Former detective Jackson Brodie just doesn’t recognize happenstance. In his world view, “A coincidence is just an explanation waiting to happen.” How then, would he explain the alignment of events that bring together the central characters in Kate Atkinson’s smart and literary crime piece, “One Good Turn”? Events are set in motion by what certainly appears to be coincidence, but once the ball is rolling its path seems anything but accidental.
The streets in Edinburgh are jammed, fallout from people attending the summer arts festival. A silver Peugeot stops unexpectedly, avoiding a careless pedestrian. The driver of the blue Honda is not so fast to react, though the resulting fender-bender seems minor.
The lack of obvious damage is probably the first reason that that bystanders are slow to react when the Honda’s driver steps out and proceeds to savage the Peugeot with a baseball bat. And shock, or disbelief, would also explain their continued inaction when he turns the bat on the Peugeot’s unfortunate driver.
Help comes from an unlikely source. Martin Canning is among the bystanders and though he is generally unprepossessing, the sight of a bully working over a seemingly defenseless driver triggers action. He slips the bag carrying his laptop off his shoulder and hurls it, clipping the attacker in the shoulder. The impact is enough to stop the attack, but Canning’s one good turn doesn’t seem to beget another. Instead, it sets off a chain of events that tie Canning’s life to Brodie and one other witness, Gloria Hatter.
Gloria is in the crowd, but too far away to witness the attack. The wife of a successful but shady real estate developer, she and Pam – “Pam wasn’t what Gloria would have called a friend, just someone she had known for so long that she had given up trying to get rid of her” – are standing in line for a lunchtime comedy showcase. By the time police finish questioning witnesses, who manage to offer no helpful information, Gloria has missed the showcase. The 59-year-old is left to return to an empty, too-big house.
Brodie, introduced to Atkinson’s readers in “Case Histories,” is in Edinburgh with his actress-girlfriend, Julia. He steps out of the crowd to help Canning, who seems undone by his thoughtless act of courage.
Atkinson is nothing if not fully skilled at weaving together multiple story lines, and she takes her time bringing these three central characters together with a fourth, Detective Inspector Louise Monroe. Each of Atkinson’s characters is fully realized, idiosyncratic without being over-the-top. Much of the joy in reading “One Good Turn” lies in watching each of them attempt to muddle through events that have turned impossible.
Canning is a reclusive mystery novelist, the author of cozy mysteries that read like retro British Nancy Drews. He is the last man on Earth one would imagine standing up to a bully, and doing so makes him the target of a vengeful madman. He turns to a kind stranger for help, a stranger who turns out to be Brodie.
Brodie may be the white knight, but one whose armor is somewhat tarnished. He senses he is losing Julia, but he also is fighting a more elemental battle. He had come into money that allowed him to buy a long-dreamed-of house in France, but the money has left him adrift. “Real men had to earn a hard crust. They had to labor at the coal face, both real and metaphorical. They didn’t spend their days filling up their iPods with sad country songs and feeding apples to French donkeys.” He finds meaning in helping Canning, and he is unable to resist the resulting call to detective work.
And then there is Gloria, who, after arriving at her too-large, empty home, receives news that her husband, who is dancing on the edge of fraud charges, has been hospitalized with a heart attack, and that the heart attack has been brought on by a bit of S&M with a Russian prostitute.
It is, to say the least, an unlikely set-up. But a good part of the charm of the novel lies in how the characters are going to work through the absurdities they’ve been handed. That Atkinson can steer away from slapstick to make their reactions real is no small feat.
“One Good Turn” is billed as a mystery, and the novel certainly is driven by some of the genre’s elements. But, as Atkinson deftly demonstrated in “Case Histories,” the driving force of good fiction is not a turn of plot but the challenges faced by characters. Part of what makes “One Good Turn” sing is that the plot twists are unexpected and funny. But ultimately, it is the characters, and what makes them do the things they do, that keep the surprises coming.
Robin Vidimos is a freelance writer who reviews books for The Denver Post and Buzz in the ‘Burbs.
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One Good Turn
By Kate Atkinson
Little, Brown, 432 pages, $24.99
