British novelist Kate Atkinson had breakout success in the United States with Case Histories, a detective novel of sorts, interconnecting several stories of grief and loss. In her new book, One Good Turn, the main character of Case Histories, a would-be detective named Jackson Brodie, returns.
One Good Turn is set in Edinburgh at that city's summer Arts Festival. Brodie witnesses a case of road rage that turns out to be much more. Once again he must find the connectedness among several baffling threads of circumstance.
Kate Atkinson has written several acclaimed novels published in her native Great Britain. Her first book, Behind the Scenes at the Museum won the prestigious Whitbread Award. She's the subject of the latest Powells interview:
I am still shelved under literary fiction. Which is... well, I was going to say it is kind of handy, but again, I don't have anything against being seen as a crime novelist, except that I don't see myself as a crime novelist. In Britain, where I haven't been reborn, where I am still me, I feel I still have the same readers, and I don't think my readers are suddenly saying, "Oh my god, now she's writing crime!" They are just buying a Kate Atkinson "comedy of manners" that has a bit more gore in it than usual.
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