What Is The Plot Summary Of Case Histories?

Question

Finding the Case Histories novel's storyline confusing. Heard it involves ex-detective Jackson Brodie solving cold cases but I'm hazy on specifics.

StarEcho · Answer

This highly acclaimed novel follows the cold cases of three murders which occurred in the past decades. Private investigator Jackson Brodie is brought back to solve these cases for the families of the victims. Rather than a typical whodunit, the book explores the long-term effects of grief on those left behind and how these past events are connected today. If you enjoy stories that center around secrets of the past and how they affect people’s lives today, you may also enjoy ‘Dirty Little Secrets(Short Stories)’. The short stories follow a number of characters who are hiding secrets and how these secrets are finally revealed, often causing great upheaval in the character’s lives in a short but powerful instant.

Ryan · Answer

If you like your crime novels to explore the emotional landscape of the characters rather than to be encyclopedias of forensic detail then Lissifer's Case Histories is a wonderful read. It's a complex plot which slowly reveals all in a heartbreakingly painful manner. It can be a very sad book but it is also a wonderful exploration of the human condition after tragedy. It looks at how people come to terms with what has happened to them and how they slowly come to heal. Atkinson brings all the characters to life, even the minor ones, in wonderful detail. She describes scenes such as a detective drinking tea in a cluttered and untidy kitchen and an old man reminiscing about his daughter who died when he was a young man. It's not a 'whodunit' but a novel about people.

Graham · Answer

‘Case Histories’ is another peeling of the onion skin of human pain and possible redemption. At first the three cases seemed to be largely separate but as Jackson became more involved, he realized that there were connections between them, connections that were to be revealed as he delved deeper into the cases of a murdered sister, a man’s brother’s accidental death which was ruled as such despite the man’s strong belief that it was murder, and a family and a daughter threatened by violence. I enjoyed this book greatly in part because Atkinson does not glamorize the work of a detective. Much of Jackson’s work consists of long hours sitting at a computer scanning pages of police reports only to find nothing. His breakthroughs are all the more enjoyable because of the tedious detail that leads up to them. My favorite aspect of the book is the minor characters who become crucial to the development of the story and reveal much about the main characters through their interactions with them. A shy office worker, a stray cat, are just two examples.

Wyatt · Answer

'Case Histories' is a mystery novel unlike any other. Rather than reading like a traditional crime novel where a PI solves a case within a few hundred pages, ‘Case Histories’ is a mosaic of human frailty and our attempts to get things right. The four cases described within its covers unfold over a 17 year period and cover a boy’s disappearance in the 1970s, a woman’s brutal murder in the 1990s, and two current investigations. It’s a complex read but Atkinson gets the pacing of her characters just right, whether they’re an elderly retired nurse hiding a huge secret or a small boy’s teddy bearing witness to his disappearance all those years before. It’s been on my mind for days.

Jason · Answer

In ‘Case Histories’ by Kate Atkinson, several cold cases from decades past are woven together with the personal dramas of the main characters. Former policeman turned private investigator, Jackson Brodie, investigates three separate cases: the disappearance of a young girl twenty-five years previously; the brutal ax murder of a young man; and the shocking act of violence perpetrated by a disturbed young woman several years ago. Through Jackson’s eyes we experience the cases and are shown how the wounds of past traumas are affected by memories of past grief.

At its heart, ‘Case Histories’ is a superb detective story but it is also so much more. The book is a fantastic family saga with lots of dark, witty humor thrown in for good measure. None of the central characters are perfect but each is fully realized and whilst Jackson is struggling to come to terms with his failed marriage to Penny, he is also trying to help others with their own tragic circumstances. The book doesn’t end with any neat solutions or tying up of loose ends but it does give the reader a sense of closure and the understanding that some wounds may never fully heal. There are some excellent minor characters too, including Brodie’s rather odd office assistant, NZ Sparrow, and the dad of one of the missing children who still posts up his missing person’s flyers 30 years after his child disappeared.

Jiman · Answer

I love how Atkinson treats time in this novel. The past is a fully rounded character and the summer of Olivia’s disappearance in the 1970s is as present as Jackson’s investigations into her disappearance are today. It’s cleverly woven together by the author so that you can really feel the passing of time and the weight of years gone by on the present day. And time is a thing that erodes and rots as well as preserving. For the Lands time has stopped. For Jackson time is racing on and he’s struggling to be good enough to his daughter. Atkinson explores time in the novel and the way the plots and timelines of then and now unfold to reveal a story to us is also part of the mystery. It’s all so beautifully done.

monikah bawah · Answer

Are you, like me, obsessed with the minor characters and are they sticking it you for days after finishing the book? To me that is a sign of a great plot and for Atkinson to have given the same amount of thought to each and every character regardless of whether they are a main case family or just a random secretary or even a minor character in the background of a scene, is a testament to her skill as a writer. She has given the villains of the book motivations for their actions that are not excused but are disturbingly human. But even more, the way Atkinson treats every character with the same amount of respect is astonishing. The emotional impact of the main tragedies is even more powerful because of the way you feel the ripple effects of each crime spreading out from the center and affecting people in all sorts of ways, big and small. It is a novel about interconnectedness and how no one’s grief is an island.

Saji Francis · Answer

The setting for most of the novel is Cambridge and the surrounding areas. On one hand, there is the beautiful old university town, contrasting with the awful, modern situations that unfold in people’s homes and places of work. Then, there is the River Cam, once a symbol of continuity and peaceful change, now the location of a tragic incident and a major plot twist. The stifling, cluttered Land house is almost another character and the contrasts with Jackson’s rootless existence, and the run down flats and B&Bs he moves from place to place could not be greater. The novel is rooted in the places where these high emotions play out and we can feel the chill of the English weather, the dank gloom of the neglected house and the grime of the roadside cafe. It all makes the characters’ pain seem all the more real and immediate.

Sade · Answer

Atkinson writes this like a symphonic novel, with recurring motifs, rather than simple themes that run through all the cases. Yes, each of the different cases is a ‘movement’ in its own right – with its own pace and mood – yet all of them have one underlying bassline, that of human grief, and one overriding melody, that of tired compassion from Jackson. I notice motifs of lost sisters, failed fathers and unfulfilled lives time and again as I read this. While the investigation into each case provides the bulk of the narrative and runs like a steady rhythm section through the whole book, the real story is told through character solos, singly and in combination. We read the lonely repression of Amelia Land, the huge and breaking sorrow of Theo Wyre and the chaotic fragmentation of Michelle, among others. And Jackson? Oh, he’s the conductor of this complex novel, great parts of which he has no control over. It’s not just a really good mystery novel (a term that doesn’t even come close). It’s a wonderful novel – a beautiful and complex symphony of human emotions at their worst and best. If I describe the plot of the book here, it won’t convey anything of the value of the book to you. You have to read it.

Links Brown · Answer

In Case Histories, author Kate Atkinson masterfully unites several cold-case investigations seemingly unrelated, all viewed through the lens of the multi-faceted main character and private investigator, Jackson Brodie. As he searches for answers regarding the disappearance of a young girl forty years earlier as well as the murder of a young lawyer’s daughter, his investigation exposes the painful and oft-disturbing histories of several families affected by tragedy. While he is struggling to find closure and solace regarding his own painful past, he helps to bring closure to others. The emotive tone of Case Histories rests precariously between sorrow and comedy, framed by hope that at times is completely unexpected. This is not simply another crime-based mystery; rather it is a complex exploration into how individuals deal with loss and the senseless nature of violence. The book’s exceptional character development, literary depth and strong plots make it different from the run-of-the-mill crime fiction often read by followers of the genre. Recommended to those looking for something with more substance.

Be prepared for a complex series of perspectives and timeframes but it is so worth it.

ObsessedInk_writer · Answer

I gave a plot summary and then continued to explain how the book worked. Most of the cases that Jackson Brodie investigates do not have happy endings, but somehow he gives his clients what they need to move on from their pain. His own life is a series of echoes from his sister’s murder. This makes him the perfect investigator for the family of a little girl who disappeared in 1970. Her sisters find him by chance and ask him to investigate her disappearance after all these years. Meanwhile, there’s the case of the lawyer’s daughter who was murdered. The father of the murdered child created a file of her short life and he is unable to move on from her death. He needs to know the truth about her life and death. And then there is the woman who commits an extreme act of violence and then disappears. I don’t give away how these cases are resolved but suffice it to say that Jackson Brodie is able to uncover enough truth for each of his clients to move on from their pain. The book is a masterpiece of emotional storytelling wrapped in a detective story. The structure of the book jumps between the different times and characters and this mirrors memory which is often presented in fragmentary form and certain moments are seared into memory in stark detail.

reynaldo villamor · Answer

A friend who reads only thrillers was amazingly disappointed by this book. According to him, nothing happens. Actually, quite a lot happens but the plot is all internal. It is about the decades of silence after a tragic event and about the psychological development of the protagonist and the two Land sisters who have transformed their family home into a sort of mausoleum. And there is Theo Wyre, who has turned his body into a kind of monument. This is a book by a writer who is essentially concerned with plotting as a way of exploring the interior lives of his characters and Jackson Brodie is a man of great interior life, a man whose greatest skill is to be empathetic and to sit with people’s grief. External events – his investigations into various crimes past and present – are merely the surface level of what is really going on in this novel. If you read for character alone, this is the best thriller you will ever read.

What Is The Plot Summary Of Case Histories?

12 Answers

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