Big Sky

Reviews

International Bestseller
A New York Times Bestseller
A Vanity Fair Best Book of 2019
A Guardian Best Book of 2019

"For those of you who do not know: Atkinson is one of the best writers working today, and her crime fiction, including novels featuring the now-retired Scottish inspector Jackson Brodie, rank among the finest." —The Washington Post

"There is no stray anything in Big Sky. That's one big reason Atkinson's devotees love her. . . . It's worth rereading the beginning once you've finished this novel just to see how well the author has manipulated you. . . . Brodie has been Atkinson's most popular character for good reason. He was interestingly broken, so she hasn’t fixed him. . . . Atkinson opens Big Sky with one perfect page . . . [and] it's a prime example of how Atkinson tells a great story, toys with expectations, deceives by omission, blows smoke and also writes like she's your favorite friend. Thank goodness the long Jackson Brodie hiatus is over." —The New York Times

"This clever page-turner tackles some sobering subjects, but the real draw is the return of Jackson Brodie, the dour but big-hearted private investigator. . . . Our money's on this rocketing straight to bestseller." —The Daily Telegraph

"Kate Atkinson returns to her wry crime fiction in a dark, sharp tale of exploitation. . . . Big Sky is laced with Atkinson's sharp, dry humour, and one of the joys of the Brodie novels has always been that they are so funny." —The Guardian

"[A]n exuberant, entertaining read." —The Independent

"Big Sky . . . has an engaging lightness running through it, and its humour is the stuff of laughs out loud. . . . Cheerful and clever and very much worth investing a reader's time in." —Toronto Star

"It's been eight years since Atkinson's last Jackson Brodie mystery, and, while the three historical novels she has written since then—all with some connection to WWII—have been uniformly brilliant, fans of the ever-brooding, painfully tenderhearted private investigator will be thrilled that Brodie is finally back. . . . Atkinson [has a] rare ability to create in a relatively few but stunningly deft brushstrokes at least a half-dozen characters with the depth and complexity to own their own novel. Another dazzler from a writer whose talents know no bounds." —Booklist, starred review

"A small cast of characters collides and careens in a manner that straddles Greek tragedy and screwball comedy. The humour is sly rather than slapstick, and Atkinson is keenly interested in inner lives and motivations. There are villains, certainly . . . but even the sympathetic characters are complicated and compromised. . . . The deaths and disappearances that Jackson investigates change with every book, but the human heart remains the central mystery. The welcome return of an existential detective." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"The great Atkinson has returned to crime fiction and her well-beloved detective, Jackson Brodie. . . . Atkinson masterfully juggles Brodie's consciousness with that of numerous other characters. . . . You flit in and out of their various viewpoints, but Brodie's—warmhearted, weary, haunted by loss—always feels like coming home. . . . I read this book in a delicious late-night rush; I suspect many of you will too." —The Seattle Times

"A meaty holiday read by an author who can make you laugh and cry in the same sentence . . . so expect sharp turns; dark alleys and lots of plot twists throughout." —The Irish Examiner

"[Atkinson] supplies gruesome discoveries and a strong helping of violence, all nevertheless relayed with a deft and witty touch. . . . Big Sky has all the sizzle of a British fry-up; Ms Atkinson's evocation of the beauty and desolation of faded seaside resorts is unerring. As in the other Brodie novels, several stories are woven into a seamless plot, with the help of credible-seeming twists of fate. And there is just enough unfinished business to leave readers impatient for his next outing."—The Economist

"[Jackson Brodie] returns as taciturn, haunted and appealingly rule-defying as ever." —The Irish Independent

"Atkinson's deliciously laconic style . . . slyly deconstructs the classic crime narrative, referencing Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot, Scandinavian noir and Brighton Rock along the way." —The Irish Times

"The world Big Sky gives us is depraved and craven, crammed with sorrow and exploitation, but there are also tremendous acts of courage, tight bonds of love, wise country songs and silly jokes. . . . In Big Sky you sometimes get the sort of moments great theatre brings where you aren't just witnessing skilled acting, you feel something empirically true is taking place before you. . . . [Atkinson] is a writer with the world in her hands." —Financial Times

"[A] dark, clever tale of brutality and abuse. . . . Few other writers produce such literary page-turners. . . . Big Sky is classic Atkinson . . . so clever, so current and so full of personality." —Belfast Telegraph

"Big Sky is well worth the wait. . . . Superbly written and utterly readable, this novel is a delight from start to finish." —The Independent

"Ms. Atkinson won't be pigeonholed. Her works transcend their genres. . . . . Crimes are committed in the Jackson Brodie novels, but they are more than crime novels. On whatever shelves they are arranged, her books share some key traits: They are literary and accessible and marvels of construction; they are funny, offbeat and full of parenthetical asides, sharp and sly and tinged with sadness." —The Wall Street Journal

"Kate Atkinson is one of those very rare writers who's a master at absolutely every aspect of the novel—character and plot and voice and language and themes and humor and dialogue and on and on. I love everything about Big Sky, a giant mosaic of people and stories that fit perfectly together in a complex, beautiful pattern, offering tremendous reading pleasure on every single page." —Chris Pavone, New York Times bestselling author of The Expat Expand reviews