Death at the Sign of the Rook

A painting is stolen from a home in a Yorkshire village. Former detective Jackson Brodie visited the home and learned that the painting belonged to an elderly lady who recently died. After her death the painting and the woman who was looking after her both disappeared. He then heard of the theft of another painting at Burton Makepeace. A staff member also disappeared from the house at the same time that the painting disappeared.

Part of the Burton Makepeace manor had been turned into a hotel, Rook Hall, and a Murder Mystery Weekend had been organised for paying guests. A prisoner had also escaped from the local gaol. It was the middle of winter and the guests were snowed in. Jackson Brodie and DC Reggie Chase found themselves at the manor attempting to solve the case.

Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson is an amusing crime novel that pays homage to the crime novels of Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers. The story does meander from chapter to chapter and there are lots of characters to keep track of, however I found it a light, entertaining book to read.

Normal rules don't apply: short stories

Normal rules don't apply is an apt title for this collection of short stories by Kate Atkinson. The book contains a collection of eleven loosely connected short stories introducing the reader to a variety of characters and situations. The stories combine elements of mystery, fantasy, folklore, humour, drama and much more. 

The scene is set in the first story - The Void - where for five minutes each day the world is reset. This theme is continued in a story later in the book - Gene-sis. One character who appears in a number of stories is Franklin who spends much of his time questioning decisions with 'what if?' which is also the title of the final story which ties some of the threads occurring in other stories together. There are lots of dogs and horses and cats - some may even talk. One story occurs in a parallel world while another brings back the spirit of someone who has recently died. There is also a fairy-tale queen who does not keep a promise made to a witch - the effects of this also appear briefly in another story.

This is a fun collection of stories to read due to the variety of styles and topics combined with the realisation that a person or location or event from another story has been incorporated into the new story. The stories, in many cases, also encourage us to think about how we live our lives and how our lives are affecting our world.

Review:

Normal rules don't apply by Kate Atkinson - a mixed bag of stories Guardian 30 August 2023

Elizabeth & John

Elizabeth & John: the Macarthurs of Elizabeth Farm by Alan Atkinson is a scholarly study of the life and legacy of John Macarthur and his wife, Elizabeth, who arrived in Australia in 1790 and made their home in New South Wales. The Macarthurs are well known for their contribution to the establishment of the sheep industry in Australia plus John's active involvement / interference in colonial politics and business enterprises.

John arrived in the colony as an officer in the army regiment that was stationed in New South Wales. He quickly became involved in promoting the rights of free settlers in the convict colony and was often at odds with the men sent to New South Wales to govern the colony. He was also concerned about, in his opinion, the rights of former convicts (emancipists) to own land and hold administrative positions in the colony.

Alan Atkinson provides a generally readable account of the lives of the Macarthur family in Australia though, unlike other recent publications, he tends to favour John's role over the role played by Elizabeth, particularly when John was in prolonged exile in England on two occasions. The book, however does provide interesting background information about political and ethical thought at the time and how it may have influenced the thinking of John Macarthur. Having convicts in my family who lived in the colony at this time I found that the book provided useful information about life in the colony.

John Macarthur was definitely a complex character with many ideas for improving life in the colony, particularly for free settlers. Unfortunately he could not, or would not, concede that others may also have ideas that should be considered. Consequently he was often in conflict with other men when things did not go the way he wanted. Elizabeth was an intelligent lady who learned how to humour her husband and also promote her own ideas that might benefit the new community being established. When John was away in England, Elizabeth ran the family businesses efficiently and effectively and tried out some new ideas. Towards the end of his life it was recognised that John was insane and his last few years were extremely difficult for his family, and probably for him.

At the end of the book there is a detailed bibliography, footnotes and an index. There are also coloured images of the Macarhur family in the middle of the book.

I have recently read a number of books, fiction and non-fiction, concentrating on the life of Elizabeth Macarthur:

A room made of leaves by Kate Grenville (a novel)

Elizabeth Macarthur's letters edited by Kate Grenville

Elizabeth & Elizabeth by Sue Williams (a novel)

Shrines of Gaiety

Set in London in the 1926, Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson is largely the story of Nellie Coker and her family who own a group of night clubs in London. Nellie has just been released from prison and she returns home to discover that the nightclubs are under threat from men who want to either take over the business or close her down. Nellie finds that there are also issues within her family that need attention.

Another thread of the novel deals with the life of a young girl, Freda, who comes to London with her friend Florence to seek fame and fortune in the theatre. Meanwhile Chief Inspector Frobisher is investigating the disappearance of young girls who turn up drowned in the Thames. He enlists former librarian Gwendolen Keller to assist him by working undercover to discover what is happening.

As many of the population of London try to forget the effects of the recent war by attending clubs, consuming large quantites of alcohol and drugs and gambling it is obvious that there is a crime wave in the city and some members of the police force are major players in this crime wave.

The author provides the reader with a large number of characters with which to engage and I found that it took quite some time to fully follow what was happening. The storyline is further confused when sometimes the author provides information relevant to the plot then in the next chapter or two provides other information that occurred earlier disrupting the unveiling of the plot. However, when I eventually worked out how the author was telling the story I enjoyed reading the book.

Big sky

This is the fifth Jackson Brodie novel written by Kate Atkinson and the first that I have read. I found it took time to become used to the way the story is presented. In the first one hundred pages we are introduced to most of the elements and characters before the story starts to come together in the latter two thirds of the book. It can also be a little confusing in that the author describes what is happening in one time frame and we then are presented with the back story. However once I became used to the way the plot was written I became involved in the story and with the characters.

Jackson Brodie, a former police detective and member of the army, is now trying to earn a living as a private detective in a small North Yorkshire coastal town. One day when out with his son and his dog he thinks he witnesses the abduction of a young girl but when he reports his concerns to the police they are not interested. As the novel unfolds it is obvious that all is not well in this community which has a history of men procuring young girls for the entertainment of their friends. But this is in the past or is it?

There are a number of overlapping stories in the novel including the attempts of two female detectives to investigate recent information about the original sex crimes in the area - their investigations running parallel the unraveling of a current sex trafficking scheme.

This novel is very much character driven and the reader becomes involved with the lives of members of a number of families including Jackson's teenage son, Nathan, and Harry, another teenager caught up in the situation created by his parents. Dogs also feature throughout the book.

Transcription

Transcription by Kate Atkinson is the story of Juliet Armstrong who at 18 finds herself working in an office at MI5. She is then transferred to work with Perry Gibbons and Godfrey Toby who had set up surveillance on a network of Fascist sympathisers regularly reporting their findings to Toby. It was Juliet's role to transcribe the taped sessions as well as carry out other secretarial tasks. Or so she thought. Before long Juliet was also involved in undercover work.

The story reveals sections of Juliet's experiences in time frames - mainly 1940 and 1950 but also 1981. After the war Juliet's role with the MI5 is finished or, as she later discovers, maybe not as she becomes involved with the Flamingo. This is plot about espionage and counter-espionage. As Juliet discovers, who can you trust and what really is freedom?

For those wanting to do their own research, the author includes the list of her sources used when writing the novel.