Big Sky
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4.2 • 417 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
Iconoclastic detective Jackson Brodie returns in a triumphant new novel about secrets, sex, and lies.
Jackson Brodie has relocated to a quiet seaside village, in the occasional company of his recalcitrant teenage son and an aging Labrador, both at the discretion of his ex-partner Julia. It's picturesque, but there's something darker lurking behind the scenes.
Jackson's current job, gathering proof of an unfaithful husband for his suspicious wife, is fairly standard-issue, but a chance encounter with a desperate man on a crumbling cliff leads him into a sinister network -- and back across the path of his old friend Reggie. Old secrets and new lies intersect in this breathtaking novel by one of the most dazzling and surprising writers at work today.
"Thank goodness the long Jackson Brodie hiatus is over." --Janet Maslin, New York Times
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Starting off with a bang, Big Sky is the long-awaited fifth novel in Kate Atkinson’s stellar Jackson Brodie detective series. The charming-but-problematic ex–police inspector and now-PI returns with his teenage son, this time in a seaside village far from Cambridge—but not far enough from the secrets Brodie thought he’d left behind. The characters are fully fleshed out for those new to the series, but longtime fans will appreciate the inside jokes. Atkinson’s devious wit is in full force in this compelling mystery, which is just as deep and incisive as her great literary works, like Life After Life.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Atkinson's slow-moving fifth Jackson Brodie novel (after 2010's Started Early, Took My Dog) finds the former policeman turned PI, who's now based on the east coast of Yorkshire, grappling with parenting. Brodie, who endured a traumatic childhood a mother lost to cancer, a sister murdered, and a brother who committed suicide shares custody of 13-year-old Nathan Land, who has an "ego big enough to swallow planets whole," with Nathan's mother, Julia. Though Brodie has some routine work surveilling a suspected cheating spouse, the action only hits high gear relatively late when he happens upon a man about to jump off a cliff, Vince Ives, whose wife, Wendy, was recently fatally bludgeoned with a golf club. Brodie manages to save Vince's life, and his look into Wendy's death involves him in an ugly case of human trafficking. Atkinson has been better at balancing personal and professional story lines, and the presence of a figure from Jackson's past, now a cop involved in an inquiry looking at establishment figures, won't resonate for first-timers. Series fans will best appreciate this outing.
Customer Reviews
Delightfully entertaining
How would Dashiell Hammett’s books read if he had been British instead of American? They would have read much like Kate Atkinson’s newest novel, Big Sky. The book delights and entertains with its clean, unique prose, unrestrained eloquence, and remarkably haunted characters. Noir days are back, thanks to Kate Atkinson, and they are better than ever. (the full review can be found at theresapulyer.blog) Thank you to Little, Brown, and Co. and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this novel in advance with the promise of an honest review.
Big sky
Love this and all her Brodie detectives sure hope she is working on another one.
Ba Lee
Worse book ever
The writing is lame. The characters are flat. There is no plot. Bored me out of my mind. So sorry I wasted my money.