Atkinson's cozy, Agatha Christie-style novel features former lawman Jackson Brodie, a mystery within a mystery, a real-life killer who becomes mixed up in a trite murder-mystery play, and a reunion between Brodie and his estranged former partner.
Ex-detective Jackson Brodie returns in Kate Atkinson's Agatha-Christie-like setup in Death at the Sign of the Rook.
In Brodie's quiet little town, he's tediously searching for a stolen painting when he stumbles across a string of unsolved art thefts--and he's led to Burton Makepeace, an old hotel that also hosts Murder Mystery weekends.
He begins to suspect that the brother and sister who hired him have something to hide, and he begins to look independently into the provenance of the painting he calls Woman with a Weasel.
Brodie crosses paths with his former partner, who reluctantly allows herself to get drawn into his search for his clients' mother's missing caregiver. The descriptions of her--as well as her fondness for old-fashioned mystery novels--begin to sound similar to that of a young woman thought to possibly be involved in an earlier art theft.
Add in a vicar, a former military man, bitter and suspicious heirs, a clueless and wealthy matriarch, a rabbit-warren of a mansion, and a real-life killer who becomes mixed into the manor's trite, posed murder mystery performance, and you've got yourself an entertaining mystery with enough sweet connections between characters to satisfy a reader looking for a happy ending.
This is the sixth installment in Atkinson's Jackson Brodie series, but it can be read as a stand-alone novel.
I'm not sure why it took me so long to get through this book, but I apologize to all library patrons who were affected by my holding it hostage so obnoxiously long.

Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book?
Atkinson is also the author of Shrines of Gaiety, Case Histories, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, Life After Life, Human Croquet, When Will There Be Good News, and more books.
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