Over the course of her career, Kate Atkinson has proved to be an ambidextrous writer, equally skilled in two forms of fiction. Not content with producing critically acclaimed literary novels such as “Life After Life” (2013), a dazzlingly inventive and incredibly moving saga about one woman’s multiple chances and choices, Atkinson also publishes crime novels. Her hero is Jackson Brodie, a former police inspector turned private investigator. Jaded with life but dogged in his pursuit of justice, Brodie is a captivating character whose cynical outlook and acerbic wit have endeared him to legions of readers. “Must you always see the dark side of everything?” his ex-partner Julia asked him in his last outing, “Big Sky.” “Someone has to,” he replied.
Five years later and Brodie is back on another assignment. “Death at the Sign of the Rook” is his sixth adventure and it is open to all — to Atkinson aficionados who will lap up this latest installment in the series, and to newcomers who can enjoy it as both a standalone work and a suitable entry-point to Brodie’s world. In many respects, the novel is business as usual: It is set in Brodie’s — and his creator’s — native Yorkshire, and it features tried-and-tested tropes, recurring characters, and the author’s trademark humor. But this time around, Atkinson attempts something boldly original by crafting a contemporary crime while simultaneously paying homage to the golden age of detective fiction.
We get a taste of the latter in the book’s opening chapter. In the grand library of Burton Makepeace, “one of England’s premier stately homes,” an increasingly exasperated Brodie looks on as a troupe of third-rate actors go through the motions in a creaky whodunit. Our appetite whetted, Atkinson then rewinds a week to the scene of a real crime. Siblings Ian and Hazel summon Brodie to the home of their recently deceased mother. They don’t regard her death as fishy — Dorothy Padgett was a 96-year-old invalid who died in her sleep — but what has raised eyebrows is the disappearance of a Renaissance portrait that hung in her bedroom.
Brodie takes on the case and goes in search of the dead woman’s carer, Melanie Hope, who has also gone missing. His suspicions are aroused when he discovers she had a burner phone, a false address, and more than likely a fake name. His curiosity is piqued when he learns that a valuable painting and a trusted housekeeper vanished from a nearby stately home a few years ago. This prompts him to reach out to the police officer who worked on that case, his old friend Reggie Chase. Despite her initial misgivings (“We’re not a partnership, we’re not ‘Brodie and Chase, Detectives’”) Reggie teams up with this infuriating rule-breaker.
After combined efforts and solo sleuthwork, the pair arrive at the door of Burton Makepeace, just in time to gatecrash a Murder Mystery Weekend. As a snowstorm rages outside, preventing anyone from going anywhere, they watch the likes of Countess Voranskaya, Reverend Smallbones, and “fastidious little Swiss detective” René Armand in their stagy drama. But Brodie doesn’t spectate long for it becomes clear that in this house, among the assembled guests, he will find his culprit.
Like the previous Brodie books, “Death at the Sign of the Rook” is a slow-burn crime novel. Atkinson’s storytelling isn’t streamlined. At certain junctures she veers away from Brodie and his inquiries to give the backstories of secondary characters. Over the course of separate chapters we meet Simon, a vicar who loses his faith, his family, and then his voice; Ben, a battle-scarred former army major who lost a leg in Afghanistan; and formidable Lady Milton and her offspring who, due to hard times, have opened the doors of their drafty, crumbling mansion to offer paying guests “the Downton experience.”
These detours, though enlightening, impede the narrative momentum and render the proceedings absorbing rather than thrilling. Patience, however, pays dividends, for when Atkinson thickens her plot, she raises the stakes and heightens the intrigue. After navigating the smoke and mirrors, the twists and turns, we are propelled to a denouement that, with a body in a pantry and a killer on the run, manages to be both farcical and gripping.
The glue that holds everything together is Brodie. On this occasion, we see little of his Russian girlfriend, “confirmed dominatrix, suspected assassin” Tatiana, and he spends no time brooding on his family woes. Instead, he throws himself into his investigation, beguiling us with his sharp insight, pithy one-liners (“a coincidence is just an explanation waiting to happen”), and withering comebacks. “If it was real,” he says of the actors’ performance, “I would have arrested all of them for bringing murder into disrepute.”
This novel sees Atkinson at her most playful. She impresses with her tightly constructed, satisfyingly complex mystery laced with Agatha Christie references, and with her observations of modern life and human nature. Best of all, though, is when the spotlight is on her protagonist. Brodie might have “climbed to the wrong side of sixty” but he is still a force to be reckoned with and a compelling presence on the page.
DEATH AT THE SIGN OF THE ROOK
By Kate Atkinson
Doubleday, 320 pages, $30
Malcolm Forbes has written for The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. He lives in Edinburgh.