Kate Atkinson. Death at the Sign of the Rook. Bond Street Books/Doubleday Canada, 2024.
Jackson Brodie makes a rare but welcome appearance, and my, he has aged (haven't we all?). As a PI, Jackson has picked up new clients, the aging children of recently deceased Dorothy Padgett: Ian and Hazel. His job is to recover their mother's stolen painting, purportedly of Renaissance vintage, although its long-ago acquisition by their father is unclear. The culprit seems to be Dorothy's hired carer, Melanie Hope, since vanished. Before we follow Jackson's hunt, considerable time is spent with Lady Milton of the vast Burton Makepeace House/Estate where desperate enterprises by her son, including the new Rook Hall Hotel, attempt to raise enough annual funds for the U.K. taxman. Policewoman Reggie Chase was aware of Lady Milton's missing painting (a Turner!) and now its similar method to the Padgett's problem brings her into the force field of old friend Jackson. Also missing is Lady M's lovely housekeeper Sophie.
So far the pace was not exactly pointed. Pages are devoted to the existential floundering of Lady M's dysphoric neighbours—the suddenly voice-less Rev. Simon Cate, and disabled army vet Ben—not to downplay the great snark bits uttered by Lady M's sons, Piers (the heir apparent) and Cosmo (the black sheep), plus Jackson's own ripostes. There's a fiendishly clever reason for lulling us at first, because the whole bookload of offbeat characters crashes—purposely or accidentally—into the hotel for a murder mystery play (Piers works hard to attract guests). Never, ever, have you read such uproarious bedlam among the actors, detectives, and unwitting participants. Art is imitating life? Old friends Jackson and Reggie can only shake their heads over the manic eruption of shootings, adopted identities, and illusory appearance of Melanie/Sophie.
Although the chronology may be hazy initially, delicious satire reigns as Atkinson's hallmark. Her books are always worth waiting for; she doesn't disappoint here.
Bits
▪ "The painting had no provenance, as they say," Hazel said, approaching the word carefully, as if it might be dangerous in some way. (7)
▪ Yet the Brontës up the road were off the beaten track and they managed to pull in the crowds, "and they're dead, for God's sake," he said. "And look at all the spin-offs, the merchandise—Brontë biscuits, liqueurs, cakes." (31)
▪ Apparently Simon had recently held a service for people's pets that had given him a new-found popularity in his parish and beyond. (92)
▪ The maw of oblivion was where all the lost things were kept. It would be discovered at the end of time. (172)
▪ And, come to think of it—rather late in the day, perhaps—how had Nanny ended up dead? (216)
▪ She was all angles and bones with the scrag-end look of the Duchess of Windsor. (220)
Lady M
▪ Lady Milton wasn't sure which loss was the worse—the Turner or Sophie. (44)
▪ Piers always introduced her to the guests with, "May I present the Dowager Marchioness Lady Milton," and then they all expected her to behave as if she were a member of Downtown Abbey and to say pithy things. (151)
▪ Lady Milton failed to understand the modern obsession with en-suites. Nothing wrong with walking down a hallway with your sponge-bag in your hand. (219)
▪ Lady Milton was surprised to find herself feeling almost sorry for Nanny. "Yeah," Cosmo said, "I suppose she must have been human once." (219)
Jackson
▪ God Almighty, Jackson thought. Neither of them could open their mouths without a cliché falling out. (14)
▪ Jackson was surprised that more women hadn't simply killed their husbands. Maybe they had, maybe women were better at covering up murder than people knew. (66)
▪ He had climbed to the wrong side of sixty, but he wasn't over the hill yet. (67)
▪ ... his Irish mother had insisted on a wake, but as none of the mourners were themselves Irish they didn't know how to be comfortable in the presence of the open coffin in which his sister was on display, like a Disneyfied Snow White. (102)
▪ His name was writ in water. Who said that? And about whom? He had no idea, but it was as good an epitaph as any. Better than She made a good steak pie. (106)
Nathan Dylan Goodwin. The Hollywood Strangler. www.nathandylangoodwin.com, 2024.
Goodwin has been going noir-ish with his victims, so be aware: Venator No. 3 follows suit, conjuring the hidden presence of a psycho killer. LAPD detectives Marsden and Powers (I like his nod to Michael Connelly) are reviewing the cold case of the notorious Hollywood Strangler of the 1980s when they luck into an overlooked DNA sample for the killer. It's 2022 and the firm of choice for investigative genetic genealogy (IGG) is Maddy Scott-Barnhart's company, Venator, in Salt Lake City. Four highly skilled genealogists get to work on determining matches for the DNA, from submissions in an enormous database—people looking for new kin to help extend their ancestry—and tracing a minimum five generations of each match. Back then, or perhaps farther, will be a common ancestor for both the match and the killer. Tracing generations forward from that common point, "reverse genealogy," should produce potential candidates as the killer.
I make no pretense at being experienced with DNA research. But for some character reference and continuity, you might see my prior Venator reviews:
"Another Win for Goodwin!" February 2021
"Goodwin Fans Rejoice!" November 2022
Offsetting the floods of names and sources (unless you are a family historian yourself, you may feel engulfed), Goodwin deftly weaves the current lives of Maddy's diligent team into the mix. Most are exploring new personal relationships. Team member Becky is not on site, although she participates in the Strangler research; temporarily in Haiti, her undisclosed private mission worries Maddy. Becky's father had employed Michael, Maddy's long-missing husband, in business ventures that included some ties to Haiti. Maddy's reliable right hand, Kenyatta, is a Black single mom with a problem teen; Maddy's own domestic scene involves live-in care for her mom who is losing touch with reality. New member Reggie is an avid snowboarder, sharing apartment space with Hudson, the team's IT expert; Reggie urges Hudson to an online site for trans dating, so maybe he knows something we don't. Reggie also develops feelings for the Venator receptionist and general factotum, Ross—although hand-holding and lip-kiss greetings seem to be the only intimate bodily contact all these individuals have with each other. No pillow talk here!
Goodwin's attention to research detail is meticulous, medical forensics as well. Constructing fictional "trees" with appropriate sources is rather mind-boggling, never mind the headline topics he ticks via the team's private lives—homelessness, online dating, dementia, sexual abuse rings, military crimes, for a few. Yet to my mind, he over-stretches for inclusiveness, hitting multiple diverse elements of the human experience. Even with so many threads, tension is aptly built where it counts, including whether the strangler could still be alive. That is eventually determined, but I'm sorry that Goodwin—craftily but typically—leaves a few loose ends. We strongly hope a Venator No. 4 is already generating.
Pull quotes are mainly from the personal stories.
Bits
▪ "This case has been pulled up so many times in the twenty-seven years I've worked in RHD, and nobody has managed to crack it; it's the department's great white whale." (16)
▪ "To put it another way, we have about half the weight of a single grain of table salt of this guy's DNA left." (17)
▪ "Coming home?" he asked Reggie. "Or are you out with your mysterious date again, tonight?" (85)
▪ Kenyatta fought back against the emotion rising inside her. To think that her own son had behaved in such a barbaric way. (101)
▪ With little evidence to support it, Maddie was coming to terms with the fact that Michael was dead. By accepting it on those terms, she was giving herself permission to live and explore a relationship with Clayton. (127)
▪ But the stark and terrifying reality was that nowhere in Port-au-Prince was safe right now. (133)
▪ "And what will Michael have to say about that?" her mom demanded, thrusting her hands onto her hips. "Does he even know?" (154)
▪ He put on a posh British accent and added, "There will not be three of us in this marriage." (177-8)
▪ Becky shrugged. "Really, Aidan, what are our chances that the UN will actually force this guy to take a paternity test?" (194)
▪ "Anything—or anyone for that matter—still in here on Sunday will be removed by my guys and dumped outside on the sidewalk." (222)
Cross-posted on https://brendadougallmerriman.blogspot.com/
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