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Case Histories
A Novel
by Kate Atkinson


7.9

based on 19 reviews
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based on 11 votes
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One Good Turn

A triumphant new novel from award-winner Kate Atkinson: a breathtaking story of families divided, love lost and found, and the mysteries of fate.

Little, Brown, 320 pages
11/09/2004
$23.95

ISBN: 0316740403

Fiction
General Literature & Fiction

All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...

Booklist Joanne Wilkinson

Playful humor, an impressive technique, and an offbeat detective with a penchant for weeping are the most obvious pleasures of a page-turner that succeeds in being both brainy and thoroughly entertaining. [Aug. 2004, p. 1870]

Chicago Sun-Times Elisabeth Egan

Case Histories combines the suspense of a whodunit with the richly textured plot of a sprawling family saga. The result is top-notch literature -- an unforgettable, unclassifiable read.

Daily Telegraph Katie Owen

Tethered firmly to powerful emotions and credible characters, Case Histories is a triumphant return to form: a tragi-comedy for our times.

Entertainment Weekly Jennifer Reese

[A] delightful, fascinating, and bitingly funny read.

Kirkus Reviews

Wonderful fun and very moving: it's a pleasure to see this talented writer back on form.

Library Journal Jenn B. Stidham

Superfluous plot elements involving attempts on Brodie's life and the running commentary on Brodie's musical tastes may lead to comparisons with Ian Rankin's Inspector John Rebus series but only briefly, for this is a very new world of old crimes. [15 Sept. 2004, p. 47]

Washington Post Jeff Turrentine

Kate Atkinson... seems to have intuited that the most compelling mystery of all isn't necessarily whodunit, but rather howtodealwithit

The Onion A.V. Club Noel Murray

For all its preoccupation with sorrow... the book is light, funny, and poignant--leisurely, but never wasteful. It's like an object lesson on how to live with dying.

Boston Globe Roberta Silman

This is a novel that looks at murder and the profound loss that accompanies it with an unusually clear eye.

PopMatters

Kate Atkinson's Case Histories is a Mystery, but rarely do Mysteries strike the tenuous balance between comedy and tragedy so well.

Los Angeles Times Scott M. Morris

Case Histories... at first might seem to fit into the crime genre. But the principal pleasures to be found are not simply who did what to whom. Instead, [Atkinson] focuses on the psychological damage her characters bear, tracking their attempts to discover what has happened to them as well as what it means. [12 Dec. 2004, R10]

Publishers Weekly

Atkinson's meaty, satisfying prose will attract many eager readers.

San Francisco Chronicle Timothy Peters

[I]n an era when sophisticated, literary novels are all too often about nothing but existential issues -- nihilistic disaffection -- "Case Histories" stands out as a wistful, heartbreaking and hopeful novel about real disasters.

The Guardian Carrie O'Grady

I suspect that this is one of those protean novels that will resonate differently according to its readers' own private tragedies ... But everyone who picks it up will feel compelled to follow Case Histories through to the last page - and not just for closure.

The Independent Colin Greenland

Atkinson is always perceptive and engaging, and this time perhaps a degree less antic in her postmodern playfulness.

The New York Times Janet Maslin

It winds up having more depth and vividness than ordinary thrillers and more thrills than ordinary fiction, with a constant awareness of perils swirling beneath its surface.

The New York Times Book Review Jacqueline Carey

"Case Histories" is so exuberant, so empathetic, that it makes most murder-mystery page-turners feel as lifeless as the corpses they're strewn with.

The Spectator Digby Durrant

As if to confirm that Atkinson doesn’t mean us to take any of this too seriously a fairytale ending is inevitable.

London Review Of Books Tessa Hadley

Safety is a dream, not a possibility, and the novel suggests it is a dangerous dream.

The average user rating for this book is 7.9 (out of 10) based on 11 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Rosie st gave it a7:
I enjoyed this very much. But while it's a good story, it's hardly great literature. For me, nothing Kate Atkinson has written lately has measured up to her first book, Behind the Scenes at the Museum.

jim m gave it a10:
one of the best books i read last year

elise c gave it an8:
Fantastic plotting, impossible to put down, wonderful writing. Atonement meets True Crime, a great combination.

M R gave it a5:
Of course, it helps to know a little before opening yr mouth. "Duex-ex-machina"? What's that? Deus ex machina is not the way to wrap up a review.

Ellie T gave it a10:
This novel is an inspiring, compelling and harrowing tale that really makes you think, a definite 11 out of 10!!

Cry F gave it a6:
Starts off well- but a few supposedly key characters are not really well-developed and a bit flat in the end. Duex-ex-machina is not the way to wrap up a book.

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Case Histories A Novel by Kate Atkinson

Case Histories
A Novel
by Kate Atkinson