Kate Atkinson's marvelous first novel, BEHIND THE SCENES AT THE
MUSEUM, distinguished her as a gifted storyteller and a novelist to
watch. Now, with her fourth work of fiction, CASE HISTORIES,
Atkinson proves her mettle with a thoroughly engaging novel that is
part thriller, part psychological study, and part consideration of
the mysteries of fate.

The novel opens with three "case histories." First come the Lands,
the four daughters of a remote, unlikable Cambridge math professor.
The youngest, Olivia, is universally beloved. When she disappears
from a tent during a backyard slumber party, none of the Land
sisters will ever be the same.

The second case is that of Theo Wyre, a Cambridge solicitor who
dotes on his younger daughter, Laura. He worries about her
constantly: "He worried when she went out in a high wind that a
piece of falling masonry might drop on her head, he worried that
she would take a student flat with an unserviced water heater and
die of carbon monoxide poisoning." That's why, when Laura takes a
job in Theo's office during the summer before she is to start
college, he's glad that he'll be able to keep an eye on her. Little
does he know that what he imagines as the safest place for Laura
will prove deadly.

Finally, we have the case of Michelle Fletcher, a young mother who
feels trapped by her marriage and her baby: "she hadn't 'bonded'
with the baby, instead she was shackled by it." Isolated and
lonely, Michelle snaps when her husband makes the mistake of waking
the baby up from a nap.

Some of these cases are more than thirty years old; others happened
recently. Into the middle comes private detective Jackson Brodie,
who, in the course of a few weeks, shifts from investigating
adulterous wives and missing cats to pondering cases that the
police had abandoned years ago. Jackson is having a personal crisis
of his own, and he ends up getting personally and emotionally
involved with too many of his clients.

As the story unfolds gradually, shifting perspectives and timelines
expose connections that no one had anticipated. Careful readers
will delight in these revelations (one character reveals her
identity by using a particularly odd metaphor, for example). All
along, the careful plotting of Atkinson's story and the loveliness
of her language make for a novel that is as thrilling as any
mystery but has depth beyond most other thrillers.