About this title: In rural Devon, six-year-old Joanna Mason witnesses an appalling crime. Thirty years later the man convicted of the crime is released from prison. In Edinburgh, sixteen-year-old Reggie works as a nanny for a G.P. But Dr Hunter has gone missing and Reggie seems to be the only person who is worried. Across town, Detective Chief Inspector Louise Monroe is also looking for a missing person, unaware that hurtling towards her is an old friend - Jackson Brodie - himself on a journey that becomes fatally interrupted.
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Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780385614511ISBN:0385614519
Description: Good. Used item may show library stamps, stickers and marks. Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Description: Very Good. Former Library book. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Acceptable. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780316154857ISBN:0316154857
Description: Good. Used item may show library stamps, stickers and marks. Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Description: Good. 2008-Hardcover----Used-Good-Hall Street Books proudly ships from Brooklyn, NY. All orders are processed and shipped within 24 hours, M-F. 100% money back No-Worry guarantee with expedited delivery and delivery confirmation available. read more
Edition: First Edition 1st Printing
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Little Brown & Company, New York
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780316154857ISBN:0316154857
Edition: First edition.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Little Brown and Company
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780316154857ISBN:0316154857
Description: Fine in fine dust jacket. Fine boards & D/J. As new. Appears unread. Gift quality. Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 388 p. Audience: General/trade. Stated First U.S. Edition. Another brillian English thriller involving Jackson Brodie. Kate Atkinson is building an illustrious reputation with her novels. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Little Brown and Company
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780316154857ISBN:0316154857
Description: Fine in good dust jacket. Good+, dust jacket has edge wear and a half inch closed tear. Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 388 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Description: Acceptable. Ships from the UK. Former Library book. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Your purchase also supports literacy charities. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Black Swan
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780552772457ISBN:0552772453
Description: Good. * BOOKS DISPATCHED WITHIN 24 HOURS * SATISFACTION GUARANTEED * ALL QUESTIONS ANSWERED PROMPTLY * SHIPPED FROM UK * USA DELIVERY IN 3-5 DAYS * SHIPPED FROM UK: USA & EUROPE SPECIALISTS DELIVERY IN 3-5 DAYS. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Doubleday
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780385608015ISBN:0385608012
Description: Good. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Doubleday
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780385614511ISBN:0385614519
Description: Good. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Black Swan
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780552772457ISBN:0552772453
Description: Good. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Date Published: 2008-09-24
ISBN-13:9780316154857ISBN:0316154857
Description: New. FIRST EDITION STATED. Hardback w/ DJ. Enjoyable reading copy for your personal pleasure. You are buying a Book in NEW condition with very light shelf wear to include very light edge and corner wear. Buy it Now! ! ! As always, thank you for buying this book from International Book Source, YOUR ONE source FOR ALL your BOOK related NEEDS. Please remember to CHOOSE carefully how QUICKLY you would like to RECEIVE this material FAST, or standard (on next page). Thanks again! ! ! ! read more
"This is my first Kate Atkinson book. I had wanted to read Case Histories, but my library didn't have it in, so I settled on this one. It wasn't until I started to read reviews that I realized this is actually a continuation of the series (apparently following the life of detective Jackson Brodie, though he takes a back seat in this book).
Not knowing at all what to expect from Atkinson, I was a bit startled by the opening scene: a woman is walking down a country road with her 3 children and the family dog when a man suddenly appears and begins to follow them. He then proceeds to kill the dog, the mother and 2 of the 3 kids (one of the girls gets away). This is not a spoiler, as it happens in the first few pages of the story. The book then flashes forward to 30 years later, when the surviving daughter (now a doctor) is 36, and the man who killed her family is about to be paroled.
What follows is more death, more murder, more families torn apart, and some drug dealing mixed in for added fun. Good times. :) Actually, despite such grimness, there are moments of respite and humor, and the book is well written. It is a definite page turner. The characters (once you can get them all sorted out) are well developed and quite likable. I just struggled a bit with the plausibility of how all these characters, who each had so much tragic death in their lives, would come together in the end in the way that they did. Still, a fast and interesting read... just not as good as I was hoping."
"so when i heard kate atkinson had a new book i thought yayyy. and then when i found out it was another jackson brodie novel i said boooo. i thought the first one was great, but the second was a lot weaker. theres a reason i tend not to read genre fiction like sci fi and mystery - because i just dont want to commit to ten books about the same world. i would rather read one book that is self-contained and never visit the characters again.(and yes i know - harington is exempt from this preference because no one can write like him) that being said - i loved this book. its true that there seem to be a lot of characters in atkinsons books who have all had one or more family members murdered in horrible ways which seems like an unlikely coincidence, path-crossing-wise, but she really can do it all - write a convincing multi-plot mystery novel, with exceptionally interesting and flawed characters, as well as a pretty incisive psychological study of these people. so - jackson brodie redeemed, which is good i suppose, since it doesnt seem like this will be the end of this character. im in it for the long haul now."
"A very appropriately titled book, as good news was few and far between for most of the characters.
I loved the previous Jackson Brodie book by Kate Atkinson, and really admired the way the author wove together all her disparate characters and plots into a seamless whole by the end. (I haven't read Case Histories, the first Jackson Brodie novel.)
WWTBGN is much more claustrophobic than the previous novels. There are only four protagonists from whose third person viewpoint the story is told. Each of them is haunted by some loss: Jackson wants to prove that his ex-girlfriend's toddler son is his; Louise is obsessed with a domestic violence case in which the husband is still on the lam and threatening to kill his family; Reggie's mother recently drowned, leaving her to fend for herself at sixteen; and Dr. Jo Hunter is the sole survivor of a decades-old grisly mass murder that took the lives of her mother, sister, baby brother and pet dog.
Death is sudden and unexpected in WWTBGN. Jackson is caught in a terrible train crash, caused by Reggie's elderly tutor. The tutor's dog dies on the the same night as his mistress. Reggie saves Jackson, but she can do nothing for the soldier Jackson tried to save. Hidden secrets are another motif of the novel; Dr. Hunter hides keys behind paint cans, Reggie's brother hides drugs in books. That's nothing compared to the personal secrets hidden by Dr. Hunter's husband, Jackson Brodie's wife. Nothing is as it seems in WWTBN, and nobody is what they pretend to be, not even Louise (who is only playing at happy families with her husband) and Brodie (who is at even more of a loose end than previous) - expect perhaps for Reggie, a winning, no-nonsense teenager who takes the worst life can throw at her and still manages to stay moving.
Atkinson does a masterful job with atmosphere and characterization, even if the various characters start to sound a bit too alike for comfort (they all love to quote and reference various literary sources.) The novel falls down on its string of coincidences, however - Atkinson has to work very hard to get her characters into the same locations and it shows.
The novel is quite pessimistic when it comes to marriage. By the end of the story, Louise has resolved to leave her husband (despite a hinted-at pregnancy), Dr. Hunter has all but left her husband, and Jackson discovers that his new wife was just part of an elaborate con to take his money. However, the novel does celebrate the power of real love - the love of a mother for her child, the love of a devoted friend (and pet.) I look forward to the next Jackson Brodie novel, but I hope Atkinson remember to leaven the tragic with a bit more of the humor she used in the previous book."
""A Coincidence Is Just An Explanation Waiting To Happen." , November 8, 2008 Coincidence as defined by Webster "the occurrence of events that happen at the same time by accident but seem to have some connection." Kate Atkinson is a perfectionist when it comes to coincidence. Her mystery thrillers are made of such. Into each one she weaves a story that grabs us and soon we are ensconced in the telling of the tale.
How to describe the beginning? A full cut madness that results in a family torn apart, one little girl, Joanna survives. She becomes a physician, a caring person with a husband and a baby son. Her Nanny is a young girl named Reggie. Reggie without family except for an outlaw brother, and the family she wants is with Joanna. Jackson Brodie, a private investigator embarking on a train trip to London, after traveling to Edinburgh to ascertain if he has a son. The train runs off its track and after almost bleeding to death he is saved by Reggie. The investigating office is Louise, an old friend to Brody. Louise has also brought news to Joanna. Coincidence? You decide.
One of the most interesting aspects of reading a Kate Atkinson novel is her mission to bring us the reason for living. How and why do we go on after trauma and grief. What do we do when we find the person we are married to may be the wrong one. When our loved ones die how do we go on? How do we know we have found what we need in life?
This is the third novel with Louise and Jackson Brodie as main characters. We know do we not that they are meant for each other? But Kate Atkinson seems to knock off the men in these women's lives. Why is that? Will Jackson Brodie and Louise find true happiness? I think not and that is not just a coincidence!
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