Book Thoughts: Case Histories by Kate Atkinson

Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is the second book I've read by Atkinson ("Life after Life", which was excellent, being the first). Perhaps because of the experience with the first, while I liked this book, I still finished reading feeling like the possibility for something greater was missed.

The book is set up as a mystery, with three (or four, depending on how you county), mysteries or cold cases that the primary character, Jackson Brodie, is hired to resolve. So the book starts with those "case histories," and each is interesting in their own way. It makes you feel the book is about unraveling those mysteries. While those questions are, for the most part, answered, they are done so in non-surprising way, and without the type of detail and climactic point as one would typically expect. This isn't necessarily bad, its just means the book didn't go where one would typically expect it to go.

Instead, the book's strength lies in the development of the characters - seeing how several view the same events, understanding their psychology, etc. Jackson is clearly the most fascinating, and thus it may seem appropriate that this is the first in a series of books with him at the center. Thus, the book is the unusual mystery (at least in my reading of books) that is based more on character development than plot, pacing, and narrative. As such, it gives the book a different feel, which I think makes it more difficult to determine how one feels about it.

Jackson is, as I said, a fascinating character, and the tidbits of his personal past, along with the current events of his life, make you want to know more about him. It almost makes the other characters annoying, for lack of a better word, as well as the actual mysteries being solved, when they detract from the exploration of his inner world.

Also, because of the three (four) mysteries being resolved or explored, and the different people they involve, the book casts a wide array of characters that seemingly have little to do with the objective of unraveling Jackson's character. I think the disjointedness I feel when thinking about the book is that it feels like the book has an identity crisis of sorts - it has too many characters to allow for the deep exploration and development of one or two primary characters, but it does just enough exploration of a couple characters to make the details of the plot and narrative seem unimportant and simply props to keep some semblance of narrative.

All that said, it was still an interesting book, and Atkinson is simply phenomenal with language - the book is easy to read, and enjoyable too. This may be one of those books that one's opinion changes with other time, but whether that is for the better or worse, I don't know.

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