One Good Turn

"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."-San Francisco ChronicleTwo years after the events of Case Histories left him a retired millionaire, Jackson Brodie has followed Julia, his occasional girlfriend and former client, to Edinburgh for its famous summer arts festival. But when he witnesses a man being brutally attacked in a traffic jam - the apparent victim of an extreme case of road rage - a chain of events is set in motion that will pull the wife of an unscrupulous real estate tycoon, a timid but successful crime novelist, and a hardheaded female police detective into Jackson's orbit. Suddenly out of retirement, Jackson is once again in the midst of several mysteries that intersect in one giant and sinister scheme."Compelling and always entertaining." -USA Today"One Good Turn crackles with energy and imagination." -Chicago Tribune"Atkinson's tart prose sparkles." -Entertainment Weekly"Entertaining both as a murder mystery and as a sprawling multi-character study in the best post-Nashville tradition." -The Onion"A remarkable feat of storytelling bravado." -Washington Post

"Atkinson endows her cast with a fascinating richness of life. . . . Whatever she does is done to the highest of literary standards. She has produced an engrossing, enjoyable, complex novel packed with intriguing characters, vividly imagined scenes and a compelling plot."-"Times Literary Supplement "(UK) "Atkinson is best at the quiet desperation of middle-aged marriages, and characters revealed by the intricacies of a plot that exploits flashbacks and missed connections. Atkinson, while having fun with the murder-mystery genre, slyly slips us a muted tragedy."-"The Telegraph "(UK)"""It doesn't really matter in which genre Atkison chooses to write. Her subject is always the irrecoverable loss of love and how best to continue living once you have glumly recognised that. . . . Her gift is in presenting this unnerving and subversive philosophy as a dazzling form of entertainment."-"Sunday Times "(UK) "Atkinson is frequently very funny - the extracts from Martin's Nina Blake novels, in particular, are a sustained comic highlight-but while the tone stays light, the plot continues to darken. . . . ÝOne Good Turn is¨ that rarest of things-a good literary novel and a cracking holiday read."-"Observer" (UK) Praise for "Case Histories": "Not just the best novel I have read this year but the best mystery of the decade. This is the kind of book you shove in people's faces, saying 'You gotta read this!'" -Stephen King, "Entertainment Weekly" "To read it is to enter a hall of mirrors. . .Part complex family drama, part mystery, it winds up having more depth and vividness than ordinary thrillers and more thrills than ordinary fiction. . .A wonderfullytricky book." -"New York Times" "An astonishingly complex and moving literary detective story that made me sob but also snort with laughter. It's the sort of novel you have to start rereading the minute you've finished it." -"Guardian" "From the Hardcover edition.", " Atkinson endows her cast with a fascinating richness of life. . . . Whatever she does is done to the highest of literary standards. She has produced an engrossing, enjoyable, complex novel packed with intriguing characters, vividly imagined scenes and a compelling plot." - "Times Literary Supplement "(UK) " Atkinson is best at the quiet desperation of middle-aged marriages, and characters revealed by the intricacies of a plot that exploits flashbacks and missed connections. Atkinson, while having fun with the murder-mystery genre, slyly slips us a muted tragedy." - "The Telegraph "(UK)""" It doesn't really matter in which genre Atkison chooses to write. Her subject is always the irrecoverable loss of love and how best to continue living once you have glumly recognised that. . . . Her gift is in presenting this unnerving and subversive philosophy as a dazzling form of entertainment." - "Sunday Times "(UK) " Atkinson is frequently very funny - the extracts from Martin's Nina Blake novels, in particular, are a sustained comic highlight- but while the tone stays light, the plot continues to darken. . . . [One Good Turn is] that rarest of things- a good literary novel and a cracking holiday read." - "Observer" (UK) Praise for "Case Histories": " Not just the best novel I have read this year but the best mystery of the decade. This is the kind of book you shove in people's faces, saying ' You gotta read this!' " - Stephen King, "Entertainment Weekly" " To read it is to enter a hall of mirrors. . .Part complex familydrama, part mystery, it winds up having more depth and vividness than ordinary thrillers and more thrills than ordinary fiction. . .A wonderfully tricky book." - "New York Times" " An astonishingly complex and moving literary detective story that made me sob but also snort with laughter. It's the sort of novel you have to start rereading the minute you've finished it." - "Guardian" "From the Hardcover edition.", Praise for "Case Histories": "Not just the best novel I have read this year but the best mystery of the decade. This is the kind of book you shove in people's faces, saying 'You gotta read this!'" -Stephen King, "Entertainment Weekly" "To read it is to enter a hall of mirrors. . .Part complex family drama, part mystery, it winds up having more depth and vividness than ordinary thrillers and more thrills than ordinary fiction. . .A wonderfully tricky book." -"New York Times" "An astonishingly complex and moving literary detective story that made me sob but also snort with laughter. It's the sort of novel you have to start rereading the minute you've finished it." -"Guardian"

Kate Atkinson lives in Edinburgh. Her first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, was named Whitbread Book of the Year in the U.K. in 1995, and was followed by Human Croquet, Emotionally Weird, Not the End of the World and Case Histories.