List Price: $9.99 Our Price: $7.99 You Save: $2.00 (20%)

Product Description

Two 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.

Kate Atkinson began her career with a winner: Behind the Scenes at the Museum, which captured the Whitbread First Novel Award. She followed that success with four other books, the last of which was Case Histories, her first foray into the mystery-suspense-detective genre. In that book she introduced detective Jackson Brodie, who reopened three cold cases and ended up a millionaire. A great deal happened in-between.

In One Good Turn Jackson returns, following his girlfriend, Julia the actress, to the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh. He manages to fall into all kinds of trouble, starting with witnessing a brutal attack by "Honda Man" on another man stuck in a traffic jam. Is this road rage or something truly sinister? Another witness is Martin Canning, better known as Alex Blake, the writer. Martin is a shy, withdrawn, timid sort who, in a moment of unlikely action, flings a satchel at the attacker and spins him around, away from his victim. Gloria Hatter, wife of Graham, a millionaire property developer who is about to have all his secrets uncovered, is standing in a nearby queue with a friend when the attack takes place. There is nastiness afoot, and everyone is involved. Nothing is coincidental.

Through a labyrinthine plot which is hard to follow because the points of view are constantly changing, the real story is played out, complete with Russians, false and mistaken identities, dead bodies, betrayals, and all manner of violent encounters. Jackson gets pulled in to the investigation by Louise Monroe, a police detective and mother of an errant 14-year-old. There might be yet another novel to follow which will take up the connection those two forge in this book. Or, Jackson might just go back to France and feed apples to the local livestock.

Atkinson has written an enjoyable and lively story of no degrees of separation among the most unlikely cast of characters. Some plot lines have been left to drift, but it does hang together in a satisfying fashion. --Valerie Ryan

Customer Reviews:

• Another great one by Atkinson
  It's quite impressive to have about 5 protaganists and end of being invested in all of their lives. Plus about 4 recurring characters as well! This is a great character study and a lot of fun. I hope that Jackson and Louise are in another book!...more info
• As The Saying Goes.....
  As the old saying goes 'One Good Turn Deserves Another' and in this case someone observes an attack, saves the life of the attackee and trouble comes in spades. Kate Atkinson re-introduces us to Jackson Brodie, whom we first met in 'Case Histories'. He has inherited 2 million pounds, has quit his job, but it seems his job has not quit him. Along with him comes Julia, whom we also met in 'Case Histories'. Both have a murdered sibling in common, and they have become lovers. Julia divulges very little- she is a clam- while we come to know Jackson a bit better.
  
  Into this mix comes varied and sundry characters- all well described and more than interesting, and all well vested in this story. All of these people are hiding something, all looking for something, and all are integral to the whole. All are inter-connected as the story develops, and we are left to ponder their interests.
  
  Paul Bradley- the victim who was attacked
  
  Martin, a mystery writer who is thrust into a series of real-life crimes.
  
  
  Jackson, whom we have met before; a former police officer who finds and loses the body of a young girl, then stumbles into several other violent events.
  
  Louise, a senior police officer, who doesn't believe all of Jackson's explanation, but finds him very interesting.
  
  Gloria, the wife of a home builder, who "often felt that her life was a series of rooms that she walked in to when everyone else had just left."
  
  Honda Man- the attacker- not of one but many of these characters
  
  JoJo- the Russian who seems to materialize suddenly
  
  When 'Paul Bradley' is rear-ended by a Honda driver who gets out and bashes Bradley unconscious with a baseball bat, Jackson is a reluctant witness. Other bystanders include crime novelist Martin Canning, and tart-tongued Gloria Hatter, who's plotting to end her 39-year marriage to a shady real estate developer. Jackson walks away from the incident, but keeps running into trouble, including a dead body that only he can see, the Honda man and tight-lipped inspector Louise Monroe. Everyone has a secret infidelity, unprofessional behavior, murder, which adds depth to this story. After Martin misses a visit from the Honda man, he enlists Jackson as a bodyguard, pulling the characters into an orbit before they collide on Gloria Hatter's lawn. Along the way, pieces of plot fall through the cracks and the final event unfolds. The characters are absorbing and Kate Atkinson has offered us another superb story. 'One Good Turn', in my opinion, is the most intriguing book thus far.
  
  "Despite Atkinson's promise of "boxes within boxes, dolls within dolls, worlds within worlds", the finale, when the cast are maneuvered together for a violent climax and the inevitable expostulations of "You? Here? Why?" 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. In the end it is Jackson Brodie we remember and hope to meet again, gunning down the motorway with the stereo on, "someone who had weathered the world and still had something left to give". Publishers Weekly
  
  The tempo picks up when we begin to learn who the attacker/murderer is, and we become privy to the workings of the inner minds of all of the characters. The story unfolds before our eyes, and we see the police and all of the characters inter-play. A surprising and innovative novel by Kate Atkinson. She just becomes better and better, and I am looking forward to her next novel- hopefully Jackson Brodie will be back in the fold.
  Highly Recommended. prisrob 12/25/06
  
  ...more info
• The Woman Can Write!
  This is a crisp, well written book by a bitingly funny writer from Edinburgh. The plot is intentionally byzantine, and will make your head spin, but it's worth the effort. Atkinson is vastly entertaining. I would very much like to be seated next to her at a dinner party. And I would try to top off her wine glass as often as possible.
  
  One small dink: there's real anger seething just below the surface of Atkinsons' work that makes her characters' choices a little too uniformly mean spirited. I wish she'd surprise us w/ a grace note now and then.
  
  Now go read everything the woman has ever written. And enjoy! ...more info
• atkinson at her finest
  i don't want to give away anything because every second of this book should be relished, but i have not been so delighted by a mystery since a certain film. ugh. i am being vague, but trust if you like mystery/suspense, kate atkinson will deliver perfection to you. enjoy!...more info
• annoy-ing hyph-ens
  i enjoyed this novel but was constantly distracted by the separation of words by hyphens. apparently the kindle formatting has a glitch with this bo-ok....more info
• A collective character study
  With her first novels --- particularly her Whitbread Award-winning BEHIND THE SCENES AT THE MUSEUM --- Kate Atkinson earned a well-deserved reputation for writing ambitious, witty literary fiction. With the publication of her 2004 novel CASE HISTORIES, however, Atkinson's fiction went in an entirely different direction. A smart, multifaceted novel with all the sophistication and literary adroitness her fans had come to expect, CASE HISTORIES was nonetheless a crime novel --- one that dared to challenge readers while defying genre expectations.
  
  Atkinson's latest, ONE GOOD TURN, is a sequel of sorts to CASE HISTORIES, inasmuch as it features the return of its protagonist. Jackson Brodie, the divorced father and former private investigator, has taken his large and rather unexpected inheritance to France, where he lives a quiet, crime-free life ("filling up...iPods with sad country songs and feeding apples to French donkeys"). At the beginning of ONE GOOD TURN, Jackson is back in the U.K., accompanying his actress girlfriend Julia (about whom he's having serious doubts) to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where she is starring in a thoroughly awful experimental play.
  
  Left to his own devices while Julia is at rehearsal, Jackson becomes a reluctant tourist, too often winding up in the wrong place at the wrong time. He witnesses a road-rage incident that quickly spirals out of control and later discovers a woman's dead body washed up on rocky shores. When the tide sweeps the body back out to sea before Jackson can retrieve it, he becomes something of a running joke --- and later a suspect --- down at the local police station.
  
  As for Jackson, he purposely removes himself from any investigations, not even coming forward when he notes the license plate on a crime-scene vehicle. The last thing he wants is to step back into the world of crime, investigation and police business --- that is, until he meets sexy, smart detective Louise Monroe. As if by instinct, Jackson is back in the game, helping to track down a missing body and an elusive killer, all while questioning the desires of his heart and the direction of his life.
  
  The description I've written here might make Atkinson's book sound fairly typical, the kind of "ex-detective gets back in the game" plot that is the stuff of too many crime novels and Hollywood movies. To reduce ONE GOOD TURN to that level, though, is to ignore about 95 percent of what's happening in the novel. For one thing, Jackson is only one of a bountiful cast of eccentric, well-developed characters, each of whom has his or her own role to play in the car crash that opens the story. Perspectives shift, horizons broaden and Atkinson gradually reveals the extent of the many connections --- known and unknown --- that bring together these remarkably divergent personalities into a plot that extends farther than any of them suspects.
  
  Although crime-novel purists probably resist using the "mystery" term to describe Atkinson's most recent forays into fiction, that is the most straightforward way to describe her two most recent efforts. Certainly, readers expecting a classic "whodunit" will be disappointed by that aspect of the novel. But that's not really the point here. ONE GOOD TURN, although not quite as skillful or inventive as its predecessor, is more of a collective character study, one that seeks to explore the layers of loss and disappointment that cloud all its characters' lives while adeptly linking them together in ways that will continuously delight and surprise readers.
  
  --- Reviewed by Norah Piehl...more info
• One Good Turn: A Great Ride
  What can I say. This novel won't change your life, but like a really good moive with a surprise ending, you'll not go wrong. Well developed characters, some of them I would like to meet some day. I can't tell you how many nights I couldn't wait to get back to it....more info
• Characters fight to get on "stage."
  Most writing gurus frown on too much back story at the beginning of a novel. Kate Atkinson ignores this restriction, which makes ONE GOOD TURN rather hard to get into.
  
  The novel starts with a road rage incident. People lined up outside an Edinburgh theater waiting for the doors to open witness a man assault another man with a baseball bat after crashing into the rear of his car. One of them, a noted mystery writer, throws a laptop at the culprit, saving the driver's life. Atkinson then goes on to fill us in on the life stories of Jackson Brodie, an ex-cop and private eye; Martin Canning, the author; Gloria Hatter, wife of a crooked real estate developer; and Louise Monroe, a police detective. Throw in Louise's son Archie and a few other viewpoint characters and it's pretty tough to keep all of these people straight.
  
  There is no real main character; each of the above is given equal time. There are all sorts of connections between the people standing in line and the two men involved in the fender bender; We learn, for instance, that Terry Smith, the assailant, works for Gloria Hatter's husband Graham. Archie, Louise's son, winds up with a copy of Martin Channing's work in progress, which he lost during the melee. We also learn that the man accosted with the baseball bat is not an innocent by-stander.
  
  One of the most charming elements of the story is the Scottish vernacular. The characters refer to each other as "wankers;"the novel is liberally sprinkled with other examples of British slang, most of which the reader must decipher using context clues. Jackson Brodie also has an actress girlfriend named Julia who adds a bit of comic relief.
  
  Atkinson leaves the reader dangling in respect to some of the plot lines. For instance, we never find out (for sure) why Terry Smith assaulted the man during the road rage incident, and the Martin Channing story line is never fully resolved....more info
• Beautifully Constructed, Interesting and Coherent
  This novel has an interesting and intricate plot peopled with interesting and varied characters. Even with its complexities this book is exceptionally readable and fails to confuse or confound. It's written in the revolving-door style of storytelling that is becoming popular in modern movie making. A number of characters from different backgrounds--whose lives are inexplicably intertwined through destiny to the end of some greater good or evil--learn, experience, and grow through their fated interactions (think "Crash" and "Babel").
  
  I enjoyed the read. My one criticism was that I found the ending wanting. It seemed as though perhaps the book had gotten too long, and with a looming deadline, the author did the best she could to wrap it up. I'm not sure how I would have changed it, just that I feel there had to be a more gripping resolution. The twist never came for me.
  ...more info
• Sometimes Maybe One Good Turn Doesn't Deserve Another
  It's summertime in Scotland and Paul Bradley is coming into Edinburg when someone in a Honda Civic rear ends him. He gets out of his car, while the giant of a man in the Honda Civic gets out too. The big man has a wooden bat in his hand and proceeds to beat Paul to a pulp right in front of a gaggle of people who were lined up for the lunchtime show at the Edinburg Festival. The man would have killed Paul had not mild mannered crime novelist Martin Canning thrown his laptop at the assailant, hitting him in the shoulder.
  
  Jackson Brodie, who used to be a cop and then a private investigator, but is a man of leisure now, as he's inherited two millon pounds, is one of those who witnesses Paul's beating. His police instincts want to kick in, but he tells himself not to get involved, but he just can't stay out of it and this sets him on a course that will intersect with several very interesting characters, each with their own secrets in this delightful novel. I loved the characters in this book, especially sixty-year-old Gloria Hatter, whose husband dies of a heart attack while he's in bed with another woman. Martin Canning, who writes under the name Alex Blake, is a great character too, a meek at heart guy who writes about a female private investigator. And there is Detective Louise Monroe who doesn't quite believe Jackson's story when he attempts to rescue a drowning woman who was already dead. And, of course, there is Paul Bradley. Just who is he really?
  
  Martin, the crime writer, went to the hospital with Bradley, just to make sure he was okay, and then went with him to his hotel, where he is drugged, then robbed. When he comes too he finds that a man has been murdered in his house, which had been ransacked and his latest manuscript is missing.
  
  There is a lot going on in this story, but it's all very easy to follow, because the characters are so finely drawn and the plot is so tightly written. This is a very good story with plenty of twists along the way which lead to a surprising ending. Highly recommended.
  
  Reviewed by Sara Hackett, who just adore's her husband Jack Priest's books Ragged Man, Gecko & Night Witch....more info
• ABSORBING STORY - STELLAR NARRATION
  
  
  
  Voice performer Robin Atkin Downes is a more than proficient actor - he's equipped to narrate in some 40 dialects. Television aficionados recognize him for his appearances on Nash Bridges, Beverly Hills 90210, Buffy the Vampire slayer and others. His London stage performances include starring in Dracula, Taming of the Shrew, Much Ado About Nothing, and more. He delivers a stellar reading of "One Good Turn," by Whitbread First Novel Award winner Kate Atkinson.
  
  What does a Good Samaritan get for his trouble? In the case of 50-year-old Martin Canning, a second tier crime novelist who spends much time in wishful thinking, maybe a star in his crown but only a wealth of woes on this earth.
  
  Set in Edinburgh, Scotland, our story opens with a crowd of people witnessing what appears to be a minor bumper bash but quickly turns ugly. The driver of one of the vehicles jumps from his car and brutally attacks the other driver with a baseball bat. Just as a perhaps fatal blow is about to be delivered, someone in the crowd tosses a laptop case which deflects the attacker's aim. The tosser is Martin.
  
  For his life saving act, surely the most untoward thing he has ever done, Martin is robbed and worse.
  
  The crowd is quick to disperse, leaving listeners to believe that is the end of them. Not at all. Atkinson's magic pen brings them back, weaves them throughout her narrative in surprising ways. While we never know what life may hold in store, this author leads us on a fascinating journey of what it might.
  
  - Gail Cooke...more info
• One Good Turn, Twenty Weird Twists
  I spent too much time reading this book, getting to two pages one day, ten on the next, putting it away for a week. This was a mistake. One Good Turn takes one twist of fate from five or six points of view and pulls together a story drafted with a deft command of the Queen's tongue (I do mean ENGLISH) and lovely divergent backstories and character development pieces. It's a mystery wrapped in a Jane Austin novel strung together with pearls.
  
  One auto accident brings several main characters together on journeys that lead the reader into the mystery of the Honda Man, a road raging thug who clubs another driver in clear view of several witnesses. Ms. Atkinson stammers the time frame to allow the participating characters to ramp up to the accident, and my stop-start reading of this book made the story difficult to follow. I heartily recommend no more than a few sittings of extended reading to fully absorb the action. This is no standard issue action novel, so it's a bit of genre bender where the adventure is sluced with plenty of prose. Enjoy....more info
• Not my favorite but still very good.
  First Sentence: He was lost.
  
  During the Edinburgh Festival, a case of road rage triggers a sequence of events that impacts a lot of lives. Author Martin Canning, throws his laptop at a driver attacking another driver with a baseball bat. He goes with the victim to the hospital and then hotel to ensure the man is alright. The next morning, the man is goes as is Martin's money and wallet, but Martin has the gun he found hidden in the man's bag.
  
  Ex-soldier, ex-cop, ex-PI Jackson Brodie also witnessed the road rage but didn't get involved until found the body of a dead woman floating in the sea and nearly drowned unsuccessfully trying to retrieve it. DI Louise Monroe is the investigating officer on a case where no one is whom they say.
  
  Reading Kate Atkinson reminds me of a puzzle box. There are a lot of pieces that you view one-by-one, but that come together to form a whole picture. Here we have a lot of characters, each introduced separately so we get to know them, each distinct, not all likable.
  
  In fact, we see much of the story as it relates to Martin, a timid, rather reclusive writer. The contrast of Martin, to the strength of the rest of the characters, is part of what makes everything work so well. They are brought together through a confluence of events that takes the reader on a wild ride to an unexpended ending.
  
  What makes Atkinson such fun to read is her droll style. She is a literate author with a remarkable way with words. She cushions the violent blows in a glove of wry humor. It is hard to explain Atkinson's writing and it is definitely not for everyone, but I find her a delight.
  
  That said, this wasn't my favorite book, as I felt it did bog down in places. I do feel she really comes into her own with next book, "When Will There Be Good News." However, once you become a fan, as I have done, her books are a pleasure to read.
  ...more info
• Jolly, indeed
  I loved this gem of a murder mystery. Every chapter taxed my powers of concentration and ability to link what I read in previous chapters to what I was reading in the current chapter. All threads link together. By the conclusion, there are some things left to wonder. That's OK. That's life. I applaud Atkinson's ability to amuse while commenting on the selfish, on the magnanimous, the compassionate, the hateful, the clever, the loving aspects of humans. ...more info
• What a Fun Read!
  I just finished this book in less than 48 hrs. despite being a full-time mother of five. It was gripping!
  
  The author tells the story from many different POVs, and often one character will miss something (perhaps because it was not important to them) which will later come out when you see the same event from someone else's POV. The retelling of the same event was done just enough to keep you guessing; not often enough to be redundant.
  
  The mystery that unfolds, as those involved in and witnessing the road-rage incident interact, is compelling. I also was eager to learn the whole story of Martin's "incident" in Russia, so that back story was compelling as well. And the ending--there were several surprises for me in those last few pages!
  
  I actually enjoyed the characters' inner thought life. It was a bit of voyeurism, I suppose, but an enjoyable bit. Some of these people were really messed up, and yet I know some of them, like Julia, for example, in real life. (She's my mother-in-law when she was young.) Both Gloria and Louise seem to have failed at their task as mothers, yet we all know moms like that, and come to find out, maybe Louise didn't do so bad after all, considering her circumstances. And poor Martin--Martin had me laughing a great deal--mostly AT him, I can assure you.
  
  The only character in the book who possessed any faith at all was a dead one--for some reason the author found the need to reveal to us that all her characters were agnostics and atheists--and there are a few jabs at Christianity in this book. As a Christian, I was saddened by this, but it wasn't enough to turn me off to the book. Also, there is a bit of profanity, depending on the POV, but it isn't everywhere and constant. And of course, there was a bit of s*x, but it didn't seem to be over-done or p*rnographic or gratuitous.
  
  This was my first Kate Atkinson novel and, overall, I had a fun time reading this book and will give the author a second spin with her much touted "Case Histories" (hoping that she doesn't find it necessary to poke fun of Christians in all her books, however slight.) I recommend this if you are looking for a light read that is not insulting to your intellect, find the inner working of other peoples' minds fascinating, and you enjoy the modern mystery genre....more info
• Fun fun fun
  What great entertainment. Wonderful, fully realized characters; a plot that never lets go; mystery, excitement, humor. I recommend this highly....more info
• A Page Turner
  I read this novel in two days. Jackson a retired private detective and policeman from Case Histories is back. His life has moved on and he now is involved with Julia from Case Histories. Atkinson has many interesting characters in this novel and some that I cared about. The narrative moves back and forth in time. There's a few stories going on which all come together at the end. I was surprized at the ending because I never saw it coming. I recommend this book. I liked it more than Case Histories....more info
• "ONE GOOD TURN"
  Elmore Leonard characters meet John LeCare style. A literary joining that would make merger mad Wall Street
  proud. I am not going on an Atkinson's Diet--I am going on an Atkinson bindge. Kisses to Kate. I would even
  read an Alex Blake novel...Well...Almost....more info
• Crash in Edinburgh
  Reviewed by Joe Graham for Reader Views (12/06)
  
  Kate Atkinson's great new mystery "One Good Turn" is a little like the award winning movie "Crash." Several strangers are brought together by being in or observing a road rage accident during the Edinburgh Festival. This reviewer must admit that at the beginning of the book, I was wondering when was the author going to get to the meat of the story as she kept introducing the lives of a variety of people from a retired police detective, Jackson Brodie, who happens to view the accident while his girlfriend is rehearsing for a play being put on during the Festival to a rather shy male mystery writer, Martin Canning ( pen name Alex Blake), who happens to throw his laptop case at the attacker in the road rage incident to save the accident victim. Atkinson does not leave out the female side as she introduces the reader to a female police detective, Louise Monroe who is a single mother struggling with a troublesome teenage son and the wife of a rich housing developer, Gloria Hatter who just happens to be having lunch with friends and sees the accident.
  
  Each character and their rather diverse lives have been fully developed and as each character begins to be pulled closer and closer into contact with the other characters, the tension for the reader begins to mount as you just want to get to the end of the book to see how it comes out. But be warned just when you think that Atkinson has satisfactorily wrapped all the loose ends in an attractive package, the author throws one last curve that may send you reeling and make you reconsider what you thought you knew and understood about the characters.
  
  "One Good Turn" is for any lover of a good mystery and this one is different from most, because this is not the standard police detective mystery. Jackson is a retired detective who is reluctantly and slowly drawn into the mystery while he tries to deal with his actress girlfriend and his growing attraction to the female detective, Louise Monroe. There are enough side stories with the Gloria Hatter and Martin Canning that you never feel like this is a one character, one dimensional book. In this mystery, the detective is only part of the story. Did I mention that mysterious Russian lady that seems to keep popping up too? Anyway, "One Good Turn" was a jolly good read and I heartily recommend it. Just be patient at the beginning as Atkinson introduces the characters and then sit back and enjoy the ride as everything starts to come together. ...more info
• Big Disappointment
  This book was a big disappointment. It was a slow, boring read that I kept hoping would pick up its tempo but never did. And Kate's obsession with animal cruelty is definitely a turn off. In my opinion, take a big pass on this one!!...more info
• WOW!!!!
  This was one of the best books I've ever read. The way Ms. Atkinson gets into the heads of her characters is totally amazing. In one paragraph you know them. I love her humor, insight and pacing. This book deserves to win the pulitzer - no kidding. I half read it and half listened to the audio version because I didn't want to put it down - loved the narrator's english accent - it added to the story. ...more info
• Tartan Genre
  This is a delightful slice of life that evolves around a crime. Each character is interesting and unique and thier lives intertwine as the crime investigation proceeds. Kate Atkinson has a rich vocabulary and describes each scene beautifully. I enjoyed each page and was sorry to end my reading. ...more info
• "Boxes within boxes, dolls within dolls, worlds within worlds..."
  In a book that is more fun than any other book I've read all year, Kate Atkinson creates a series of bizarre characters, all involved with murder--either planning it, committing it, or trying to avoid it. Many seemingly unrelated characters, involved in several seemingly unrelated plot lines, make their appearance in the first fifty pages. During the four days in which the novel takes place, however, these characters and plots start to overlap and eventually come together, until, at the end, the reader is smiling with pleasure at the brilliant plotting and ironic twists of fate--full of admiration for Atkinson's skill in bringing it all together with such panache.
  
  In the main plot line, an Edinburgh automobile accident leaves "Paul Bradley," a mysterious man and innocent victim, at the mercy of a crazed, baseball bat-wielding Honda driver. A witness, Martin Canning, the timid writer of Nina Riley mystery stories, reacts instinctively to the impending carnage, hurling his laptop at the Honda driver and saving "Paul Bradley" from certain death. A second set of characters revolves around Graham Hatter, the wealthy developer of Hatter Homes, who is in trouble for bribery, money laundering, and fraud in the building of cheap tract houses.
  
  Jackson Brodie, former cop and private investigator, in Edinburgh for a drama festival in which his girlfriend is involved, introduces a third plot line when he discovers a woman's body on the rocks beside the ocean. It washes out to sea, nearly drowning him when he tries to retrieve it. Sgt. Louise Monroe, who lives in one of the Hatter Homes and whose son is a petty thief, is assigned to investigate the report of the body Brodie claims to have seen. Additional threads involve a housecleaning company/escort service, a second-rate comedian who "comes to dinner," and events which took place in Russia some years ago.
  
  Full family backgrounds and work histories are given for all the characters, and it is through these that the reader often detects some of their interconnections. Ironies abound, and as characters' dreams are revealed and their fantasies are explored, the reader comes to know them--until Atkinson reveals even more surprises and shows how much we have yet to learn. With action that comes fast and furious, devious plot twists, and deliciously dark humor, Atkinson crafts a novel that proves one of Jackson Brodie's maxims: "A coincidence is just an explanation waiting to happen." By the end of this novel, all the explanations have happened. n Mary Whipple
  ...more info
• Great but a little slow
  This book has the one thing that I look for with every book I read: strong character development. However, I must add a caveat to that as while the character development in this book is exceptional, it comes at the sacrifice of moving the plot along--and that is what kept it from being truly exceptional in my mind.
  
  Atkinson has a real knack for creating characters that are hilariously, frighteningly, and sympathetically real. From the mysterious Russian to the psychopathic murderer to the cop raising a son on her own, I felt that every one of her characters was a real person.
  
  The author also possesses a nice, dry sense of humor that adds unexpected moments of wit to the book, so that one second the reader is gasping in horror at the brutality of the books' crimes and the next laughing at the sheer silliness of some of the characters.
  
  As far as endings go, I thought this one was first rate. It was one of those that made me smile and say, "Yes!" I didn't see it coming and loved every last second of it, so much so that I had to go back and read the last paragraph a few times. I look forward to reading more of Ms. Atkinson....more info
• All Episodes of Seinfeld are good, but some are better than others.
  I loved Case History and gave it five stars. One Good Turn was a bit slow and not quite as good as Case History. I didn't really end up liking any of the characters or caring much about the outcome, including our main man, Jackson. The last third of the book, where all of the pieces of the plot are supposed to come together, is very anti-climatic and quickly put together, not realistic, not very gripping, a let-down. That said, there are a lot of funny moments, life and relationships are sometimes well told, but the bad guys are cliches and the final answer to the plot is very flawed for many reasons. If someone wants to discuss my thoughts about this I would be happy to expound.
  
  Kate, this was an episode worth telling, but I think your next episode will be better. ...more info
• One good book!
  Twists and turns keep this lively novel running hard, with nary a moment to catch your breath. Other reviewers have capably synopsized the basic plot, and many have pointed to the diverse cast of characters as the heart of this story. Jackson Brodie, the retired cop who is now rather uncomfortable in his role as the comfortably wealthy country gentleman, is the most interesting--I hope we see more of him and his self-deprecating manner. I found myself returning as often as I could to the task of untangling this ball-of-yarn of a story, and was sorry when I finally found the end! 4 and a half stars if I could do it....more info
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished...
  When a mysterious man driving a Peugeot puts on the brakes to avoid hitting a passenger, he is struck from behind by a blue Honda. This action sets in motion a whole series of events - beginning with Honda Man wielding a bat toward Peugeot driver's head - which next leads to a bystander's intervention. The mild-mannered bystander hits the bat-wielding individual with his laptop case.
  
  The lives of these disparate individuals collide in this moment; then they begin to intersect at various points along the way in the upcoming days. As it turns out, the mild-mannered man is a successful mystery writer - Martin Canning - who pens his novels under the name Alex Blake. The man in the Peugeot is "Paul Bradley," but in actuality, this is an alias. And Honda Man turns out to be one Terence Smith.
  
  Add to the mix a businessman, Graham Hatter, whose dealings are fraudulent; his disenchanted wife Gloria, who is not unhappy when he has an accident in a hotel room with a woman and ends up in ICU, near death; and then toss in the machinations of members of a cleaning/miscellaneous assignments crew called Favors - and you have the makings for a complex suspense tale that draws the attention of the local police - namely Louise Monroe - and a former policeman/private detective named Jackson Brodie.
  
  All are in Edinburgh, where a Festival is going on - and where Julia, Jackson's girlfriend, is a participant, along with comedian Richard Mott, who also happens to be Martin Canning's houseguest.
  
  How does each of these characters figure into the overall plot? Who has set in motion the events that will lead to murder, mayhem, and destruction? Rapidly turning pages, hoping to find the answers, I could not get there fast enough.
  
  Just as exciting as Atkinson's previous and subsequent novels, Case Histories: A Novel and When Will There be Good News? (Import) (UK Hardcover) Atkinson, One Good Turn: A Jolly Murder Mystery leaves the reader wanting more - all the way to the surprising end.
  
  Laurel-Rain Snow
  Author of: Web of Tyranny, etc.
  
  
  
  
  ...more info