Kate Atkinson has been busy writing award-winning literary fiction such as Life After Life and A God in Ruins, but her mystery fiction series (with four previous books) is a favourite of mine. If you are hazy on Brodie's backstory or have not read the series, Atkinson brings us all up to date along the way.
Big Sky begins with two sisters from Russia who are excited to be organising a new life in England via a recruitment agency online, which is actually a container in a field. The 'jobs' will turn out to be their worst nightmare.
Meanwhile Chrystal is living in a seaside village in coastal west England. She is a great character who has had a rough life and is rumoured to have been a former glamour model who has married well. She is obsessive about maintaining her super-clean mansion ('she was disinfecting the past') with her daughter, step-son and her husband Tommy. When Chrystal discovers she is being followed she is certain her past is involved, and hires Brodie to find who is stalking her.
Chrystal's husband Tommy is a self-made man whose regular golfing group are central to the plot. The unfortunate Vince has lost his wife, house and job in a short space of time; and Andrew runs a bed and breakfast and a travel agency. They were introduced by Vince's school friend Steve Mellors who is an accountant. Vince and Stephen are bound together by Vince saving Steve from drowning years ago.
The subject matter is disturbing: human trafficking and an historic child abuse ring, but there is an absence of graphic detail or gratuitous violence and lots of dry humour is thrown in throughout the novel. The plot is so convoluted I doubted how it was all going to fit together, but had faith that Atkinson would do so. Which of course she does, rather late in the story with a few red herrings thrown in.
This series is character-driven in the same vein as the Robert Galbraith/JK Rowling Cormoran Strike mysteries.
Reviewed by Katrina
Catalogue link: Big Sky
Chrystal's husband Tommy is a self-made man whose regular golfing group are central to the plot. The unfortunate Vince has lost his wife, house and job in a short space of time; and Andrew runs a bed and breakfast and a travel agency. They were introduced by Vince's school friend Steve Mellors who is an accountant. Vince and Stephen are bound together by Vince saving Steve from drowning years ago.
The subject matter is disturbing: human trafficking and an historic child abuse ring, but there is an absence of graphic detail or gratuitous violence and lots of dry humour is thrown in throughout the novel. The plot is so convoluted I doubted how it was all going to fit together, but had faith that Atkinson would do so. Which of course she does, rather late in the story with a few red herrings thrown in.
This series is character-driven in the same vein as the Robert Galbraith/JK Rowling Cormoran Strike mysteries.
Reviewed by Katrina
Catalogue link: Big Sky
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