‘Atkinson’s bright voice rings on every page, and her sly and wry observations move the plot as swiftly as suspense turns the pages of a thriller.’ San Francisco ChronicleTwo years after the events of Case Histories left him a retired millionaire, Jackson Brodie has followed Julia, his occasional girlfriend and former client, to Edinburgh for its famous summer arts festival. It is a life affirming work of profound insight and intelligence. Ingeniously plotted, full of suspense and heartbreak, Case Histories is a feat of bravura storytelling that conveys the mysteries of life, its inanities and its hilarities. Surrounded by death, intrigue and misfortune, his own life is brought sharply into focus. He is at that dangerous age when men suddenly notice that they re going to die eventually, inevitably, and there isn t a damn thing they can do about it.

He is forty five but feels much, much older. Jackson has never felt at home in Cambridge, and has a failed marriage to prove it. A nurse has lost her niece a widow, her cats. Two spinster sisters make a shocking find. His days are full of people clamouring for answers and explanations. To Jackson Brodie, former police inspector turned private investigator, the world consists of one accounting sheet Lost on the left, Found on the right and the two never seem to balance. Yet despite everything he d seen and done, inside Jackson there remained a belief a small, battered and bruised belief that his job was to help people be good rather than punish them for being bad.’Cambridge is sweltering, during an unusually hot summer. He was used to being a voyeur, the outsider looking in, and nothing, but nothing, that anyone did surprised him any more. ‘Investigating other people’s tragedies and cock ups and misfortunes was all he knew.

Kate atkinson museum