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by Kate Atkinson What could have been a simple and straightforward case of murder by bashing got muddled and twisted up by a Good Samaritan with a flying briefcase. Martin Canning, better known as author Alex Blake to his fans, prevents the crime and is caught up in the lives of both the victim and the baseball bat-swinging attacker. As Martin’s world spirals out of control, other characters are caught up in the gravity well of the briefcase. Jackson Brodie, a retired policeman, offers solace and his card to Martin at the accident scene. Jackson’s actress girlfriend, Julie, is busy with rehearsals, so he plays tourist and finds a dead body on the surf. So enters police detective Louise Monroe, her teenage son, Archie, and their elderly cat. The dead girl looks just like Jojo, the dominatrix who was in session with Graham Hatter when he had a heart attack. The man with the bat works for Graham, mistakenly attacks Richard Mott, who is spending the weekend with Martin and fooling around with Julie. Clear-right? It doesn’t stop there, but there’s no sense in giving it all away. The bedrock for this monsoon of characterizations is the concept of cosmic justice and the metaphor of matryoshka dolls. These Russian folk ornaments are hollow dolls that fit inside of each other. The metaphor doesn’t quite work, as few of the characters fit tidily together. The plot is more like a 3-D jigsaw. Some of the edges are smooth, some are bumpy, but eventually most everything fits, although there are a few pieces left over, like WHY was the girl murdered? I enjoyed the narration by Robert Glenister. Without his flexibility and range of voice characterizations I would have never kept Julie, Louise and Gloria separated through the first two CDs of the action and interwoven stories. The British release of this book is subtitled "A Jolly Murder Mystery," which forewarned me to expect a romp a la Regan Reilly. If you enjoy the Carol Higgins Clark series (reviewed on this site), you will be less overwhelmed by the structure of One Good Turn and see the dark humor that lies beyond the tangles. The only drawback to this unabridged five-CD set is that it is listed on several sites at over $100.00 USD. If I were to consider sending One Good Turn as a gift, I would make doubly sure that the recipient was a fan of Glenister or send the printed version. |
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One Good Turn