One Good Turn: A Novel
by Kate Atkinson
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Read in February, 2008
One Good Turn is Atkinson's second novel to feature a character named Jackson Brodie, though I didn't realize it was part of a series until I had finished the book. That didn't seem to impact the story. The book is sort of a mystery, but it doesn't completely belong to the genre. There is a detective, and a crime, and a series of plot twists and turns, but I don't think the author was trying to write a piece of genre fiction. Had she tried to do just that, she may have been more successful; as i...more
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Of Kate Atkinson's previous books, I found "Behind the Scenes at the Museum" tedious, irritating, and unreadable. But I quite enjoyed "Case Histories", without considering it anything special.
The good news is that "One Good Turn" is far more similar to "Case Histories" than to the earlier book. In fact, two characters from "Case Histories" appear again in "One Good Turn" - it also shares the convoluted intersecting plotlines that se...more
The good news is that "One Good Turn" is far more similar to "Case Histories" than to the earlier book. In fact, two characters from "Case Histories" appear again in "One Good Turn" - it also shares the convoluted intersecting plotlines that se...more
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Read in February, 2008
it took me long enough to finish this one, which says a lot. i'm the person who will willingly give up sleep, food, social interaction and general human-like activities to read a good book.
i really liked kate atkinson's case histories. it's been awhile since i read it, but it left enough of an impression that i was willing to dive into this one with little knowledge of what it was about, or what people thought of it. all in all, it had a very slow start for me. in fact, that was ...more
i really liked kate atkinson's case histories. it's been awhile since i read it, but it left enough of an impression that i was willing to dive into this one with little knowledge of what it was about, or what people thought of it. all in all, it had a very slow start for me. in fact, that was ...more
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I was mostly impressed with this book. The writing and characterization were excellent, and it was literary in the sense that there was more to the book than the story itself; it was crafted in a very clever and symbolic way. The only flaw, in my view, was that it took a long time for the story to develop and/or become clear; there was a lot of focus on characterization which I actually enjoyed, but I also felt like I was waiting for things to actually happen. For much of the book I felt that...more
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Read in July, 2008
This is the second Kate Atkinson book I've read, and I love it just as much as - maybe even more than - the first one. Everyone who knows me knows I'm a mystery junkie, but her books are so much more than that. They are so involved in the personal lives and character development of her characters - they're like interesting novels first and mystery stories second. I have a friend who decidedly does not like mysteries and who loved the first Atkinson book she read. This is the second book in t...more
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Read in March, 2008
I feel like I have discovered a new author even though I read her first one, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, and absolutley loved it. In the many years since, I have never been compelled to pick up her others - don't know why. I found this on sale and started it during a coffee break at work and found I just could not put it down. The story is told through the eyes of multiple chracters who all witness a road rage incident. At first it seems there is nothing connecting these chracters, but as t...more
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Read in January, 2008
This is, in part, a sequel to Case Histories, in that two of the characters from that book are main characters in this one. I enjoyed this, and liked the setting (Edinburgh Fringe Festival). She creates very vivid characters. She started this book the same way she started the previous one - chapter after chapter introducing new characters, before she circles back and starts filling in plot and background and we get to really get into each person/storyline. The beginning therefore ta...more
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Read in March, 2008
From this book, the second that I've read by a new favorite author, Kate Atkinson, I learned that even excellent writers can out-clever the storylines and make a reader feel duped in the end. Which is to say, I thought the writing was extraordiary and interesting and the plot lines and characters less than extraordinary -- as if the author had, perhaps, too much fun (at her reader's expense) creating characters and situations, relationships, etc., and then, oh my, it was time to bring the book ...more
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Read in August, 2007
One Good Turn was a decent read. Good for lazy summer days, it's one step up from your typical beach book, but far from being great literature. I've also read Atkinson's Case Histories (also decent), but I guess it didn't make all that much of an impact, as I was almost halfway through the book before I realized that One Good Turn has the same characters as Case Histories. Then I also realized that One Good Turn follows pretty much the same formula as Case Histories, which is: take a mystery, em...more
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Read in December, 2007
recommends it for:
everybody!
I read "Case Histories" earlier this year, which I loved, and "One Good Turn" is just as good, although a bit different in tone. Less private eye-ish, more crime procedural meets French farce, if that's not stretching it. Anyway, I love Jackson Brodie and I love a good set of believably rendered coincidences, so this was perfect almost-holidays reading.
This time the action is set in Edinburgh, where Jackson has travelled with actress girlfriend Julia (one of the sisters f...more
This time the action is set in Edinburgh, where Jackson has travelled with actress girlfriend Julia (one of the sisters f...more
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Read in March, 2007
I'm not usually into crime novels or mysteries, but Kate Atkinson is a great story spinner! The story picks up where Case Histories left off though if you didn't read it you could read this without wondering what's going on.
"One Good Turn" focuses on Jackson Brodie who is a former private detective. He is in Edinburgh, Scotland with his girlfriend Julia who is engrossed ...more
"One Good Turn" focuses on Jackson Brodie who is a former private detective. He is in Edinburgh, Scotland with his girlfriend Julia who is engrossed ...more
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Read in July, 2007
I’m a big fan of Atkinson’s, and this, her most recent novel, is a sequel of sorts to her last one, Case Histories, since it features the same protagonist, Jackson Brodie. This time, Brodie, an ex-private detective, is in Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival with his actress girlfriend, and gets pulled into the spiraling series of events sparked by a road rage incident. It took me a little while to get into this novel; the first 100 pages or so are deliberately confusing, introducing characters...more
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Read in May, 2008
Like Atkinson's "Case Studies," it's character driven and it breaks the rules of the mystery genre. Atkinson's dry humor and ironic tone kept me chuckling throughout. Her characters are peculiar misfits, isolated in one way or another, and their stories intersect around a violent case of road rage and its aftermath. Two of the characters, Jackson Brodie and Julia, come from "Case Studies," but by now they've been romantically involved for a couple of years. It's both humo...more
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Read in January, 2007
I enjoyed reading this quite a bit, though, like Case Histories, it didn’t quite hang together as a mystery. The motives didn’t really seem sufficient when it all wrapped up. One Good Turn was more of a page turner, with kind of a madcap feel to it. I’m not sure if there wasn’t as much humor in Case Histories, or if I just don’t remember it, but this one was notably funny in place.
Again, Atkinson is great with characters—the whole cast of them are interesting and fleshed out...more
Again, Atkinson is great with characters—the whole cast of them are interesting and fleshed out...more
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Read in July, 2008
Not as good as Case Histories, but it was still fun to see what main character Jackson Brodie is up to. The book starts strong but it unravels toward the end. Plus there was too much deus ex machina as Atkinson works on tying her many interrelated plots and characters together -- which is fine if used judiciously but I found it distracting in this case. (There is a passage involving a close call with an attack dog I find especially unbelievable.)
It has a lot of the hallmarks of Kate Atkinson t...more
It has a lot of the hallmarks of Kate Atkinson t...more
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Read in February, 2008
When Stephen King wrote in Entertainment Weekly that Case Histories by Kate Atkinson was the best book he had read that year, I had to check it out. I found it great fun and wasn't sure what to expect from One Good Turn. Just as someone else wrote, all the crossing plot lines are there and I found the entire book most acceptable. The characters are drawn in ways you can recognize, both good and bad, and still care about what happens to them. I liked the setting of the Edinburgh Fringe Festiv...more
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Read in September, 2007
I think this book is even better than "Case Histories", which introduced (I think) Jackson Brodie. Atkinson does a great job of weaving together the stories of many different characters, somehow making you interested in what happens to each of them. The one complaint I have about this book comes from the punctuation geek in me: far too many comma splices. This should not be encouraged. Educate your children about he dangers of the comma splice before letting them read this book. ...more
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Read in December, 2007
Like another reviewer, I didn't connect this book to Atkinson's previous novel, Case Histories (which, incidentally, I preferred). In this one, the character development - perhaps because there were so many characters - seemed shallow for some, and unlike in the previous novel, in which motivations became clear as the story progressed, in this one those motivations did not develop but were dropped like bombs in the middle of the story. Even though it lacked the nuance of the previous st...more
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Read in April, 2007
recommends it for:
Mystery lovers
Also written by Kate Atkinson, One Good Turn is sort of a sequel to Case Histories, and it does help to read in order if you plan to read both books. Similar to Case Histories, One Good Turn intertwines a handful of "cases" in a way that you don't get all the details and are often left wondering where the connection is and if you'll ever be told! There are some juicy Law & Order-esque scenes that don't spare much detail, but if you are someone with little patience for waiting out t...more
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Read in September, 2007
recommends it for:
anyone.
An excellent read that made me get pick it up far more frequently than l would an average novel. An interesting melange of characters, made all the better for the author's way of exposing their backgounds and inner thoughts quite randomly throughout the story line.
Although l understand it is the second in a trilogy, knowledge of the previous book is not required to enjoy this one.
There was something quite "creative writing class" about it, which strangely endeared itself to me as a...more
Although l understand it is the second in a trilogy, knowledge of the previous book is not required to enjoy this one.
There was something quite "creative writing class" about it, which strangely endeared itself to me as a...more
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