Book Review Wednesday

I borrowed this book from Randi when I was in CA recently. I really enjoyed Case Histories by the same author and was interested to read another of her novels. I enjoyed this book as a casual read, but I wouldn't say that it moved any mountains for me, which is fine. The novel picks up a couple years after Case Histories ends and is following our favorite reluctant hero, Jackson Brodie in another "adventure". The plot begins as Jackson is in Edinburgh, Scotland, visiting with his girlfriend who is performing in a play there during a festival. The author has a wonderful way for portraying the same event from many different perspectives, and of course all the characters are witnesses or participants in a particularly brutal road rage incident. Jackson gets sucked back into his old investigative / policing ways and a mystery ensues. The bodies do not stack up, as one might suspect, and we get to know the characters in a little more depth. The book was an easy read, flowed quite well but was unremarkable to me. The connections between the characters were easily assumed and the plot was mostly predictable. There is a twist at the end, but again, I could have called that from a mile away. The characters are a bit like caricatures of stereotyped people: the scorned wife, the single mother, the reclusive author, the old cop who just can't quit his investigative ways. Altogether, it's an interesting read, not too boring, and something I would suggest for a beach read, a relaxing read, but certainly not a challenging one. It was, however, exactly what I needed at the time.