Case Histories

Book Description

Critics

• Finding closure

  Case Histories by Kate Atkinson 304pp, Doubleday, £16.99 Kate Atkinson has put away the crockery, closed up the dishwasher and gone out of the kitchen door into the dark. Case Histories, her fourth novel since Behind the Scenes at the Museum, kicks o ... (read full critics)

  guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

• Case Histories

  When everyone was raving about Kate Atkinson's fourth novel back in 2004, I made the mistake, with no audio forthcoming, of getting someone to read it to me. Fortunately, halfway through, he went off to Burundi. Reading, unlike friendship, is an art, ... (read full critics)

  guardian.co.uk published on Fri, 24 Sep 2010

5 Reviews

• *** This comment contains spoilers! ***

  Case histories

  We read this in my book group. We liked that it was set in Cambridge, where we are. It was a little confusing at first, jumping around. The little girl that goes missing and the toy tugs at your heart strings. And when the killer is revealed, their explanation is heart breaking.

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  Angela Bloom 7 said on Mar 26, 2010 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

• 

  Antihero and former police inspector Jackson Brodie investigates three case histories while attempting to understand his own life. This is a thriller with more to it than the usual hand-me-down-salsa-of-the-day page-turner.
  This is the real stuff!

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  jelabino said on Mar 16, 2010 about the Mass Market Paperback edition | Add your feedback

• 

  I really enjoyed this book although not as much as When Will There Be Good News. The first of her novels centred around cases taken on by ex-policeman now PI, Brodie, Atkinson takes you into her characters musings on life after death and loss with witty observations. The cases are poignant, sad, ine ... (continue)

  I really enjoyed this book although not as much as When Will There Be Good News. The first of her novels centred around cases taken on by ex-policeman now PI, Brodie, Atkinson takes you into her characters musings on life after death and loss with witty observations. The cases are poignant, sad, inevitable and it is not just Brodie who is confused by the end. Not everything is tied up neatly leading to more confusion. Major and minor characters are rounded and full of life, even the sad ones.

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  Lunarossa said on Mar 15, 2010 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

• 

  Why did I let this title take so long to reach the top of Mt TBR. It is certainly one of my better reads this year. A compulsive, fast moving and brilliant read. I did find it a little confusing at first while the 'Case Histories' were introduced and I had to keep referring back to check various det ... (continue)

  Why did I let this title take so long to reach the top of Mt TBR. It is certainly one of my better reads this year. A compulsive, fast moving and brilliant read. I did find it a little confusing at first while the 'Case Histories' were introduced and I had to keep referring back to check various details. I will definitely be getting my husband to read this one before deciding where it should travel next.
  Review amazon.co.uk:In some ways, this book could almost be seen as a new take on the crime novel (not the first genre one would expect the author to tackle), but the crime elements here Atkinson uses are peripheral. The protagonist here is a former police inspector who now makes a living as a private investigator. Jackson Brodie is making ends meet in a sweaty Cambridge summer and trying to deal with his own failed marriage. But if his life is adrift, perhaps Brodie can justify his existence via his belief that he can do some good for the people he encounters in his job. But he is to find that he will be irrevocably changed by those he is trying to help.
  As a vividly created cast of characters surround the beleaguered Brodie, all the novelistic skills that shone in Atkinson's earlier books are fully in play. Those deluded into thinking they've picked up something resembling a standard private eye novel will find something much more rich and strange.

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  Lindyloumac said on Sep 8, 2009 about the Mass Market Paperback edition | Add your feedback

• 

  If this is the "best" book that you have read this year, then, I'm afraid, your choice of reading material is sadly lacking. This is not a "bad" book, but it is harding rivetting! I'm not sure that I like the style of writing, it is very long winded and wanders with a great many "asides". However, ... (continue)

  If this is the "best" book that you have read this year, then, I'm afraid, your choice of reading material is sadly lacking. This is not a "bad" book, but it is harding rivetting! I'm not sure that I like the style of writing, it is very long winded and wanders with a great many "asides". However, the author does manage to solve these case histories in totally unimagined ways, leaving me intrigued to see how she might handle a sequel.

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  Kerry Jacobson said on Jun 9, 2009 | Add your feedback

Book Details

• Rating:
  (41)
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• English Books
• Paperback 399 Pages
• Edition: New Ed
• ISBN-10: 0552772437
• ISBN-13: 9780552772433
• Publisher: Black Swan
• Pub date: Jul 04, 2005
• Dimensions: 1226 mm x 839 mm x 194 mm Just how big is that?
• Also available as: Mass Market Paperback, Hardcover, Audio CD, Audio Cassette and eBook
• In other languages: other languages Libri Italiani

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