Kate Atkinson and "Literary Crime"

This week I'm at Librarian Bootcamp. (Send cookies please, Mom. Quiet cookies.)

I spent most of the train ride here reading, of course. Kate Atkinson writes "literary crime"-- at least, her series of novels featuring retired police inspector Jackson Brodie are literary crime, featuring a mystery (or several) wrapped in character-driven suspense.

I'd heard Atkinson speak at the Kensington Library last June, but it took until now for me to read her books. The first blew me away. "Case Histories" takes several apparently unconnected crimes over many years and weaves them together, arriving at a satisfying conclusion that feels like an ending, but isn't. When I finished it I felt like I'd witnessed something very real and wonderful.

When I read a great book I wish there was more of it, but more is not always better. With series I often end up wishing that the author had left it alone. Last week I started reading "One Good Turn," the second in Atkinson's series. It started well with a bewildering road rage incident in Edinburgh and then trailed into various new or familiar characters as they swung around the incident, interacting with each other. Near the middle of the book I began to realize that of course this wouldn't be as good as the first. The threads were too thin, the narrative too coincidental, and for a lot of the time it seemed like nothing happened.

And then the end of the book hit with flurries of connection and revelation. Atkinson backed up and away from the characters, giving a higher and further view, and then leaving them altogether. I was left feeling sad that the story was over, once again. And I wanted more. Again. It redeemed itself completely. I can't wait to read the third in the series.

During her talk in the Kensington Library, Atkinson mentioned that she likes writing crime but she doesn't want to be labelled as if that's all she could do. I think her books prove that isn't all she can do but I understand the worry. It's easy to label something Crime and then dismiss it when you want something more intellectual. But some stories include crime not as a cheap trick but to reveal the human aspects of the situation, as victim or perpetrator, from the outside, from within. This should not be dismissed. Atkinson's books give a whole tapestry around the threads that are crime, and this is how I'd like to write: more than genre, more accessible than literary. I'd like my books to be as real and surprising and moreish.