Jackson Brodie Series 5 Books Collection Set by Kate Atkinson

Product Information

Another, Amelia, stays out in the world but is unable to move forward, she is stuck in a dead end job and can’t form meaningful relationships. A perfect title, really, for the cynicism woven throughout the series, as once again we get multiple incidents separated by decades: a violent attack on a mother and young children while picnicking, with only a six-year-old survivor; a train crash; Brodie stealing a toddlers' hair for paternity testing; the family murderer set to be released from prison; the now-adult survivor disappearing…We bounce between Yorkshire and Edinburgh as strangers' lives continue to intersect with multiple plots and stories being woven together. Eventually Dr Hunter and her baby go missing, and Reggie, DCI Munro, and Jackson Brodie all play the cavalry that ride to the rescue.

She won the Whitbread (now Costa) Book of the Year prize with her first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum. I had already bought the next three books in the series, so I guess I will read them, but I didn't really take to this book. But Dr Hunter is so much more than an employer to Reggie who also adores the baby and who is to prove to be the most faithful of friends to Dr Hunter. I would say the first third of this book suffers from these old faults, but in the next two thirds mostly I was carried along by the strong storyline.Julia and Amelia are eccentric opposites – Julia’s outrageous flirting adding to the humour of the book, contrasting with the awkward spinsterishness of her sister. Later that night, the stress of possibly never finding Olivia and her loneliness causes her to overdose on sleeping pills. Jackson couldn’t think of the names of any French golfers so that was a good sign because Jackson hated golf. Reggie and Ronnie are two female detective constables, young looking, but well able to take care of themselves. Not only do we get to follow Brodie’s thoughts, but we also get front row seats to many of his clients' thoughts too, making this not only a really interesting P.

She was 18 and had just began working as an assistant at Theo's law practice for the summer when a mysterious man in a yellow golfing vest came into the building and fatally stabbed her.

I’d have to say it’s Jackson himself – and that’s before Jason Isaacs was on board for the TV series. To cut a long story short, but not give too much away, doing her rounds in the centre she spots a druggie Kelly Cross dragging a screaming child behind her.

Another story thread is told through the eyes of Crystal, who has literally come up through the gutter, a past she hides from everyone, especially Tommy. Life isn’t tied up all neatly with a bow on top and I would imagine it’s quite rare when investigating crime.It was also voted Book of the Year for the independent booksellers’ associations on both sides of the Atlantic. She is married to an "iffy" husband, but is reasonably well off, and has a baby who is the most precious being ever.

And then there’s Gloria, whose dodgy businessman husband has had a major coronary while in bed with a Russian prostitute. The playful literary tricks that she made overt in Life After Life and A God in Ruins – the deliberate flagging up of her fictional constructs – have always been more subtly present in the Brodie novels. An astonishingly complex and moving literary detective story that made me sob but also snort with laughter. The harsh realities of life in Jackson Brodie’s England are juxtaposed by a reckless, Dickensian sentimentality. Atkinson has a very clever way of ending her novels without all the loose ends tied up – an issue that mentioned in a negative light in a lot of her reviews.He gains a client who claims she’s being watched and followed, which Jackson is starting to think is a paranoid delusion, until he follows her and witnesses her children being abducted.