Atkinson is a writer of exceptional detective procedural and historical novels. Big Sky is the latest featuring her slightly muddled protagonist, Jackson Brodie. A retired police Detective Chief Inspector in a major city, he is now a humble private detective who followed a former lover to the seaside of Yorkshire to be with his teen age son, Nathan, and an aging black lab, Dido.
True to this type of plot, Brodie is hired to identify some baddies by the wife of a covert operator in human trafficking. The plot is interesting as Atkinson weaves the relationships among types of friends. According to Vince, one of the friends who recently lost his job and his wife, there are golf friends, work friends, old school friends—then there are friend friends, harder to come by. And, as we have experienced, when you are with a group of golf friends that contains several friend friends, it’s hard not to feel on the outside. But when friends are engaged in human trafficking, it’s good to be a bit on the outside.
This is a story told in the details. So savor the slow build and the rather predictable denouement. Recommended for a fun read of the Brit detective genre. Great fodder for a BBC-like series.