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Jan 29, 2012

Kim rated it:

This is the second novel in the series of which ex-soldier, ex-police officer and newly wealthy ex-private detective Jackson Brodie is the chief protagonist. Just as in the first book in the series, Case Histories, the story is told from the point of view of a number of different characters, whose lives intersect with and whose actions directly and indirectly affect each other.

A recurrent image in the novel is that of Matryoshka dolls – the Russian dolls which fit inside each ot More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Apr 24, 2008

Rose rated it:

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...

2 comments like (8 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Jessica rated it:

In this follow-up to Case Histories, we find retired detective Jackson Brodie in Edinburgh, where his girlfriend Julia is appearing in a not-very-good play. Brodie stumbles into a set of interconnected events -- a road rage incident interrupted by a meek writer of popular cozy mysteries; the murder of an over-the-hill comedian who had imposed himself at the writer's house; the disappearance of the body of a young woman wearing crucifix earrings and bearing the card of a shady cleaning service; t More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 29, 2007

Anne rated it:

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 story, On More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 13, 2011

Wyma rated it:

Remember when you first read Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury? A story told by 3 family members, each in turn speaking to the reader, telling the same story from their point of view. And you'd never read anything quite like it, and still haven't. Until McCann's Let the Great World Spin told a story of Phillipe Petit who walked a tightrope between two skyscrapers in New York City in 1974, and featured several different leading characters.

Let the Great world Spin, though, moves f More...

4 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 15, 2010

Linda rated it:

Stephen King recommended this author in a book column that he writes for Entertainment Weekly. (It was lying around at work and I needed something to read!)I took his recommendation seriously because in his column he went on to recommend "...and all the books of Robert Goddard."

I love to come across new authors. Years ago I just happened upon Goddard and avidly read several of his tomes before I ran out of the energy needed to handle the underlying sinisterness of his s More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Dec 27, 2007

brook rated it:

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...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Sep 05, 2007

Emily rated it:

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...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 25, 2007

Khaya rated it:

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...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 30, 2012

Anna rated it:

Hmm. This book was odd, but odd in a good way!

It’s part murder mystery, part tour-de-farce, part complete confusion. It’s character lead, rather than plot lead, and this is what I enjoyed most about it. I grew very fond of some of the characters, and liked being inside their heads as they took us through their thoughts, relived their pasts and got caught up in this crazy story in both comical and touching ways.

The plot was where it came unstuck for me. It seemed like it was More...

7 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 05, 2009

LJ rated it:

ONE GOOD TURN (Pol. Proc-Jackson Brodie-England-Cont)- VG
Atkinson, Kate – 2nd in series
Doubleday, 2006, US Hardcover – ISBN: 0385608004

First Sentence: He was lost.

During the Edinburgh Festival, a case of road rage triggers a sequence of events that impacts a lot of lives. Author Martin Canning, throws his laptop at a driver attacking another driver with a baseball bat. He goes with the victim to the hospital and then hotel to ensure the man is alright. Th More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 09, 2008

Allycks rated it:

A friend left this at my house and for whatever reason I was under the impression that it wasn't the kind of book I read. But after a move the bookshelves got scrambled and One Good Turn landed front and center on the spiffy new IKEA shelves. A little serendipity action is always welcome. One Good Turn turned out to be quality, worth the read, and warmly recommended to other folks who don't think they read this kind of book. A solid three and a half stars. Atkinson has a rare gift for chara More...

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Feb 02, 2012

Jennifer rated it:

Book Description

This plot was hard to sum up for someone as wordy as me so I’m borrowing the one I saw on Amazon. HOWEVER, if you haven’t read Case Histories yet (the first book in the series), skip this description as it contains some spoilers for the first book.

Two 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. But when More...

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Feb 01, 2012

Rett rated it:

Jackson Brodie, always just on the right side of wrong
In “One Good Turn” police inspector Louise Monroe, one of several women drawn to Jackson Brodie, thinks of the ex-soldier, ex-police officer and ex-PI as a really choice hunk of steak, tender but still tough.

Frequently and especially in this the second in the four-book series, Brodie becomes continually appealing as the guy always “just on the right side of wrong.”

This time and concurrently he’s a material witnes More...

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Jan 16, 2012

manyhighways rated it:

The New York Public Library has elected to categorize "One Good Turn" as a mystery/crime novel as shown by the red skull sticker on the spine but I contend that this is false advertising. The story, which takes place in Edinburgh over a few days of the Fringe Festival, is several narrative threads woven together around a road rage incident. But the book isn't actually about the crime. Instead, it's the stories of several characters who happened to be on the scene when the crime occ More...

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Jan 08, 2012

Lynda rated it:

You can't help but love Jackson Brodie, an anti-hero if ever there was one. Former military, former police, former husband, but always father, he stumbles through life falling into one mystery after another because he just can't turn down a woman's request for help. And he is surrounded by women who all seem to want something from him: his ex wife, Josie; their daughter, Marlee; his girlfriend, Julia; then there is Louise. He is unsure how to categorize this last one but somehow she keeps po More...

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Dec 01, 2011

Suzanne rated it:

As it says, I quit about a third of the way into this much-too-long and pretentious book. Once again, an author in need of an editor. The irritating shifting among "cases" in the first book is taken to a whole new level here. Each "case" is given the full, detailed treatment that it would get if it were in a novel of its own, but of course, they're interwoven into this single work. I literally could not remember who the characters were by the time the book got back to them, a More...

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Oct 28, 2011

Nancy rated it:

Great book - good followup to "Case Histories". I love all the twists in the stories. Interesting how she weaves them all together. Can't wait to read the third. (Find it hard to follow all the British references - but then, the world does not revolve around the US - nice to meet and greet other cultures (had same difficulties with the Stieg Larsson series - but loved them)).

In One Good Turn Jackson returns, following his girlfriend, Julia the actress, to the Fringe More...

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Oct 21, 2011

Jon rated it:

Well-rounded characters and snappy dialogue in this fairly leisurely whodunnit (or maybe rather whatsgoingon). There are no hidden clues here--just hints at coincidences and connections that will become clearer only as we learn more. Entertaining, with lots of irony, both gentle and sharp, but too digressive and wordy for my taste. Rather like P.D. James with a sense of humor. Twice Jackson Brodie (Atkinson's sleuth) was seconds from death at the end of a chapter. The next chapter picked up the More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Sep 28, 2011

Heidi rated it:

It's....it's like it wasn't even written by the same author. I read the first in this series, and after my mediocre response to it I didn't think I'd read any others. I ended up with a bunch of stuff requested from the library but nothing had come in, and this was on the shelf there, so I went ahead and picked it up. Miles better than the first book, although I'm willing to admit I might just have been in a mood when I read Case Histories. The first book started with several crimes and then More...

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Sep 28, 2011

Linda rated it:

I enjoy reading books by this author. She does have an interesting method of writing that has not changed in any of the four books I have read so far. Her story jumps all over the place in time, and each character is pretty much a story on their own. Atkinson will have recurring characters in her Jackson Brodie novels and they may or may not have anything to do with the crimes taking place in the current novel. Julia, Jackson's lover in this book had a major role in the previous book and I s More...

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Jul 31, 2011

Woodwren rated it:

I remember a scolding from one of my high school English teachers to the effect that my classmates and I should only read books that made us better people and stop wasting our time with the other stuff. I'm not sure Atkinson's Jackson Brodie novels would rise to her standard. They're probably frustrating for mystery readers who value focused, logical plots and a clear sense of right and wrong in a novel, too. But I love these books. Atkinson's writing, her characters, and her observations of the More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 26, 2011

Ian added it

“Matryoshka is the word of the day”, says one of the characters in One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson, her second crime novel to feature Jackson Brodie. And the structure of the book does seem to take its lead from the Russian nesting dolls which crop up from time to time throughout the story. I tend to like books with a strong structure, and certainly Atkinson adopts one here; she is playing with the form of the crime novel, although not to the detriment of either plot or character development.

On More...

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Jun 08, 2011

Christine rated it:

Publisher: Back Bay Books
Released: 2007
Pages: 418
ISBN-10: 9780316012829
ISBN-13: 978-0316012829
Stars: 4.0

I don’t usually choose crime novels when selecting fictitious fare, although I have read my fair share of them in the past (John Grisham, Stuart Woods, Mario Puzo, John le Carré). However, One Good Turn by Edinburgh-based, bestselling author Kate Atkinson was a welcome change of pace and a literary mystery novel that unravels several crimes slowly and with gr More...

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May 24, 2011

Vicky rated it:

This is a well-written, intellectual mystery by a noted literary writer. The characters are thoroughly developed and believable, the plot filled with hooks and surprises.

Jackson Brodie is an ex-cop, ex-PI turned millionaire who happens to be on the spot during a road rage incident in Scotland. Not wanting to get involved, he assumes the other bystanders will give the information needed and walks away. Unfortunately, fate determines that he will be involved as he, the two road rage pl More...

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May 18, 2011

YiShun rated it:

I enjoyed this book for the quick read that it was. It's a good page-turner in that Atkinson doesn't tie up the last loose thread until--literally--the last page of the book.
This is a sprawling mystery. It's cast of characters is a lot bigger than it needs to be, I think, and where a more ambitious or (yes, I'll say it) more seasoned thriller or mystery writer might have had the balls to go where this book seems like it was going, Atkinson doesn't.
It kind of reminds me of the kid who More...

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Apr 23, 2011

Shannon rated it:

I enjoyed Case Histories by Kate Atkinson, so I thought I'd give One Good Turn a try. Like its predecessor, it features Jackson Brodie. Jackson's a likable character and I found myself feeling a lot like him as I read his internal dialogue in this book. One Good Turn finds Jackson in Edinburgh with his girlfriend, who is there to act in a play at the annual festival. Through a series of events, he finds himself embroiled in a series of small - and not so small - crimes.

It's been a More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 05, 2011

Nancy rated it:

OK, I will give it to Kate Atkinson; she has a way of zinging an ending where you do not see it coming. There is always something at the end that makes your head do a whip-a-round and you find yourself saying, “Really, what did I miss that got us to this point”.

If you are one of those cheater types that reads the last chapter or paragraph before you start a book, then you will ruin this whole reading experience, so just take your time and get to the good parts in due course.
More...

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Mar 17, 2011

Beth rated it:

ONE GOOD TURN by Kate Atkinson begins with a road rage incident involving one crazy guy beating a man with a baseball bat and another man, a wimpy writer of popular crime novels, knocking the crazy guy down with his laptop computer. From there we meet all sorts of seemingly unrelated characters who all become connected.

It's actually a pretty good and simple story. But here's what I guess happened.

My guess is that Atkinson had a pretty good short story. Someone (publisher, More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Mar 01, 2011

Jeff rated it:

Since I really liked Case Histories I was eager to read the next book by Kate Atkinson. Guess maybe it was a little too much of a good thing. I did finish it, but not with the eagerness I raced through it's predecessor. Although it also features the same detective, the likeable Jackson Brodie, he gets a bit tiresome by book's end, as do a number of the other characters. The plot seemed forced and uninvolving. A disappointing follow-up to an excellent debut.

In an afterword to Case Histories More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

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