Death at the Sign of the Rook
A Jackson Brodie Book
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4.0 • 125 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
THE INSTANT #1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER (SUNDAY TIMES, UK) • The highly anticipated return of "irresistible" (New York Times) private eye Jackson Brodie in the newest installment of the bestselling series hailed as "unputdownable" by Time
“How delicious to have Jackson Brodie back, this time in a story that starts off in Agatha Christie's world but soon becomes a landscape that could only have been crafted from the pen of the incomparable Kate Atkinson.”–Ian Rankin, author of the Inspector Rebus Novels
Welcome to Rook Hall. The stage is set. The players are ready. By night’s end, a murderer will be revealed.
In his sleepy Yorkshire town, ex-detective Jackson Brodie is staving off boredom and malaise. His only case is the seemingly tedious matter of a stolen painting. But Jackson soon uncovers a string of unsolved art thefts that lead him down a dizzying spiral of disguise and deceit to Burton Makepeace, a formerly magnificent estate now partially converted into a hotel hosting Murder Mystery weekends.
As paying guests, impecunious aristocrats and old friends collide, we are treated to Atkinson’s most charming and fiendishly clever mystery yet, one that pays homage to the masters of the genre—from Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers to the modern era of Knives Out and Only Murders in the Building.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Kate Atkinson throws Jackson Brodie fans a delightful curveball with this one. He’s the same ol’ moody private eye, and DC Reggie Chase is on the scene as well. There are two missing paintings, one quite valuable and one probably not, and also a crumbling old mansion called Burton Makepeace. Its current owners are trying to raise some money for much-needed repairs by hosting a Downton Abbey–style murder mystery weekend. If you’ve ever even glanced at an Agatha Christie novel, you probably think you know what’s next. And you’d be right, but it still won’t prepare you for the twists to come. Smart, funny, and filled with unexpected left turns, Death at the Sign of the Rook is one of England’s most beloved authors having the time of her life.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Atkinson's deliciously witty sixth adventure for Jackson Brodie (after Big Sky) finds the British PI entangled in a weekend-long murder mystery party. Brodie's newest clients are Ian and Hazel Padgett, "pensionable-aged" siblings who have discovered, while divvying up their deceased mother's possessions, that one of her oil paintings has gone missing. With the help of his friend, Det. Const. Reggie Chase, Brodie digs into the siblings' suspicions that their mother's caretaker, Melanie Hope, swiped the heirloom. Soon, Brodie and Chase's investigation unearths art thefts linked to Burton Makepeace House, a crumbling mansion recently converted into a hotel and managed by the self-aggrandizing Piers Milton. Brodie and Chase head to Burton Makepeace and start poking around while an elaborate "Murder Mystery Weekend" event that Piers has organized is underway; before long, a snowstorm strands the duo with the participants and knocks out everyone's cell reception. Atkinson keeps things fast, funny, and fair, delivering a twist-filled mystery that will stump armchair sleuths and a well-sketched supporting cast that's easy to fall in love with. This is sure to delight series fans and newcomers alike.
