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Edinburgh
resident Atkinson has been touted for her clever subversion of the
standard family saga (the Whitbread Prize-winning Behind the Scenes
at the Museum), as well as her playful parody and magic realism (Not
the End of the World). Now she turns her deft hand to the hard-boiled
detective genre and wreaks a similarly wonderful havoc.
Cambridge P.I. and Francophile Jackson Brodie serves as the link among
three interwoven tales. Red herrings abound as Jackson plows through
the sad cases of a missing toddler, a young woman brutally killed
while temping at her father's law firm, and an overwrought mother
driven to ax murder. The relatives of the victims, Jackson's motley
clientele, prove to be alternatively pitiable and hilarious but always
painfully human. Superfluous plot elements involving attempts on Brodie's
life and the running commentary on Brodie's musical tastes may lead
to comparisons with Ian Rankin's Inspector John Rebus series, but
only briefly, for this is a very new world of old crimes.
Recommended for larger fiction collections.
- Copyright © 2004, Reed Business Information.
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