Tapestry of a tale

Aug 18 2006

ONE GOOD TURN Kate Atkinson Doubleday £17.99

With the buzz of the Edinburgh Festival as its backdrop, Whitbread Book of the Year-winner Kate Atkinson's latest novel deftly weaves together a miscellany of stories from all walks of life into a finely wrought tapestry of a tale.

When a random queue forming outside a tiny festival venue witnesses a shocking road rage incident, there are huge repercussions for everybody involved, from the hapless victim to the disparate folk who witness his plight.

There's Martin, a blancmange of a man whose claim to fame is that he writes best-selling detective stories that sound like a cross between Biggles and Enid Blyton. Then there's Gloria, a middle-aged, middle class woman whose builder husband is due to go to jail for fraud.

And let's not forget the return of Jackson Brodie, an ex-copper, ex-army, and ex-private detective with a hugely complicated private life, who is also an innocent bystander until he becomes a suspect.

These are very different people, whose only connection is that they saw a crime being committed, but like the Russian nesting dolls, which make many an appearance in this book, they all somehow fit together.

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