Cynthia Haggard's Reviews > Case Histories

British writers are not the same as American writers. I know this is an obvious statement, but American readers who pick up Kate Atkinson’s CASE HISTORIES, the first in a series of six novels featuring PI Jackson Brodie, should be warned that this novel goes at a far slower clip, than its American cousin.

Set in 2004, CASE HISTORIES is about three cold cases that Jackson Brodie is investigating. The way this novel is structured, Ms. Atkinson introduces each one at the beginning of the novel.

Chapter 1 ~ Family Plot, set in 1970, introduces the story of missing three-year-old Olivia Land, who disappeared one night from a tent in the back garden and is never seen again.

Chapter 2 ~ Just a Normal Day, set in 1994, is about the horrific murder of a young woman who is temping in her father’s office.

Chapter 3 ~ Everything from Duty, Nothing from Love, set in 1979, is about an overwhelmed young mother and what happens when she explodes.

After that, each chapter tells the story from a characters’s point of view, with the title listing the name ~ Jackson, Amelia, Theo, and so on until the very end of the novel. What this means for the reader is that they are expected to do the hard work of remembering each of these stories, as well as each character throughout the rest of this novel.

In my opinion, it would have been much better to have the book divided into three parts, with the details of each case plus Jackson Brodie’s response to them put into each part so that the reader has more time with these people before switching to the next case. Of course, the author would not want to give the endings away until the end, but that kind of structure would make it much easier for the reader to keep track of what is going on.

As I said above, this novel goes at a far slower clip than the typical US murder mystery. Again, I think this is a problem, and I really believe this book would have benefitted from both a faster pace and some trimming. I really don’t think we needed to spend quite so much time with sisters Julia and Amelia and their tiresome squabbles, which bogged down the action.

So I can only give a qualified recommendation for this one. If you are British, or an Anglophile American, you might enjoy this piece. Otherwise, I think you should give it a miss.