Have a Good NEWS

[[[When Will There Be Good News?: A Novel]]]

Discription : On a hot summer day, Joanna Mason's family slowly wanders home along a country lane. A moment later, Joanna's life is changed forever...

At the end of a long day, 16-year-old Reggie is looking forward to watching a little TV. Then a terrifying noise shatters her peaceful evening. Luckily, Reggie makes it a point to be prepared for an emergency...
These three lives come together in unexpected and deeply thrilling ways in the latest novel from Kate Atkinson, the critically acclaimed author who Harlan Coben calls "an absolute must-read."


More review coming soon.

Violent events (a triple murder, a drowning, a car accident, a train wreck, a kidnapping, as well as beatings and break-ins) set the background against which two heroines struggle to come to terms with their tragedies and establish stable lives. The setting is Edinburgh where 16-year-old Reggie works as a nanny for Joanna Hunter, a young mother and physician. A thirty year old tragedy in Dr. Hunter's life resurfaces and intertwines with current difficulties her husband is experiencing. Reggie and her police woman friend are pulled into solving a mystery and coming to the aid of the good doctor. When Will There Be Good News? is a good read. The only things I found unsettling were the many divorces and total absence of a good marriage.

Atkinson's 3rd detective novel to feature jaded ex-policeman Jackson Brodie delivers the goods, with her signature wit, keen sense of the potential in coincidences, managing to keep the reader furiously on his feet to unravel and anticipate when the next missing piece would fit.

Unlike some novels in the crime genre, Atkinson takes time to develop her characters. This is already very much evident in the shocking prologue,which was effectively haunting because the reader already develops a relationship with characters when something pivotal happens to them. As the novel progresses, it picks up on the failed but unresolved relationship between Brodie and tough-as-nails Inspector Louise Munroe, and it also introduces the endearing 16-year old Reggie, a fiercely loyal nanny with a painful backstory. At the centre of the story, a successful GP, Dr Joanna Hunter, suddenly goes missing and ties all these separate personalities together in the most surprising way.




Review...

I find that I must agree with mystery/suspense author Harlan Coban when he says that Kate Atkinson is a "must read" author. When Will There Be Good News? is Kate Atkinson's newest mystery. The story begins with a horrible life altering crime that occurred to a family over 30 years ago. The results of this crime unfold throughout the span of the story. Kate Atkinson has the amazing ability to allow individual pieces of the lives of her characters to connect and intermix and even unravel in a mesmerizing fast paced way. I fully intended to read this book in a calm and normal manner but once the story began to unfold...I literally attacked the book and could not resume normal activities until I arrived at the last page. I also have to admit the last 50 pages were read nearly breathlessly...I could not have stopped reading if I had wanted to. I literally did not want the story to end even while I was speed reading to the finale.

There are fascinating characters in this book. They range from Jackson Brodie, a former police officer now turned private investigator whom we first met in Kate Atkinson's earlier works Case Histories and One Good Turn. There is Louise Munroe, a police investigator who shares a history with Jackson Brodie. There is Dr. Joanna Hunter, who has a very strong and compelling connection with the 30 year old crime that begins this book. There is Reggie, Dr. Hunter's "mother's help" who is firmly convinced in a uniquely comedic way...that very bad things seem to gather around her even as she remains a light hearted, charmingly funny, sad and important character. There is Neil Hunter, Dr. Joanna Hunter's sort of mysterious underhanded husband. There is Billy, Reggie's brother. Billy just happens to be a drug dealing small time amoralistic thug. There is Ms. McDonald, a seemingly harmless innocent and even innocuous character who is a part of Reggie's life and who also is one of the reasons for a huge plot twist in the story. There are also characters within this story who are key players without us even meeting them...Tessa, Jackson Brodie's wife, and Marlee his daughter and Andrew Decker who has an immense connection to the original crime and the novel's breathtaking beginning. Even Scout and Sadie, the dogs in the story, are essential to the way Kate Atkinson unfolds each character and relationship.

I can only state again that this book is deep with complex character relationships and yet it is very readable. It is not the kind of complexity wherein you must go back and reread and reread again. The characters and their unfolding relationships to each other become a part of you. You will yearn for everyone to end their lives happy and unscarred even as quite horrible actions and events unfold all over Edinborough. Kate Atkinson's newest book is not a quiet ride...it is a roller coaster of surprises and thrills and chills that will leave you feeling a bit breathless as you read its final chapter.




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