Kate Atkinson

Kate Atkinson is a British novelist who moves between literary fiction and crime writing, best known within the mystery genre for the Jackson Brodie series, which follows a former police detective turned private investigator through cases that unfold with the structural playfulness and interest in coincidence and fate more typical of Atkinson's literary novels than conventional crime fiction. Beginning with Case Histories in 2004, the series is prized for weaving together multiple, seemingly unconnected storylines that gradually reveal how they intersect.

Atkinson won the Whitbread Book of the Year (now the Costa Book Award) for her very first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, well before she turned to crime fiction, and she has continued to move fluidly between the two modes throughout her career, including the acclaimed literary novel Life After Life. That literary sensibility -- close attention to voice, structure, and coincidence -- carries directly into the Brodie novels, setting them apart from more straightforwardly procedural crime series.

A new reader should start with Case Histories, which introduces Brodie and the interwoven-narratives structure that defines the series. The Jackson Brodie novels were adapted into the BBC television series Case Histories (2011-2013), starring Jason Isaacs in the title role.