I highly recommend this bracingly intelligent piece of crime fiction. Without revealing alot of information, I will give you a short summary.
Interestingly, the novel starts with an analepsis where Joanna Mason's tragic past is revealed - an event which changed her life. Joanna Mason grows up and becomes a successful GP, with a 16 year-old baby sitter who looks after her son.
Jackson Brodie, an ex-detective, is on a crowded train late during the night, and he becomes a victim of an unexpected event. Reggie finds him and helps him, later getting him to help her find missing Joanna Hunter...
I really enjoyed this book because of the different elements used.
- Atkinson uses multiple focalisations - switching from the characters of Joanna, Louise, Reggie and Jackson Brodie. This gives an insight to the different lives of the characters and their personality and thoughts which contribute to Atkinson making a comment on society.
- Atkinson uses an unconventional style - coincidences constantly happen.
- Versmilitude is used within the novel - a sense of reality which creates empathy.
- Atkinson uses comedy within the novel, including dark humour, which makes it intriguing.
- The strory line is quite narrow, where a big reveal of everything is at the very end, I really liked this because it let my imagination flow, it allows the reader to predict what will happen and makes them continue reading.
Ultimately, this novel was extremely good and there is so much more I could write about it! I Highly recommend this award-winning, third Jackson Brodie novel.
