One Good Turn
by Kate AtkinsonSign in to Goodreads to see your friends' reviews of this book.
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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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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 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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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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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 June, 2007
recommends it for:
mystery lovers
I did like this book, but rated it lower because it failed to live up to its predecessor. One Good Turn reads like a fairly conventional mystery: gripping plot, lots of surprises, fairly intriguing characters, but lacked the gloss of sincerity in Case Histories. Once the various plot contraptions had ground to a halt, Atkinson's undeniable talent with humor and salt-of-the-earth characters faded pretty quickly. Still fun to read, however. I plan to read some of her non-genre fiction soon.
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Read in December, 2007
recommends it for:
crime novel fans
I'm not generally a fan of crime novels but this has a little more to offer than your average crime novel and I really liked it. Kate Atkinson does a wonderful job of weaving the stories of an ecclectic group of characters together, to build the story up to a singular climactic point. One of the reviews on the cover describes the writing as 'literary crime'...i'm not sure if i'd go that far. I don't feel more enlightened for having read it but it was a good holiday read...entertaining.
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Read in February, 2008
I was really disappointed by this book. This is the follow up to Case Histories, which was a great and engaging book with interesting characters. This one is written in the same style, with lots of interlocking stories, but in this one I didn't care about any of the characters, with maybe the exception of Jackson, but even he irritated me for the bulk of the book. And Julia, who I thought was annoying but fun in Case Histories, was just completely unlikeable in this book.
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Read in March, 2007
What I learned from this book is that sequels, le sigh, are rarely as good as the originals. This book is a sequel to Kate Atkinson's earlier Case Histories, which is fabulous and amazing and breath-taking. This one, much less so. The style of writing is the same, but the quality of the plot just isn't there.
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in January, 2008
It's so readable, it's easy not to notice that the plot is clever and the characters are very keenly observed. It's several notches above a good beach read but not sure it left much of an impression on me. That said, it's the first novel I've read by Kate Atkinson and I am motivated to try her others now.
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Read in October, 2008
A very good read, with Atkinson's usual (less impressive as she keeps doing it, IMO) flair for combining various characters who should have nothing to do with each other yet are all involved somehow in some big mystery. While it was better than most sequels, ie, I still found the recurring characters interesting and the plot was good, I found that one of the recurring characters was like a different person this time around, and rather unrealistically sketched whereas last book she was a very en...more
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Read in October, 2007
recommends it for:
Everyone
A hilarious piece of "murder mystery" fiction with some delightful turns and twists that will have you laughing out loud.
Also some interesting messages about right and wrong and how karma works. And it's set in Edinburgh during the Festival.
Also some interesting messages about right and wrong and how karma works. And it's set in Edinburgh during the Festival.
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Read in September, 2008
A road rage incident is witnessed by a queue of people outside a lunchtime show at the Edinburgh Festival. The novel weaves together the seemingly disparate stories of some of the witnesses, all increasingly interlinking as the narrative unfolds.
The characters themselves at first, each in their seemingly disjointed and episodic narratives, all seem like typical thriller stereotypes. There is the wife of an unscrupulous and unfaithful property developer, a wimpish crime writer, a single-mother ...more
The characters themselves at first, each in their seemingly disjointed and episodic narratives, all seem like typical thriller stereotypes. There is the wife of an unscrupulous and unfaithful property developer, a wimpish crime writer, a single-mother ...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
A Jolly Murder Mystery is the subtitle of this latest enjoyable novel from Kate Atkinson. This is so much more than a crime novel and in my opinion it is wrong to see it as belonging to this genre.
The author is an expert at weaving complicated tales and ‘One Good Turn’ is no exception. Taking place over just four days the action is fast and furious. At first I found it difficult to keep track of both the characters and the situations as they were introduced. The fairly large cast of charac...more
The author is an expert at weaving complicated tales and ‘One Good Turn’ is no exception. Taking place over just four days the action is fast and furious. At first I found it difficult to keep track of both the characters and the situations as they were introduced. The fairly large cast of charac...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 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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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 January, 2008
One of the most satisfying books I've read in a while. Atkinson is a hell of a writer. The characters feel real; the setting ditto (though obvs I can't say whether it actually is true to Edinburgh in the flesh and stone and grass); the mystery was deeply satisfying.
One of the things I liked about this was seeing the character Julia again, only now through the eyes of a lover instead of a sister. I like Jackson, an excellent three-quarter-boiled ex-PI (he's not hardboiled like Chandler's Marlow...more
One of the things I liked about this was seeing the character Julia again, only now through the eyes of a lover instead of a sister. I like Jackson, an excellent three-quarter-boiled ex-PI (he's not hardboiled like Chandler's Marlow...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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