Jackson Brodie returns for a sixth turn on the dance floor in Kate Atkinson’s delightful Death at the Sign of the Rook (2024), another funny blend of mystery, humor, and unlikely coincidence. This one takes us to Yorkshire in northern England, where the theft of a valuable painting brings Brodie into the employ of Ian and Hazel, sibling descendants of old money who are convinced one of their servants stole it upon the death of their mother. Brodie doesn’t entirely trust his employers, but he gamely pursues the case, uncovering a web of serial art theft that sends him careening back into the orbit of his police protégé Reggie Chase — and a rundown, Downton Abbey-style manor house called Burton Makepeace.
Starting and ending at a murder-mystery dinner party that goes spectacularly sideways, Death at the Sign of the Rook may yet be the most farcical of Brodie’s adventures. It’s also the shortest, speedily building its unlikely tapestry and weaving the characters swiftly through it. The efficiency of the narrative is all the more surprising for how it still manages to be full of Atkinson’s stream-of-conscious approach to character; she climbs into the heads of her cast and roams around randomly, which feels like it should be distractingly tangential but ultimately proves key to the humorous tone. The result is something that looks both casual and complex, and one is left amazed how, yet again, it appears as though the author is just hurling elements at a canvas, Bob Ross style, only for it to cohere into something both eloquent and magical.
Jackson Brodie returns for a sixth turn on the dance floor in Kate Atkinson’s delightful Death at the Sign of the Rook (2024), another funny blend of mystery, humor, and unlikely coincidence. This one takes us to Yorkshire in northern England, where the theft of a valuable painting brings Brodie into the employ of Ian and Hazel, sibling descendants of old money who are convinced one of their servants stole it upon the death of their mother. Brodie doesn’t entirely trust his employers, but he gamely pursues the case, uncovering a web of serial art theft that sends him careening back into the orbit of his police protégé Reggie Chase — and a rundown, Downton Abbey-style manor house called Burton Makepeace.
