Review: Death at the Sign of the Rook

Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I would have sworn blind I'd read all of the Jackson Brodie books but Goodreads tells me different. Anyway, when I saw this ARC on Goodreads I jumped at the chance to read the latest instalment.

Jackson is a PI, his lucrative Russian clientele have fallen away and he is reduced to working for a rather unpleasant set of twins who claim their late mother's home help helped herself to paining which had sentimental value. Whilst Jackson can clearly see there is a place where a painting once hung, he is unconvinced by the frankly wooden explanations given by the pair and feels there must be more to the story. However, as he investigates he discovers that the home help used a burner phone, a fake reference, and a fake name. Could the painting be a lost master? Could it have been stolen during WW2, or was it seized by the Nazis (which of course is also stealing)? Jackson reaches out to an old friend and discovers that there may be some similarities with a theft two years ago of a Turner from Burton Makepeace, home to the Dowager Lady Milton and her family.

The Milton family have been selling off their valuables to keep the house afloat, the new Lord Milton has turned one wing into a hotel, repurposed some buildings as Airbnbs, and sold off others. His latest venture is to sell Murder Mystery weekends with a small acting troupe portraying an Agatha Christie-esque story for the guests to solve. However, with laughable consequences, it turns out that a real vicar, sleuth, thief, murderer, and army major also arrive at the house unexpectedly.

This is the second detective novel I have read in the last few days which has played with the detective genre (by which I mean played 52-card pickup with the foundation stones) and I loved it. I loved seeing Jackson Brodie again. I loved everything about this.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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