Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson Doubleday HK$247
The themes of loss, death and human frailty create the backdrop to Kate Atkinson's latest Jackson Brodie novel, her fourth in the series about the thrice-married, semi-retired private detective plagued by the death of his sister years before.
Yet this is far from the usual doom and gloom of the crime genre. It is often incredibly funny, thanks to witty insights into the various characters peppering the story with all-too-familiar failings and grievances.
Set in the British city of Leeds in the present day and 1975 (the year the Yorkshire Ripper was starting his spree), the story revolves around the murder of a prostitute, lost children, seedy sorts giving the cops plenty to do, a dark secret known only to a few (mostly bent policemen) and a series of coincidental events that form links among the disparate cast.
Although this is officially a Brodie mystery, the story really belongs to cynical former police officer Tracy Waterhouse ('Tracy had seen all the 'ps' - paedophilia, prostitution, pornography'). Tracy is an unlikely hero who thinks the world is after her, but, 'poor old Trace' doesn't know that luck is on her side.
A single woman in her 50s, childless, 'a big, graceless girl' with a penchant for Viennese truffles and crisps, Tracy is now retired from the force and working at a shopping mall as a security officer, musing sadly on how different things could have been.
