.
Jackson's backstory is as tragic as those of the people he interacts with through the cases. We gain glimpses of his childhood in the north of England, his older sister and brother, his Scottish dad and Irish mum. We learn why he left school at sixteen and joined the army, why he has such a deep understanding of his clients, and why he is so protective of his precocious, sugar-guzzling eight-year-old daughter.
I gobbled this book up, enjoying its summer heat while hiding in the cool of the house from our own summer heat over a long weekend. I've already bookmarked the next three in the series in my library account. show less
Jackson Brodie, former military and then civilian police officer and now private investigator, already has two, less interesting, cases on the go when two of Olivia's sisters contact him 34 years later, having made an unexpected discovery in their late father's study. Their story is a distraction from show more tailing the wife of a client who thinks his wife is having an affair, and drinking tea with an old South African woman who claims her black cats are being stolen to be made into gloves.
It's not long before Laura's father also seeks him out, much to Brodie's discomfort. He was a detective investigating another case when Laura died and spoke to her father briefly. Ten years later, Theo Wyre is seeking closure and has reached the end of his own amateur investigative abilities. Brodie's connection to Wyre is the first of many subtle links that join the stories together. It takes time for the truth to reveal itself but I really enjoyed the way Atkinson carries it off. There are themes in this novel that are present in each of the books I previously read: a wishing that life could be relived and done differently; the loneliness of not being loved adequately as a child; the fear involved in loving too much; the half attention paid to things that turn out to be important; the infinity of grief buried just beneath the surface waiting to send up shoots. At times, it reminded me of Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate.
With four cases under investigation and the discovery that his ex-wife is moving to New Zealand with her new partner, taking her and Brodie's eight-year-old daughter with her, the last thing he needs is a fifth case - a local nurse looking for her missing niece, behaving shiftily and turning to seduction to get Brodie on side.
Meeting Brodie in the book was a reminder of the tv show. Atkinson writes him beautifully into existence so that, over only a few pages, we have a good idea of the man, his situation and his future dreams. As with all the best fictional sleuths, Jackson is single (unhappily divorced) and hides his humanity beneath a gruff exterior of weary misanthropy.
Throughout the book, Atkinson captures perfectly the changeable, unpredictable nature of thought processes and people's speech, darting from one thing to another, leaving out crucial parts, needing to be brought back into focus, whether its a reluctant mother trying to see a way out of her situation, Jackson brooding while waiting on a case, or two sisters baffled by their discovery.
Jackson's backstory is as tragic as those of the people he interacts with through the cases. We gain glimpses of his childhood in the north of England, his older sister and brother, his Scottish dad and Irish mum. We learn why he left school at sixteen and joined the army, why he has such a deep understanding of his clients, and why he is so protective of his precocious, sugar-guzzling eight-year-old daughter.
I gobbled this book up, enjoying its summer heat while hiding in the cool of the house from our own summer heat over a long weekend. I've already bookmarked the next three in the series in my library account. show less
This isn't the first book I've read by Kate Atkinson, just the first one in her Jackson Brodie series. How glad I am to know there are several more to come.
Atkinson is an excellent writer. Here, we meet her new protagonist, a temporarily down on his luck former public Investigator turned private eye. He's recently divorced, with a young daughter who lives with his ex-wife and her new husband. He's only moderately bitter, and smokes too much.
What elevates Atkinson for me is how quickly she can frame her characters; their quirks and demeanors are recognizable in our own families, friends or neighbors.
Two sisters, growing up in a troubled household but trying to stay in touch as adults:
"...proposing a contradictory viewpoint to Julia's show more came automatically to her...they both constantly found themselves arguing the case for opinions that neither of them really cared about one way or the other, like a pair of bickering, jaded courtroom lawyers."
An overweight man who knows he should do better for himself, but a devastating loss makes it hard for him to care:
"He made for the stairs as rapidly as his bulk would allow, although the best he could manage was a sort of rolling waddle.
"...he ordered a modest latte and a scone but nonetheless was subject to the disapproval of the waitress, who made it clear that she thought someone so overweight shouldn't be eating at all."
These types of nuggets are scattered liberally throughout a terrific set of mysteries, all of which come to the office of Jackson Brodie.
There's plenty of suspense and twists, as well. I'm ready for the next one in this series, and pretty much for anything if Kate Atkinson wrote it.
Highly recommend. show less
Atkinson is an excellent writer. Here, we meet her new protagonist, a temporarily down on his luck former public Investigator turned private eye. He's recently divorced, with a young daughter who lives with his ex-wife and her new husband. He's only moderately bitter, and smokes too much.
What elevates Atkinson for me is how quickly she can frame her characters; their quirks and demeanors are recognizable in our own families, friends or neighbors.
Two sisters, growing up in a troubled household but trying to stay in touch as adults:
"...proposing a contradictory viewpoint to Julia's show more came automatically to her...they both constantly found themselves arguing the case for opinions that neither of them really cared about one way or the other, like a pair of bickering, jaded courtroom lawyers."
An overweight man who knows he should do better for himself, but a devastating loss makes it hard for him to care:
"He made for the stairs as rapidly as his bulk would allow, although the best he could manage was a sort of rolling waddle.
"...he ordered a modest latte and a scone but nonetheless was subject to the disapproval of the waitress, who made it clear that she thought someone so overweight shouldn't be eating at all."
These types of nuggets are scattered liberally throughout a terrific set of mysteries, all of which come to the office of Jackson Brodie.
There's plenty of suspense and twists, as well. I'm ready for the next one in this series, and pretty much for anything if Kate Atkinson wrote it.
Highly recommend. show less
The youngest daughter in a family of four vanishes one night. A wife overwhelmed with her new baby rages at her husband, who is dead before the day is through. The daughter of an obese lawyer is murdered on her first day of work at her father's firm. A ninety-year-old widow is missing some of her cats. These are merely some of the mysteries Jackson Brodie, unhappily divorced private eye with a beloved 8-year-old daughter, must solve. Atkinson weaves the fates of her cast of characters as skillfully as an expert quiltmaker, and sprinkles the narrative with a patchwork of colorful lesser characters, all of them expertly embodied. You know these souls as well as you know your own friends (whose mysteries will always bewilder you).
Why I waited so long to read this sublime book, I'll never know. I saw the BBC series (starring Jason Isaacs, aka "Lucius Malfoy" from the Harry Potter series) years ago, and admittedly at the time I thought to myself, "Well, these are fun little mysteries but nothing more." Wrong. In this book, Atkinson does something I've never experienced before. She tells 4 unique stories, each with fully fleshed out characters, and blends them together. Three of these stories are the case histories (the mysteries) and the fourth is the story of the private investigator trying to solve those mysteries while he deals with what's going on in his life and we realize he has a minor case history of his own. She intertwines these stories with the ease of show more a master weaver who knows exactly what she's doing and exactly how much of each to thread in at a time and when to switch to a different story because this one has gone on long enough (for now) and when to overlap and tell parts of one story again during parts of another and then just when you think she's forgotten about one minor thread in particular you find out she's had plans for it all along. Just amazing. For every book I've read (dozens? hundreds?) where I've been frustrated by dropped plot lines that seemed to go nowhere and ultimately served no purpose, here is the book that I've been longing for.
And if that weren't enough, she's just an amazing writer. I challenge you to pick up any other detective story and find writing like this. The various women and the single man from the "case histories" side of the story are rich characters, full of passions and deficiencies, strengths and weaknesses. These are not stock characters. You get back stories. You get color. By the time the book finishes, you know them. And the same can be said for the "main" (?) character of Jackson, the private investigator who has a complicated life yet manages to solve all three of these mysteries along the way.
Great fun. And of course I only picked this up because I saw that Atkinson's latest published novel is... the fifth in the Jackson Brodie series!?! Case Histories has easily sat on my shelves for 15 years unread and in that time she wrote 3 other novels with this same character, took almost 10 years off to write other novels, then came back around and wrote a fifth. I had no idea. Of course I've gone out and bought all the rest and will dive through them soon. Are my expectations set too high? Can she possibly keep up this level of genius for five straight novels? I guess we'll see. show less
And if that weren't enough, she's just an amazing writer. I challenge you to pick up any other detective story and find writing like this. The various women and the single man from the "case histories" side of the story are rich characters, full of passions and deficiencies, strengths and weaknesses. These are not stock characters. You get back stories. You get color. By the time the book finishes, you know them. And the same can be said for the "main" (?) character of Jackson, the private investigator who has a complicated life yet manages to solve all three of these mysteries along the way.
Great fun. And of course I only picked this up because I saw that Atkinson's latest published novel is... the fifth in the Jackson Brodie series!?! Case Histories has easily sat on my shelves for 15 years unread and in that time she wrote 3 other novels with this same character, took almost 10 years off to write other novels, then came back around and wrote a fifth. I had no idea. Of course I've gone out and bought all the rest and will dive through them soon. Are my expectations set too high? Can she possibly keep up this level of genius for five straight novels? I guess we'll see. show less
Reread (Jackson Brodie 1#, #2, #3, #4 and #5 back-to-back) before diving into Death at the Sign of the Rook.
I’d forgotten just how brilliant Case Histories is but then it has been 20 years.
Four cold cases of missing or murdered girls, three for Jackson Brodie to solve, one that can he can never resolve.
The thumbnail depictions, cutting asides, clever connections, wry observations and shocking revelations make every single word count, bring every single character to life and every single sentence raise a smile.
Julia Land (wild hair, potty mouth), Theo Wyre (overweight asthmatic, beautiful soul) and Binky Rain (ancient South African cat lady), the sheep storm, shovel hands and making time are just a few of the many images still fresh show more in my mind.
To be able to throw rape and murder, child abuse and psychopathy, stalking and suicide, country music and Joan of Arc, the rural idyll and homelessness, languorous afternoon teas and glutinous budget burgers, love and loathing, pig mathematicians and teenage mums into the melting pot, stir it all up and bring it all together is pure genius.
Kate Atkinson is one of my favourite authors and Case Histories has reminded my exactly why. show less
I’d forgotten just how brilliant Case Histories is but then it has been 20 years.
Four cold cases of missing or murdered girls, three for Jackson Brodie to solve, one that can he can never resolve.
The thumbnail depictions, cutting asides, clever connections, wry observations and shocking revelations make every single word count, bring every single character to life and every single sentence raise a smile.
Julia Land (wild hair, potty mouth), Theo Wyre (overweight asthmatic, beautiful soul) and Binky Rain (ancient South African cat lady), the sheep storm, shovel hands and making time are just a few of the many images still fresh show more in my mind.
To be able to throw rape and murder, child abuse and psychopathy, stalking and suicide, country music and Joan of Arc, the rural idyll and homelessness, languorous afternoon teas and glutinous budget burgers, love and loathing, pig mathematicians and teenage mums into the melting pot, stir it all up and bring it all together is pure genius.
Kate Atkinson is one of my favourite authors and Case Histories has reminded my exactly why. show less
Kate Atkinson breaks all the rules for murder mysteries in “Case Histories,” her 2004 novel that introduced Jackson Brodie. This helps explain why the book is so sensational.
Atkinson begins with three "case histories," each separated by time and space. This itself is unusual for a mystery novel. A married couple who don't deserve to have any children nevertheless have four daughters, the youngest of which disappears one summer night. A young woman is slashed to death on her first day working at her father's law office. A depressed young mother kills her husband with an ax.
Years pass before Brodie, a former police officer now working as a private investigator, is hired by three different people to look into all three cases. Two of show more the surviving sisters want to know what happened to their missing sibling. A still-grieving father wants to know who killed his daughter. The sister of the woman who killed her husband wants to find that woman's daughter, adopted by someone else after the murder.
As if this isn't enough of a caseload to deal with at one time, someone is trying to kill Jackson Brodie by such means as sabotaging his car and blowing up his house. That Brodie continues his investigations in the company of his young daughter is the part of the novel that is hardest to swallow. Wouldn't a loving father return the girl to her mother while his life is in danger, even if the mother does plan to take their daughter to Australia with her lover?
The narrative flits from one case to another, often within a single paragraph. Brodie often seems like a minor character rather than the hero. Perhaps the most significant rule Atkinson breaks is that the secrets are ultimately revealed not by Brodie but by the omniscient narrator who tells us what really happened in the startling closing chapters. Brodie is close, it turns out, but no cigar.
One rule the author doesn't break is to keep the reader guessing until the very end. show less
Atkinson begins with three "case histories," each separated by time and space. This itself is unusual for a mystery novel. A married couple who don't deserve to have any children nevertheless have four daughters, the youngest of which disappears one summer night. A young woman is slashed to death on her first day working at her father's law office. A depressed young mother kills her husband with an ax.
Years pass before Brodie, a former police officer now working as a private investigator, is hired by three different people to look into all three cases. Two of show more the surviving sisters want to know what happened to their missing sibling. A still-grieving father wants to know who killed his daughter. The sister of the woman who killed her husband wants to find that woman's daughter, adopted by someone else after the murder.
As if this isn't enough of a caseload to deal with at one time, someone is trying to kill Jackson Brodie by such means as sabotaging his car and blowing up his house. That Brodie continues his investigations in the company of his young daughter is the part of the novel that is hardest to swallow. Wouldn't a loving father return the girl to her mother while his life is in danger, even if the mother does plan to take their daughter to Australia with her lover?
The narrative flits from one case to another, often within a single paragraph. Brodie often seems like a minor character rather than the hero. Perhaps the most significant rule Atkinson breaks is that the secrets are ultimately revealed not by Brodie but by the omniscient narrator who tells us what really happened in the startling closing chapters. Brodie is close, it turns out, but no cigar.
One rule the author doesn't break is to keep the reader guessing until the very end. show less
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ThingScore 100
We have a woman who once thought she was marrying a “great mathematician” but now finds herself—a mother of four daughters and pregnant again—wondering what her glowering husband “would look like when he was dead.”
added by paradoxosalpha
Atkinson has always been a gripping storyteller, and her complicated narrative crackles with the earthy humor, vibrant characterizations, and shrewd social observations that enlivened her first novel but were largely swamped by postmodern game-playing in Human Croquet (1997) and Emotionally Weird (2000).
added by davidcla
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Author Information
36+ Works 52,721 Members
Kate Atkinson was born in York, and studied English Literature at the University of Dundee. She earned her Masters Degree from Dundee in 1974. She then went on to study for a doctorate in American Literature but she failed at the viva (oral examination) stage. After leaving the university, she took on a variety of jobs from home help to legal show more secretary and teacher. Her first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, won the 1995 Whitbread Book of the Year ahead of Salman Rushdie's The Moor's Last Sigh and Roy Jenkins's biography of William Ewart Gladstone. It went on to be a Sunday Times bestseller. Since then, she has published another five novels, one play, and one collection of short stories. Her work is often celebrated for its wit, wisdom and subtle characterisation, and the surprising twists and plot turns. Her most recent work has featured the popular former detective Jackson Brodie. In 2009, she donated the short story Lucky We Live Now to Oxfam's 'Ox-Tales' project, four collections of UK stories written by 38 authors. Atkinson's story was published in the 'Earth' collection. In March 2010, Atkinson appeared at the York Literature Festival, giving a world-premier reading from an early chapter from her forthcoming novel Started Early, Took My Dog, which is set mainly in the English city of Leeds. Atkinson's bestselling novel, Life after Life, has won numerous awards, including the COSTA Novel Award for 2013. The follow-up to Life After Life is A God in Ruins and was published in 2015. This title won a Costa Book Award 2015 in the novel category. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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- Canonical title
- Case Histories
- Original title
- Case Histories
- Original publication date
- 2004-09-01
- People/Characters
- Jackson Brodie; Olivia Land; Julia Land; Amelia Land; Sylvia Land; Theo Wyre (show all 15); Laura Wyre; Marlee Brodie; Lily-Rose; Binky Rain; Quintus Rain; Victor Land; Keith Fletcher; Michelle Fletcher; Shirley Morrison
- Important places
- Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, UK; England, UK; Cambourne, Cambridgeshire, England, UK; North Yorkshire, England, UK; Newnham, Cambridgeshire, England, UK; Grantchester, Cambridgeshire, England, UK (show all 7); Bamburgh Castle, Northumberland, England, UK
- Related movies
- Case Histories (2011 | TV Series | IMDb)
- Epigraph
- Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. (John 8:32)
- Dedication
- For Anne McIntyre
- First words
- How lucky were they? A heat wave in the middle of the school holidays, exactly where it belonged.
- Quotations
- She should have done science, not spent all her time with her head in novels. Novels gave you a completely false idea about life, they told lies and they implied there were endings when in reality there were no endings, every... (show all)thing just went on and on and on.
It wasn't that [he] believed in religion, or a God, or an afterlife. He just knew it was impossible to feel this much love and for it to end. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)"She used to be a poodle," Amelia said (unfathomably), and Julia said, "Don't be such a crosspatch, Milly, we're en vacances," and Amelia said, "You're always on holiday," and Julia said, "Well I can think of worse ways to live your life," and Jackson wondered if he was in love with Julia and then the sky suddenly darkened to the color of Agen plums, thunder growled in the distance, and the first drops of heavy rain thudded onto the cafe's canvas awning and Julia shrugged (in a commendably French way) at Jackson and said, "C'est la vie, Mr. Brodie, c'est la vie."
- Publisher's editor
- Velmans, Marianne
- Blurbers
- Crace, Jim; Cusk, Rachel; Schwarz, Christina
- Original language
- English
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