Started Early, Took My Dog. Kate Atkinson.

Kate Atkinson is a gifted writer who has easily established herself as one of the finest British writers of the 21 Century. This is her eighth novel, the fourth one starring  the infamous and addictive ex-detective Brodie Jackson with a colourful past-duped by his second wife, beaten up to a pulp for asking the wrong questions to uncover the truth about how "prozzie" Carol Braithwaite was murdered during the seventies. Atkinson places the novel in a historical context and there are frequent references to Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper who went on the rampage at the same time.

Hope McMaster is Jackson's latest client having been adopted and currently living in New Zealand. His mission is simply to discover her natural parents prior to the adoption. Sounds simple enough until we find out there has been a BIG police cover-up operation over Braithwaite's murder and this jeopardises the investigation and endangers Jackson's life.

Tracy Waterhouse, once a superintendent who also retired from the police force to become a security chief makes an impulsive and out-of-character "purchase" with devastating results. A larger than life character, tough on the outside but very vulnerable inside. Her acquisition of a young child causes both of them to have to go into hiding and change their identities. Tracy asks the same questions as Jackson about Braithwaite's murder but she knew there was a son, Michael who was left with his mother's corpse for three weeks before mysteriously disappearing.

Tilly is an ageing actress, forgetful, with a tendency to kleptomania. Symbolically she is about to be killed off in her final soap drama. She witnesses Tracy's purchase of Courteney and their paths keep crossing from time-to-time with devastating consequences. Out of the three main mismatches of characters it is Tilly who is the most vulnerable.

To keep you enthralled from beginning to end there are plenty of murders and suicides, a major police cover-up of a murder and child abduction. Atkinson's characters may seem like ordinary Yorkshire folk in many ways although she allows them to speak with extraordinary frankness so we can empathise with their vulnerabilities and moments when life is bleak and the future, uncertain. When it comes to mingling comedy with tragedy Atkinson knows how to deliver like a true master and the rest is history.

Publisher: Black Swan/Transworld Publishers. ISBN: 978-0552-772464.

Copyright 2012. Permission to use this review must be obtained from the author.



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