User:Qst/One Good Turn (2006 book)

One Good Turn is a 2006 novel by English author Kate Atkinson, and published by Little, Brown and Company. The book is a follow-up to Case Histories, a 2004 novel by Atkinson. The novel sees Jackson Brodie, a former private detective and police officer, brought out of early retirement to lead an investigation into a severe road rage attack during the Edinburgh Festivals.

The novel received mainly positive reviews and comments from critics. In a mixed review, Jennifer Reese of American magazine Entertainment Weekly wrote "Atkinson's tart prose still sparkles, but while all the plot pieces connect, they never quite click."

Reception
In a mixed review by The Boston Globe, Janette Turner Hospital wrote "Think of "One Good Turn" as Monty Python does "The Thomas Crown Affair": witty, clever, but also slapstick and cynical, with no moral center at all." Jane Smiley of The Los Angeles Times praised the book, commenting that "As in "Case Histories," Atkinson is adept at dealing out surprises, especially those that turn up just as the reader is thinking she has uncovered everything. In a mixed review, Donna Freydkin of USA Today wrote "But even though it has all the necessary ingredients, Turn lacks the spiritual poignancy of its predecessor and its touching exploration of lives irrevocably affected by stupid choices and damaged by often-random events," adding that "It's not spectacular, and it may lack the bite of CaseHistories, but One Good Turn still is compelling and always entertaining as the gruff Brodie tries to make sense of a series of unfortunate events." Robert Cremins of The Houston Chronicle wrote "The story is strongest when Atkinson concentrates on human logic and when the novel suggests, rather than ponders, the subtle debts that can accrue between people, both friends and strangers."