when will there be good news by kate atkinson

Louise, who would have preferred Decker be ripped apart with knives, is disgusted. Andrew Decker, the Mason family killer, has served his time, a model prisoner. He is Atkinson’s great loner, the sensitive detective who always manages to land on his feet, surviving train wrecks, mistaken identity, confounded all the while by women who take advantage of his good nature.īut Louise has plenty to distract her from Jackson. Jackson has less of a role in When Will There Be Good News?, but manages to make himself critical at several plot points. Her capacity to love, while limited, is ferocious, extending only to her son, Archie, and Jackson Brodie, former cop, now private investigator. Nor is she able to control her mouth, even around her newly acquired surgeon husband and his uptight family. Louise cannot abide bullshit in any form. Thirty years later, we once again meet Detective Chief Inspector Louise Monroe, one of Atkinson’s best creations. Only six-year-old Joanna Mason, heeding her mother’s imprecation to run, survives, outwardly unscathed. When Will There Be Good News? begins with the triple murder of Gabrielle Mason and her two children, Joseph and Jessica.

And these asides keep you laughing as you read - aloud, really, because you won’t be able to put it down - though When Will There Be Good News?, which is possibly even more depressing than One Good Turn. Though many make the attempt, few writers are as deft at tossing in random references to popular music, Ancient Greek, English snobbishness, or the niceties of home decor. Atkinson’s latest is what we’ve come to expect from her: funny, morbid, complex crime writing rife with gleeful asides.

When will there be good news by kate atkinson