Tagged: Books

Kate Atkinson writes some complex literary fiction. Her latest novel "Started Early, Took My Dog" derives it's title from a poem by Emily Dickinson. This is her 4th novel featuring private investigator (now retired) Jackson Brodie.

Each book is this series has been utterly different. In the previous one, "When Will There Be Good News?" Brodie spent much of the book in a coma after being involved in a train wreck. He barely existed in that one.

Jacqueline Winspear discusses the development of a most unusual detective series that features the private investigator Maisie Dobbs. In this interview the author describes her initial moment of inspiration when she
imagined Maisie dressed in period costume inside the London subway, circa 1929. That vision evolved into the opening chapter of her first Maisie Dobbs book.

Ian Rankin is one of the most popular mystery writers in the United Kingdom. For twenty years he wrote a series of detective novels featuring John Rebus, a cantankerous deputy inspector with the Edinburgh (Scotland) Police.

That series was written in chronological order so that when Rebus reached the mandatory retirement age Rankin simply ended it. That was a few years ago.