I loved Kate Atkinson's first book, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, but this one was just OK. I read most of it on the plane home, so it was like a good solid page turner. But to be honest I didn't like any of the characters apart from Theo ( the fat guy) and even he was just desperately sad. Infact all I got from this book was quite a lot of sadness imvolving not living your life to your full potential because of the unsolved murder of someone you loved.
There were three murders in different decades and Jackson Brodie is the sad, lonely ( book theme) investigator bought in to solve these crimes years later. The beginning of the book was great as all murders were described and for the first 100 pages I was totally hooked. Then I lost momentum as the style of writing and the depressing characters took over. Each crime was cleverly looped in on each other within the book and from the point of view of writing style, social commentary and structure this book was great. But from the point of view of plot and entertainment value it was a bit sluggish and in the end just a bit disappointing. The crime solutions just didn't work for me at all apart from the axe murder of the husband.
I found out last week that this book also has been a mini series on BBC 1. I have to move away from reading these British mini- series kind of books, they ultimately annoy me. Maybe because all these books are all too close to home. I shouldn't read about modern British problems when I see them all around me every day! What the hell shall I choose next?! I know, something from a different country and a different time period!
No comments:
Post a Comment