About this title: From the author of 2005's breakout favorite "Case Histories" comes a brilliant new thriller featuring the irresistibly reluctant detective Jackson Brodie. A triumphant novel filled with wit and surprise, "One Good Turn" will delight the many fans who cheered Kate Atkinson's foray into thrillers.
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Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
ISBN-13:9780316154840ISBN:0316154849
Description: Very good. Book has appearance of light use with no easily noticeable wear. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
ISBN-13:9780316154840ISBN:0316154849
Description: Very good. Book has appearance of light use with no easily noticeable wear. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Fair. Purchasing this book supports the King County Library System Foundation. Thriftbooks and KCLSF have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
ISBN-13:9780316154840ISBN:0316154849
Description: Very good. Book has appearance of light use with no easily noticeable wear. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
ISBN-13:9780316154840ISBN:0316154849
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Acceptable. Former Library book. 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
ISBN-13:9780316154840ISBN:0316154849
Description: Good. 0316154849 Former library item may have library binding and show stamps, stickers or other marks. Items not meeting quality expectations may be returned. Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. read more
"This is a very slow start, as Atkinson turns chapter, to chapter from one character to another to set the stage of people who say a car accident, where a brute comes out with a baseball bat and is hit by a computer from a bystander stopping his attack. The character development is great, even though I liked some better than others. There is Martin, the rich mystery writer with social anxiety. Jackson, the rich ex cop, bored living in France, and wrangling with his actress girlfriend. Gloria the overweight, smart but trapped in tedium wife of a real estate crook, and Louise, the tough detective, attracted to but leery of Jackson, and struggling with a shoplifting teen. There are seemingly unrelated mayhem, with a dead Russian maid washing up and disappearing, a Russian prostitute who shows up everywhere and knows too much, a dead dog and cat. Over time the story became spelling binding. The setting during the Fringe Festival in Edinborough, Scotland is a great back drop, and the details of Scottish life made me want poached eggs on toast for tea. The satire and silly internal dialogues of the characters are hilarious, and there are many surprises in the overlapping plots. A great read."
Have you ever seen a painting that has so much detail in the background that the main subject becomes almost invisible to your eye? Have you ever listened to a piece of music that has so many intricate harmonies that the melody becomes obscured? Either way, try to imagine the equivalent book. You now have the base format of One Good Turn in your mind. This story has a brilliant plot, but it takes quite a while to get past all of the memories of the characters and their friends and relations. I would encourage you to persevere, because you will eventually uncover a crime thriller with more twists and turns than the back streets of Edinburgh.
Beginning with a road rage incident that unfolds before an assortment of people queuing for an Edinburgh Festival event, the plot unravels the connections between these people and a millionaire property developer who is lying, close to death, in the intensive care unit of Edinburgh Infirmary. How he got there is for you to read.
There is a good balance of horrific and comical moments in this book. There are also some neat little thought provokers such as that which stems out of the cliché, "as dead as a doornail." Why a doornail? Can death be comparative? How could anything be deader than anything else? Et cetera.
Eventually, the backgrounds are all complete, the strands of the plot are all neatly entwined and there are no remaining loose ends.
Kate Atkinson has a unique style, which she applies to this over-subscribed genre. I like the style and I enjoyed the story, so I would recommend it to most of my friends. There are a few who would not enjoy it, as it is a matter of taste. To the reader of this review, I would say, just try it."
"Stephen King recommended this author in a book column that he writes for Entertainment Weekly. (It was lying around at work and I needed something to read!)I took his recommendation seriously because in his column he went on to recommend "...and all the books of Robert Goddard."
I love to come across new authors. Years ago I just happened upon Goddard and avidly read several of his tomes before I ran out of the energy needed to handle the underlying sinisterness of his stories.
Now I get to go through all the books of Kate Atkinson. She writes with a light touch while telling a great, inter-connected story which covers policing, single-parenting, bad art, corporate corruption, & the exploitation of sex workers. An episode of road-rage starts the One Good Turn of the title into many more good turns. But the good turns are interspersed with some pretty nasty deeds including murder. Read her soon so we can start a fan club. Linda"
"ONE GOOD TURN (Pol. Proc-Jackson Brodie-England-Cont)- VG Atkinson, Kate - 2nd in series Doubleday, 2006, US Hardcover - ISBN: 0385608004
First Sentence: He was lost.
During the Edinburgh Festival, a case of road rage triggers a sequence of events that impacts a lot of lives. Author Martin Canning, throws his laptop at a driver attacking another driver with a baseball bat. He goes with the victim to the hospital and then hotel to ensure the man is alright. The next morning, the man is goes as is Martin's money and wallet, but Martin has the gun he found hidden in the man's bag.
Ex-soldier, ex-cop, ex-PI Jackson Brodie also witnessed the road rage but didn't get involved until found the body of a dead woman floating in the sea and nearly drowned unsuccessfully trying to retrieve it. DI Louise Monroe is the investigating officer on a case where no one is whom they say.
Reading Kate Atkinson reminds me of a puzzle box. There are a lot of pieces that you view one-by-one, but that come together to form a whole picture. Here we have a lot of characters, each introduced separately so we get to know them, each distinct, not all likable.
In fact, we see much of the story as it relates to Martin, a timid, rather reclusive writer. The contrast of Martin, to the strength of the rest of the characters, is part of what makes everything work so well. They are brought together through a confluence of events that takes the reader on a wild ride to an unexpected ending.
What makes Atkinson such fun to read is her droll style. She is a literate author with a remarkable way with words. She cushions the violent blows in a glove of wry humor. It is hard to explain Atkinson's writing and it is definitely not for everyone, but I find her a delight.
That said, this wasn't my favorite book, as I felt it did bog down in places. I do feel she really comes into her own with next book, "When Will There Be Good News." However, once you become a fan, as I have done, her books are a pleasure to read."
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