Started Early, Took My Dog

Ah, the last book of the year. It was a bit of an unusual year for me, in that I mostly read series. Few authors, but more books than in recent years, for a total of 15 books, which is more than a book a month, which for me lately, is good. And I was happy to end the year with the most recent Jackson Brodie book.

TITLE: Started Early, Took My Dog
AUTHOR: Kate Atkinson

Jackson Brodie is often a poor excuse for a detective. He can be so dense sometimes. And he's often his own worst enemy. But he's honest, has a good heart, good instincts, is a decent guy, has a habit of hooking up with women who are wrong for him, and ends up always doing the right thing. He also has baggage. A lot of baggage. His sister was murdered when he was a boy and he's never gotten over it, especially because her killer was never found. Both his parents are dead, his older brother killed himself. He's got a teen daughter, an ex-wife, an ex-lover and a son by the ex-lover, and a fake wife who emptied his bank account. Then there's the near-death experience in a train wreck in a previous book, and it's understandable that Jackson has issues.

In this tale, he's looking for the true identity of a woman who was adopted as when she was a toddler. Concurrently, a retired policewoman, Tracy Waterhouse, buys a little girl from a prostitute, an event that propels the action of much of the story. As the story progresses, a series of events, small and large and amazingly coincidental, knit together to form a whole that is riveting and emotional. How Jackson's investigation ties into a 30-year old murder of a prostitute that Tracy and her partner discovered forms the backbone of the plot. Add in an aging actress sinking into dementia, a dog Jackson rescues from his abusive owner, and a mysterious man in a gray car, and you've got a typical Atkinson novel, one with stories that reach into the past and lead back to an explosive climax when all the scattered elements come together.

The mystery isn't the point, exactly. I figured out most of it, even if I didn't nail the actual killer. This is more than a mystery. It's a novel with a mystery driving it. It's more the story of lost and found children, abuse and survival. And it makes for addicting reading.

Labels and Tagging

I just noticed I've been remiss around here when I post reviews. I once tagged the books for genre and somewhere along the line, I stopped doing that. I'm going to start again and I've gone back and tagged some. I hope to go back and do the rest. So a big mea culpa from me to all tagging fanatics, of which I'm one, so I really have no excuse. Not even laziness (I have labeled the entries "reviews") or forgetfulness (well, maybe this one) can be blamed.

Faithful Place

TITLE: Faithful Place
AUTHOR: Tana French

Tana French is writing mysteries set in Ireland, with overlapping characters but standalone stories, which is a nice twist on the mystery series. And as was the case with the first two (In the Woods and The Likeness), this one is more about the main character than the mystery that sets the story in motion.

Faithful Place is the impoverished neighborhood where Frank Mackey grew up. Mackey was once Cassie Maddox's boss when she worked undercover. Cassie appeared in the first 2 books, but not in this one. When Frank was 19, he was going to run away to London with his girlfriend, the love of his life, Rosie Daly. They'd arranged to meet at the top of the street, but Rosie never showed and Frank, believing she'd jilted him and gone off without him, went off on his own, turning his back on his dysfunctional family. Now, 22 years later and a divorced father of a young daughter, he's called back by his youngest sister, the only one in his family he's in touch with, because Rosie's suitcase has been found by workers in a long abandoned house on the street.

It isn't long before Frank is drawn back into the drama of his past life with his alcoholic father, crazy mother, and the dysfunction of his four siblings. When Rosie's decayed body is found in the basement of the house where her suitcase was discovered, Frank is also forced to question the things he'd long believed, about her, about his family, and about himself. This book is very much Frank's story and that of his love for Rosie and the antagonism between their families that had led them to that fateful decision to run off together.

Who killed her is almost beside the point, though the truth does come out, and while it wasn't much of a surprise for me, it was far simpler than the more complex solution I'd come up with. If you like intricate mysteries that challenge your powers of deduction, Tana French probably isn't for you. But if you like well written character studies wrapped around mysteries, you can't do wrong with her and with Faithful Place.

They Sure Didn't Know My Mother

Random House has a list of books mothers would love. My mother, who read a lot of thrillers, mysteries, spy fiction, and the occasional science fiction novel, might read a book or two on this list, were she still alive, but I doubt it. Well, maybe the Grisham. She was the one, after all, who told me back in the '70s, to read Robert Ludlum and who let me read the James Bond books she and my father had in pb back in the '60s. Unless Grisham bored her they way he does me. Hard to say. What about your mother? Would she read/like any of these books?

Intriguing Blog

I happened upon A Pretty Book when the blogger let me know she used one of my photos. It's a celebration of books and reading.