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One Good Turn: (Jackson Brodie): A Jolly Murder Mystery [Paperback]

Kate Atkinson (Author)
3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (130 customer reviews)
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Book Description

Publication Date: 2 July 2007 | Series: Jackson Brodie (Book 2)

It is the Edinburgh Festival. People queuing for a lunchtime show witness a road-rage incident - an incident which changes the lives of everyone involved. Jackson Brodie, ex-army, ex-police, ex-private detective, is also an innocent bystander - until he becomes a suspect.

With Case Histories, Kate Atkinson showed how brilliantly she could explore the crime genre and make it her own. In One Good Turn she takes her masterful plotting one step further. Like a set of Russian dolls each thread of the narrative reveals itself to be related to the last. Her Dickensian cast of characters are all looking for love or money and find it in surprising places. As ever with Atkinson what each one actually discovers is their true self.

Unputdownable and triumphant, One Good Turn is a sharply intelligent read that is also percipient, funny, and totally satisfying.

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Frequently Bought Together

One Good Turn: (Jackson Brodie): A Jolly Murder Mystery + When Will There Be Good News?: (Jackson Brodie) + Case Histories: (Jackson Brodie)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 544 pages
  • Publisher: Black Swan; Reprint edition (2 July 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0552772445
  • ISBN-13: 978-0552772440
  • Product Dimensions: 12.7 x 3.2 x 19.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (130 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,349 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Kate Atkinson
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Product Description

Review

An absolute joy to read...the pleasure of One Good Turn lies in the ride, in Atkinson's wry, unvanquished characters, her swooping, savvy, sarcastic prose and authorial joie de vivre. (Guardian )

Atkinson is frequently very funny...while the tone stays light, the plot continues to darken....manages to be that rarest of things - a good literary novel and a cracking holiday read (Observer )

Atkinson, while having fun with the murder-mystery genre, slyly slips us a muted tragedy (Sunday Telegraph )

One Good Turn is the most fun I've had with a novel this year (Ian Rankin Guardian )

Thrillingly addictive...In One Good Turn Atkinson proves quite unique in her ability to fuse emotional drama and thriller...Imagine a Richard Curtis film scripted by Raymond Chandler, both a little enlivened by the collaboration...The mix is embodied by Brodie. Like all good detectives, he is a hero for men and women alike (The Times )

Book Description

Kate Atkinson's brilliant bestselling follow-up to Case Histories, now a major 6-part BBC1 crime drama series with Jason Isaacs as Jackson Brodie.
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
124 of 128 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars "Boxes within boxes, dolls within dolls, worlds within worlds..." 12 Dec 2006
By Mary Whipple HALL OF FAME TOP 100 REVIEWER
Format:Hardcover
In a book that is more fun than any other book I've read all year, Kate Atkinson creates a series of bizarre characters, all involved with murder--either planning it, committing it, or trying to avoid it. Many seemingly unrelated characters, involved in several seemingly unrelated plot lines, make their appearance in the first fifty pages. During the four days in which the novel takes place, however, these characters and plots start to overlap and eventually come together, until, at the end, the reader is smiling with pleasure at the brilliant plotting and ironic twists of fate--full of admiration for Atkinson's skill in bringing it all together with such panache.

In the main plot line, an Edinburgh automobile accident leaves "Paul Bradley," a mysterious man and innocent victim, at the mercy of a crazed, baseball bat-wielding Honda driver. A witness, Martin Canning, the timid writer of Nina Riley mystery stories, reacts instinctively to the impending carnage, hurling his laptop at the Honda driver and saving "Paul Bradley" from certain death. A second set of characters revolves around Graham Hatter, the wealthy developer of Hatter Homes, who is in trouble for bribery, money laundering, and fraud in the building of cheap tract houses.

Jackson Brodie, former cop and private investigator, in Edinburgh for a drama festival in which his girlfriend is involved, introduces a third plot line when he discovers a woman's body on the rocks beside the ocean. It washes out to sea, nearly drowning him when he tries to retrieve it. Sgt. Louise Monroe, who lives in one of the Hatter Homes and whose son is a petty thief, is assigned to investigate the report of the body Brodie claims to have seen. Additional threads involve a housecleaning company/escort service, a second-rate comedian who "comes to dinner," and events which took place in Russia some years ago.

Full family backgrounds and work histories are given for all the characters, and it is through these that the reader often detects some of their interconnections. Ironies abound, and as characters' dreams are revealed and their fantasies are explored, the reader comes to know them--until Atkinson reveals even more surprises and shows how much we have yet to learn. With action that comes fast and furious, devious plot twists, and deliciously dark humor, Atkinson crafts a novel that proves one of Jackson Brodie's maxims: "A coincidence is just an explanation waiting to happen." By the end of this novel, all the explanations have happened. Mary Whipple
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45 of 46 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic sequel 11 Jan 2007
By M. Todd
Format:Hardcover
A fantastic murder mystery that keeps you guessing throughout. It follows the story of Jackson Brodie, an ex-policeman and ex-private investiagtor. He's in edinburgh for the festival and stumbles across a road rage incident and two murders, all closely connected. Various wonderful characters appear, each chapter written from a different viewpoint. It is a very intricate mystery with plot twists everywhere. Incredibly well written and a fantastic plot. I highly recommend reading case histories, the first book, as it will provide so much background to the characters. It's a bit of fun to read, not an average crime novel, it's more upbeat. I fully intend to read all of the author's other books she is fantastic. Highly recommended.
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35 of 36 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars The best intro to Kate Atkinson you could wish! 12 Dec 2009
By David Price
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
As a relative newcomer to Ms Atkinson's work I had no 'previous' to base any initial attitudes when I started reading 'One Good Turn' but inside a matter of minutes she had me as a fan of both her style, her characterisations and her superb ear for dialogue.
I just love her work and would urge any reader who:

a. likes this type of novel that tells a great story,
b. enjoys laughing out loud,
c. is prepared when doing b., at 2 in the morning, to risk and endure a severe rollicking from a woken spouse...,

to try her out.
For me, a pensioner living in France on a rubbish pension made worse by the exchange rate, there are no regrets about buying all her works. I'll cut down on wine but not on books that I enjoy so much that I can reread them a month later with as much or more pleasure.
Keep on writin' Kate.
David Price
(...)
FRANCE
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
Kate Atkinson can really write one good turn kept me engrossed from beginning to end as all her books do brilliant author.
Published 5 days ago by mrs k a buckland
4.0 out of 5 stars SMART, ENGAGING DIALOG
When it comes to rendering unusual and amusing characters complete with a plethora of baggage inhabiting plots that, while engaging, are often convoluted and a little less than... Read more
Published 29 days ago by Red Rock Bookworm
4.0 out of 5 stars Jackson still has what it takes.
Took me a long time to work out the link between the characters.
Lots of twists and turns, particularly at the end.
Published 1 month ago by Sam
3.0 out of 5 stars Most irritating novel
I love Kate Atkinson's writing. I read Case Histories almost at a sitting, revelling in her use of words as much as the plot and characterisation. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Lynne C. Gill
5.0 out of 5 stars Good crime writing
Atkinson is a really good writer - lots of intrigue and some very good characterisation. The plot twists and turns and eventually all the components come together.
Published 1 month ago by Westyorkshireman
5.0 out of 5 stars Kate Atkinson Provides another "stormer"
She's a star ... consistently top notch long awaited reads ... never fails to deliver a smashing story you don't want to put down !
Published 1 month ago by simonh
4.0 out of 5 stars not read yet
not read this yet, so will have to let you know, i bought it to take on holiday will write a review later
Published 1 month ago by Pat Flanagan
5.0 out of 5 stars A "can't put it down" good read!
Kate Atkinson does not disappoint with this reprise of Jackson Brodie embroiled in and helping to solve a murder mystery in and around Edinburgh during the Festival. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Barbara Sellors
5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous
It does what it says and it is my favourite of her books.Highly recommended . Have read it three times!!
Published 5 months ago by cheryl
4.0 out of 5 stars A jolly good story
Liked the story, loved the style. An engaging and nicely interwoven plot with many humourous bits that made me laugh out loud several times. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Ges Brown
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