When Will There Be Good News?

When Will There Be Good News?

‘What did she mean he belonged to her?’ - Narrator

‘When Will There Be Good News?’, is Kate Atkinson’s award winning crime novel and the second that includes former police officer Jackson Brodie. The story follows four characters that are linked in various interesting ways.

Thirty years after her family is murdered Dr Joanna Hunter is living a perfect life, at least in the eyes of her nanny Reggie but this perfect picture begins to fade away once she is told by Detective Chief Inspector Louise Monroe, that the man who murdered her family is out of prison and then she disappears. Although the murder of Joanna’s family is the tone the novel starts on, it takes a long time for its importance to be shown in the novel. This isn’t a negative though as the short chapters that appear about Joanna’s life after the murders not only provide insight into Joanna but builds the suspense as they search for her. One problem I had with these chapters and several others as that the time they were set in often changed and confused me.

As I was reading I enjoyed discovering how characters linked not only how their paths crossed, through Dr Hunter, but also how they linked emotionally and mentally such as the obvious love shared by Louise and Jackson but also between Jackson and Reggie who were connected the most in my eyes as both their lives had been surrounded by death at a young age plus they had an ingrained knowledge from school although Reggie enjoyed having this knowledge much more than Jackson. Additionally I liked that the book is written in free indirect style, that embodies the first person perspective from a third person voice, as it allowed me to fully engage with the thought process of each character although I often forgot of the third person aspect, not in a bad way but it just shows how invested I became into each character.

However as each person’s perspective was explored moments in the book seemed to overlap which isn’t entirely negative as it showed each person’s viewpoint but it did prevent the story from progressing and each viewpoint being shown didn’t provided any additional insight.

Becoming equally involved in learning about each character although a good thing caused me to wonder why Atkinson considered this a Jackson Brodie novel as he takes no starring role in the novel if anything the women are focused most upon such as them all being linked through Dr Hunter or many more pages being dedicated to the lives of Reggie and Louise than Jackson. It could be because Jackson was a hero debatably in the novel as he saved Dr Hunter in the end but this isn’t enough in my opinion to call it his novel.

As I approached the end of the novel the story began to feel rushed, as if Atkinson was in a hurry to finish the novel as I am to finish an essay for school, but similarly the quality wasn’t compromised but the content was slightly as a chapter about Billy was included and not interlinked like the stories of the others had been. Also the final chapter of Dr Hunter and Reggie reciting to the baby was lost on me as I felt there was a significance that I couldn’t understand that made me feel somewhat left out unlike the rest of the novel when references were used it more so made me want to understand them further or made be proud when I already did. However this does present the picture perfect family that Reggie had wanted throughout and still doesn’t stop me holding this novel in high regard.