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One Good Turn
by Kate Atkinson
The author returns with a sequel to her first mystery book ("Case Histories") that finds her protagonist, Det. Jackson Brodie, suddenly brought out of his retirement when he witnesses an automobile accident in Edinburgh.
Little, Brown and Company, 432 pages
10/11/2006
$24.99
ISBN: 0316154849
Fiction
General Literature & Fiction
Mystery & Thrillers
All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...
Library Journal Christine Perkins
Atkinson skillfully links the characters to one another, revealing twists from their various points of view, and in Brodie creates a likable star. Once involved in the case, he reverts to a pleasingly take-charge, strong-but-silent type who will leave readers eagerly awaiting his next outing. [1 Aug 2006, p.66]
Los Angeles Times Jane Smiley
As in "Case Histories," Atkinson is adept at dealing out surprises, especially those that turn up just as the reader is thinking she has uncovered everything. [8 Oct 2006, p.R3]
Publishers Weekly
Along the way, pieces of plot fall through the cracks between repeatedly shifting points of view, and the final cataclysm feels forced. But crackling one-liners, spot-on set pieces and full-blooded cameos help make this another absorbing character study from the versatile, effervescent Atkinson. [17 July 2006, p.131]
USA Today Donna Freydkin
It's not spectacular, and it may lack the bite of CaseHistories, but One Good Turn still is compelling and always entertaining.
The Globe And Mail [Toronto] Lisa Moore
One Good Turn is full of a zippy satire that provides a smooth skating surface for the reader to whiz through. This is clean, purposeful prose that drives the plot, wickedly funny in places, sometimes quietly insightful and fairly faithful to the traditional mystery form. [18 Nov 2006]
The Guardian Justine Jordan
The pleasure of One Good Turn lies in the ride, in Atkinson's wry, unvanquished characters, her swooping, savvy, sarcastic prose and authorial joie de vivre.
Chicago Tribune Dick Adler
All these people come together in a plot that mostly crackles with energy and imagination, and only rarely threatens to short-circuit because of an overload of details and coincidence. [22 Oct 2006, p.10]
Houston Chronicle Robert Cremins
The story is strongest when Atkinson concentrates on human logic and when the novel suggests, rather than ponders, the subtle debts that can accrue between people, both friends and strangers. And just as one good turn deserves another, One Good Turn deserves a reader.
Salon Laura Miller
The pleasure here lies in watching the intricate branches of Atkinson's plot unfurl, and in savoring the tart, quirky character portraits that hang from them.
San Francisco Chronicle Dana Kletter
Atkinson's bright voice rings on every page, and her sly and wry observations move the plot as swiftly as suspense turns the pages of a thriller.
The New York Times Janet Maslin
Since Ms. Atkinson is not strictly a mystery writer, and since she relishes the process of developing this assortment of characters, One Good Turn does some dawdling. Too much perhaps.
The New York Times Book Review Liesl Schillinger
In One Good Turn, her second thriller and sixth book, the deft and tricky British author Kate Atkinson shows again, in her inimitable bleakly funny way, how much easier it is to explain a death than to solve a life.
Daily Telegraph Claudia FitzHerbert
The pleasures of One Good Turn, such as they are, are incidental rather than cumulative. It is an action-packed cartoon of a book in a flimsy throwaway frame.
Daily Telegraph Lilian Pizzichini
Atkinson, while having fun with the murder-mystery genre, slyly slips us a muted tragedy.
The Observer Sarah Hughes
A book that manages to be that rarest of things - a good literary novel and a cracking holiday read.
The Onion A.V. Club Noel Murray
In spite of the winding path One Good Turn takes, it's entertaining both as a murder mystery and as a sprawling multi-character study in the best post-Nashville tradition. (The story takes its structure from one of its central images: Russian nesting dolls.)
Booklist Joanne Wilkinson
Atkinson has a lot of fun playing against type, portraying writers and actors as leading small, unimaginative lives while revealing the hidden depths in an unassuming, longtime housewife. Although it's not as wonderful as its predecessor, this still makes for delightfully witty reading. [1 Aug 2006, p.45]
Kirkus Reviews
A technically adept and pleasurable tale, but Atkinson isn't stretching herself. [1 July 2006, p.643]
Entertainment Weekly Jennifer Reese
Atkinson's tart prose still sparkles, but while all the plot pieces connect, they never quite click.
The Spectator Andrew Taylor
The narrative wanders sideways, backwards and occasionally forwards, like a drunken crab, from one witness to another, pursuing digressive interior monologues through time and space. But there's nothing casual about the novel's construction. The plot rests on carefully built foundations.
Washington Post Stephen Amidon
It seems as if the author is intent on drawing deeper and deeper connections among her characters no matter what the cost to the story's credibility. Indeed, the novel comes most powerfully alive when individual characters are able to escape the demands of Atkinson's rigorous plotting to express their own caustic humor.
The New Yorker
Here Atkinson's authoritative voice emerges only sporadically, and abrupt changes of scene disrupt the flow. Still, some of the characters, such as a snappy, overwhelmed single mother and cop, are finely rendered.
The Independent Amanda Craig
Unlike its dark and dazzling predecessor, One Good Turn is neither a good literary novel nor a satisfying detective story, though it had the potential to have been both.
Boston Globe Janette Turner Hospital
Think of One Good Turn as Monty Python does "The Thomas Crown Affair": witty, clever, but also slapstick and cynical, with no moral center at all.
 The average user rating for this book is 8.2 (out of 10) based on 4 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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