Case Histories

by Kate Atkinson

Case Histories

book data

3280 ratings, 3.66 average rating, 587 reviews (more data...)

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published

July 4th 2005 (first published 2004) by Black Swan

binding

Paperback, 399 pages

isbn

0552772437 (isbn13: 9780552772433)

description

A major event: a new novel by the Whitbread Award winner, her first novel since Emotionally Weird, and probably her most commercial book yet....more

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All ratings | 5 stars (555) | 4 stars (1361) | 3 stars (1022) | 2 stars (224) | 1 star (62) | avg 3.66

all | this edition

Jon

Jon rated it:

(review of isbn 0316010707)

08/18/08

I'm less enthusiastic about this book than Nikki. I certainly enjoyed the author's wry humor; her characters were both thoroughly imagined and presented with great empathy; and her detective was unique. I also appreciate authors trying to stretch the mystery genre and find ways to alter its railroad-track kind of plotting. All to the good. But her attempt at plot manipulation was confusing at first and eventually just annoying. She told three (or four, depending on how you count) different m...more

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2 comments

Amy

Amy rated it:

(review of isbn 0316010707)

06/18/08

Read in June, 2008

Behind the mystery of each of the three Case Histories, the theme that seemed to unite the different groups of characters was “the lost youth of young girls.” Each of the main characters sought answers to the tragic and sudden loss of a young female in his or her life.

Atkinson does a fantastic job illustrating each character through description, nuances of dialogue, and monologue-type trains-of-thought, but I found these parts of the novel to drag on at times. My personal preference wo...more

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adA

adA rated it:

(review of isbn 0316010707)

01/02/08

bookshelves: advisory

Read in December, 2007

recommends it for: those who owns the zen art of patience

After around sixty pages of intense boredom and unbearable hopeless information, i almost decided to give up the book seeing that there was still a few hundred pages left. However, becasue i love mystery books and have all the most respect for the authors who wrote them, i continued reading...
turns out that this boook is an excellent book. A private investigator, Jackson Brodie, recieved three intriguing cases. Although he knows taht he won't be able to solve all of them, he still sets out to ...more

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Readerbean

Readerbean rated it:

(review of isbn 0316740403)

07/26/07

Read in October, 2006

In the book Case Histories, private investigator Jackson Brodie, receives three new clients in the course of a couple of weeks that all have "cold cases" they need closure on.

Case 1 - 34 years ago 3-year old Olivia Land disappeared from her backyard, where she had been sleeping with her sister Amelia in a tent, never to be seen again. Victor Land, their father dies bringing Olivia's two surviving sisters back to their childhood home where they find the first clue in Olivia's disapp...more

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Jaclyn

Jaclyn rated it:

(review of isbn 0316010707)

06/26/07

Read in June, 2007

recommends it for: Beach readers

Based on the effusive Stephen King quote/review on the cover, I thought this very well may be the thriller of the decade (his words, not mine). I read with anticipation, waiting to see what amazing and shocking revelation would tie all the stories together...only to realize that I had figured it out. There was only one of the story lines (the book is divided into four "case histories" that intertwine) which I hadn't completely figured out. I was bored on the last page as I realized,...more

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Jen

Jen rated it:

(review of isbn 0316010707)

08/25/07

bookshelves: mystery-crime-detective

Read in August, 2007

This is one of the best detective novels I have read in a really long time. Set mostly in Cambridge, England, it's the story of a private detective as he tries to solve three cold cases (I mean, REALLY cold - the most recent crime is still 10 years old) as they all interweave and mix in with personal life. In theory, the plot is nothing special; some missing persons and murder cases, and the details are revealed as the story develops, and the detective's personal life is a mess and someone is ...more

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Emily

Emily rated it:

(review of isbn 0316010707)

07/13/08

bookshelves: greatbooks

Read in April, 2008

This book falls under 2 genres - mystery and family drama - and I would argue that it is much more than the sum of its parts. Every character was incredibly real, incredibly flawed, and incredibly complex. Having said that, Case Histories feels like a light read because of Atkinson's great wit.

Atkinson has a talent for weaving together 3 seemingly unrelated stories, all with themes loss, innocence, and healing. While many of the characters are female, the central character is Jackson Brodie...more

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Deborah

Deborah rated it:

(review of isbn 0316010707)

08/16/07

Read in October, 2006

The sweet youngest daughter in the family goes missing one hot summer night. A lawyer's teenage daughter is killed in a senseless act of violence at his workplace. A mother goes crazy after the birth of her daughter and goes to jail for killing her husband. What do these three cases have in common? They have all landed on the desk of private investigator Jackson Brodie. Brodie's got problems of his own. His wife has remarried, his precocious daughter is dressing way beyond her years, and the str...more

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Emily

Emily rated it:

(review of isbn 0316010707)

03/24/08

Now I'm deeply disturbed. At first, I thought the family of this novel sounded just like my own, in an "aren't they loveably eccentric" way. I even recommended it to my mother because of the similarities. Then I read a bit further and the similarities evaporated disastrously. The father is a molester, the mother is clinically depressed. The eldest sister, who seemed so much like my older sister because they're both religious and creepy, turns out to be abused and murderous. The sister ...more

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1 comment

LJ rated it:

(review of isbn 0385607997)

12/03/08

bookshelves: contemporary_post_1945, england, female_author, mystery, private_investigator

Read in November, 2008

CASE HISTORIES (PI-Jackson Brodie-England-Cont) – VG
Atkinson, Kate – 1st in series
Doubleday, 2004, UK Hardcover – ISBN: 0385607997

First Sentence: How lucky were they?

Ex-cop Jackson Brodie has three cases on which he is working. In 1970, Olivia, the youngest of three sisters disappears after she and another sister spent the night in their backyard tent. Their father has now died. When cleaning out his desk, the two middle sisters find Olivia’s favorite toy. What happened...more CASE HISTORIES (PI-Jackson Brodie-England-Cont) – VG
Atkinson, Kate – 1st in series
Doubleday, 2004, UK Hardcover – ISBN: 0385607997

First Sentence: How lucky were they?

Ex-cop Jackson Brodie has three cases on which he is working. In 1970, Olivia, the youngest of three sisters disappears after she and another sister spent the night in their backyard tent. Their father has now died. When cleaning out his desk, the two middle sisters find Olivia’s favorite toy. What happened to Olivia? In

1979, an overwhelmed wife and mother reaches the breaking point with disastrous results. Her sister wants Jackson to find Tanya, the niece she promised to care for. In 1997, a businessman’s daughter was murdered during her first day of work in her fathers’ author. Who killed her?

Along with the three cases, Jackson has his own issues including an ex-wife and Binky Rain, a 90-year-old lady who believes someone is stealing her cats, and accidents that are not accidental.

Ms. Atkinson’s book was an absolute delight to read. Think macramé; lots of different colored and textured threads skillfully woven together to create a wonderful end product. It may bother some, but I love her use of parenthetical phrases and her imagery. All the elements are there; humor, pathos, suspense, tragedy, emotion, irony and a small touch of paranormal.

Her books are character driven, and a range of characters there is. We get to know them all but particularly Jackson is revealed to us as the story unfolds. There are two sisters who are classic in the way one goads the other with behavior and occasional crass references.

In some ways, this isn’t the easiest book to read just from the way it is structured, and it’s not a gripping page-turner in the usual sense. It is, however, a page-turner in that I became so involved with the stories, I had to know what would happen next and resolution to each case. Atkinson has an unusual and compelling style that is wry, slightly noir and absolutely wonderful.
...less

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Laura

Laura rated it:

07/19/07

Read in January, 2006

This was a very lovely and moving book, that had me in tears on numerous occasions.
It brings together several different stories, all seemingly unrelated (but of course you see how they connect at the end). The main character bringing all these together is a private detective, investigating the cases and finding out all sorts of family secrets and deceptions along the way.
I thought it was very cleverly written and the way the stories connect is not obvious and quite ingenious in places.

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Jen

Jen rated it:

(review of isbn 0316010707)

11/30/08

bookshelves: detective-fiction, female-author, mystery

Read in November, 2008

Jackson Brodie is a former police inspector turned private detective. He is hired for three separate cases in Case Histories. Case one involves the Land family. One night during the 70s when the four Land girls were young, Amelia and Olivia were permitted to spend the night outside in their tent. When Amelia woke up the next morning Olivia was gone without a trace. Thirty years later when their father died, they came across Olivia's toy that went missing with her. Case two involved Theo Wyre or ...more Jackson Brodie is a former police inspector turned private detective. He is hired for three separate cases in Case Histories. Case one involves the Land family. One night during the 70s when the four Land girls were young, Amelia and Olivia were permitted to spend the night outside in their tent. When Amelia woke up the next morning Olivia was gone without a trace. Thirty years later when their father died, they came across Olivia's toy that went missing with her. Case two involved Theo Wyre or rather it involved the death of Theo's daughter, Lara. Lara was stabbed to death in Theo's law office and the murderer was never discovered. Theo left his law practice after Lara's death and spent ten years mulling over every detail of the investigation before he turns the case over to Brodie. And finally, case three involves Michelle. Michelle took a wood axe to her husband's head in a fit of rage. Michelle's sister hires Brodie to find Michelle's daughter.

I listened to this book on the BBC audiobook read by Susan Jameson. I can't say as she is one of my more favorite readers. The biggest problem I had was with the Land sisters who were supposed to be in their late thirties, early forties. However, all I could picture from Jameson's reading were 60-70 year-old bitties. The Golden Girls continually came to mind. And twenty or thirty years down the road they may very well resemble Blanche and Dorothy, but I don't think that was what Atkinson had in mind for these characters. While I try to be tolerant of gender differences - I've yet to discover a great male reader who does great female voices and vice versa - Jameson's higher pitched voice made the male voices especially female-sounding.

For those of you who disliked Tana French's conclusion to In the Woods, you will definitely love this novel. Atkinson ties up each story line with the events as they happened. This happens after Brodie concludes his investigations and essentially solves the cases. So, all the little missing details that no one would know are flushed out at the conclusion.

I enjoyed this novel overall, but found it hard to like Jackson Brodie. I liked his role as father, but as a person, he was overly judgemental and harsh on other people and he definitely lacked empathy. I especially disliked his shallow assessment of the female characters.

I felt a great deal of sympathy for both Theo and Amelia; Atkinson did a wonderful job of eliciting that emotion for these two survivors who have struggled for so long with their losses. Julia was the comic relief to the novel. The third case history involving Michelle was a bit on the odd side. I almost wonder if it wouldn't have been a tighter novel without the inclusion of that case.

The plot is a slower-moving plot, but as I mentioned earlier all the ends are tied up at the conclusion of the novel. That approach creates a definite feeling of closure for the novel. The three cases do end up having connections, so it isn't as though there are three separate short stories, but the connections are loose enough that it is three distinct case histories Jackson is investigating.

I thought the plot was unique. It wasn't predictable, but it's also the kind of novel that doesn't give you the necessary clues until the conclusion so you really don't have much of a chance to logically deduce the outcome.

Overall, I found Case Histories to be an enjoyable mystery on audiobook....less

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Anna

Anna rated it:

(review of isbn 0316010707)

08/05/07

recommends it for: Anyone and everyone!

I LOVED this book - and I mean loved it to the point where I've been giving it as a birthday/Xmas gift to just about everyone I know for the past year or so.

For me, this was a finely-crafted piece of literature that read like a good old mystery novel. The characters are well-developed and compelling, and the interweaving storylines are truly gripping (lots of fun twists and turns!). I really didn't want this one to end - it's one of my all-time favorites!

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2 comments

Kristy

Kristy rated it:

(review of isbn 0316010707)

06/05/07

Read in May, 2006

This was such a wonderfully enveloping story. I got lost in it and I couldn't put it down. I read it right after I finished writing my thesis and graduated and it was the perfect transition to a more relaxed existence...
As far as the story goes: Atkinson is a beautiful writer. Very lyrical and wry, shocking and funny. This story broke my heart and amused me all at once. She's fantastic. I can't wait to read the sequel!

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Jennifer

Jennifer rated it:

(review of isbn 0316010707)

06/24/07

Read in January, 2006

A young girl disappears from a tent in her backyard and is never seen again, a man’s teenage daughter is brutally murdered while working in his law office, a woman ax murders her husband when he wakes their sleeping baby. All these mysteries all pulled together years later when private investigator Jackson Brodie is asked to look into them. Fantastic. Suspenseful, very well written, deeply satisfying.

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Liz

Liz rated it:

(review of isbn 0316010707)

08/02/07

Beautifully wrought...VERY SAD. Atkinson takes stories that could have been ripped from the headlines and enlivens them, fashioning links and overlaps between them. Overall, this novel looks at loss, and how one lives with it. At times, her connections seem a bit far-fetched, but the details of the living and dead and how each change in time succeed in creating sense out of everyday senselessness.

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Laura

Laura rated it:

(review of isbn 0316010707)

07/25/07

This book was great. It had me hooked right away. Yes, the mystery was a bit contrived and it was easy to start figuring out connections at a certain point, but I was still engrossed. It was a bit dark, however, so it surprised me that she finished with such a "happily-ever-after" kind of ending...but the main characters were really likable so I was happy that things kind of worked out for them...

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Mara

Mara rated it:

(review of isbn 0316010707)

10/30/07

Read in October, 2007

recommends it for: Those looking for a light but not a dim read

This was a smartly written, fast-paced, morbidly funny, maze of a detective novel! Nice break from the heavy stuff of life through a cynical but optimistic re-packaging of life's dark and light moments.

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Dru

Dru rated it:

(review of isbn 0316010707)

11/09/07

Read in March, 2007

As a mystery, it blows. As a character study...well, I kind of thought it was going to be a mystery.

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Lisa

Lisa rated it:

(review of isbn 0316740403)

11/23/08

Read in November, 2008

A mystery -- well, actually 3 mysteries, tied together by one detective who is working on the cases. Each story is interesting and they weave together well. Because I don't have a lot of time to read, I was only able to read one or two chapters at a time, and I found that the way the chapters alternated made it difficult to remember who was involved in each case when I next picked up the book. It wasn't one of those books that "I couldn't put down", but I did enjoy it. (I'd give it ...more

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