Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
“Case Histories” is the first in Atkinson’s series of Jackson Brodie books. Brodie is a private detective who, in “Case Histories” is investigating three separate cases, while trying to deal with his daughter, ex-wife, and the fact that someone seems to be trying to kill him.
The fact that all three of Brodie’s cases deal with vulnerable young women makes him more and more conscious of his daughter, which really added a lot of depth to the story for me. The first two cases are very compelling: the young beloved girl who disappears one summer night from the tent she was sharing with an older sister in the backyard, the promising young woman who was murdered by a knife-wielding maniac in her father’s law office while he’s out at a meeting. The final case, the young woman who is stressed out by her life as a very young mother and wife who kills her husband, starts out promising, but ends up much less compelling. It really didn’t connect with the other stories in any super meaningful way, in my opinion. I think a re-evaluation or omition of the third case history would have made the book stronger.
It took me quite a while to get into this book, a fact I blame on the audio. I did eventually enjoy it, but I think this book is better suited to paper than to audio. Before I familiarized myself completely with the cast of characters I found myself wanting to flip back to remind myself who was who (for some reason the names Olivia and Caroline kept flipping in my head and if there was only a brief mention of one of these women I had a hard time remembering which one she was). Obviously a hard copy of the book would have been a bit more conducive to that.
I would definitely read another one of Kate Atkinson’s books. I thought it was well-written (aside from the fact I wasn’t impressed with the third case history) and the story as a whole worked for me. Next time, though, I think I’ll skip the audio in favor of a book.
Some books do better on audio than others. The book I’m listening to now may be close to the best audiobook ever. Review sometime next week!. I’ve been meaning to read Atkinson’s series — sounds good.
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Great review! I have this book on my shelves. I’m going to give it a try. Thanks!
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I read the actual book and it took me awhile to get into it too. But in the end, I really enjoyed it!
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I liked this one, but didn’t love it. I’ve heard that the series gets better with each book.
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I haven’t read any of Kate Atkinson’s work, but I’d like to. I’ll remember to get the book and not the audio.
I read this paper book years ago, and I loved it! It did start slow and creep on you though!
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You liked this book better than I did, and I read the paper version.
I did like Jackson Brodie, but none of the other characters really came together for me– there were just too many of them.
I think you are right, it would have been a much stronger book if the third storyline had been omitted or redone.
My conclusion on my GoodReads review (before I had my blog) was:
There is an interesting book in there somewhere. I just wasn’t patient enough to dig it out. Even by the end, it hadn’t entirely surfaced for me.
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