This is a complicated, multi-POV cosy crime book. It's also the sixth of Atkinson's books to feature Jackson Brodie. I haven't read any of the others, but I don't think this affected the story for me.

The plot involves a murder mystery (which we're introduced to at the beginning then don't return to until nearer the end) and a series of missing paintings.

It's cleverly plotted, but there are so many points of view that it's easy to get lost (or wonder what some of the POVs are for). The writing saves it, but it's just on the verge of cosy vs over-complicated. Luckily it's funny and very human, so I kept going.

For me it was a satisfying read and I'm likely to go back and dig out some earlier Jackson Brodie books.

This is the sixth book in the Jackson Brodie series by author Kate Atkinson.

The story is set in a country house which is caught in the middle of a snowstorm resulting in the guests been trapped. Jackson Brodie is among those trapped in Burton Makepeace along with DC Reggie Chase. Ex-detective Jackson Brodie is asked to investigating the disappearance of a painting but one theft leads to another, including the disappearance of a valuable Turner from Burton Makepeace, home to Lady Milton and her family. Burton Makepeace has now been converted into a hotel, hosting Murder Mystery weekends and as paying guests, a vicar, an ex-army officer and several other aristocrats are investigating the mystery.

I have watched the television series ‘Case Histories’ so found it easy to visualise the main characters and their chemistry which helped my enjoyment. I enjoy the character of Jackson Brodie and the interactions with Reggie Chase which add humour and banter to the series. It took me a little longer to fulling enjoying this novel than usual but the second half of the book was very good. I plan to catch up on some of the earlier novels in this series.

I would like to thank both Netgalley and Random House UK for supplying a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Murder-Mystery parties are somewhat of an acquired taste, and are the last place where you would expect to find a real detective. Surprisingly, PI Jackson Brodie and DC Regina (Reggie) Chase have just turned up at one, held in Burton Makepeace House, home of the Marquess Marchioness of Milton, located somewhere in the Home Counties. The family are in financial straits and this is one of many ploys being used to bring in some income. Another is the selling off of paintings. Unfortunately, the most valuable one remaining, a Turner, was stolen some time ago, apparently by the Housekeeper. Reggie is part of the team investigating the theft.
Elsewhere, Ilkley in Yorkshire to be exact, Jackson Brodie has been hired by the Pagett family because they think their late mother’s carer stole a, possibly Renaissance, possibly valuable, painting. A bit of web searching brings up the missing Turner, plus a Scottish painting possibly stolen by a cleaner. Jackson ‘teams up’ with Reggie (i.e. he needs her police resources and she can’t ignore their previous history – complicated and unlikely but see previous books). The trail leads them to that Murder-Mystery party, where, improbably, they are sleuths, in the company of a marchioness, a retired Major, a prodigal son, a fallen vicar and an escaped convict, almost mirroring the cast of actors assembled to perform the actual Murder-Mystery.
I think this has to be classified as a double parody, art imitating life and vice versa. It sees a welcome return of Jackson and Reggie, with the characteristic humour, one liners, but with more slap-stick and farcical elements. The author is, of course, a brilliant, prizewinning, literary writer and I’ve aways thought that she uses to Brodie to work off some of her wilder jocularity. This novel certainly fulfils that definition. The conceit of having a murder- mystery inside a Murder-Mystery is very clever, but I think that she may have got a bit too carried away with creating characters that work both way. Lady Milton is defined by her dialogue – what one might call ‘an unconscious comedienne’ – and is easy to imagine; the Vicar and the Major are important parts of the action so need backgrounds, which are a bit overdeveloped for the needs of the story. The dénouements and the resolves are intricate so the reader’s mind can’t just coast to the end. Brilliant idea, great writing, difficult read; too intricate? It’s better than a 4 and too indulgent for a 5 which means I’m stuck with 4.5, rounding to 5.
I would like to thank NetGalley, the publishers and the author for providing me with a draft proof copy for the purpose of this review.

Hurrah, lovers of Kate’s (ex) detective Jackson Brodie will delight knowing he’s back. This time he’s looking into a stolen painting, but quickly one theft turns into another. Expect a mystery of Christie proportions.

Delighted to get to read another Jackson Brodie novel. This one started as a cozy Agatha Christie-esque story, before gathering speed to a dramatic conclusion. Sometimes a head spin with the number of characters being introduced when least expected in the last third of the book. Overall enjoyable and solid 4 stars. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance reader copy.

Jackson Brodie is on the trail of a stolen painting. He's working for the twin offspring of a recently deceased woman. They claim that their mother's carer has stolen a painting from her bedroom and disappeared. They also don't want to call the police as they don't want to get her into trouble. He knows there is more to the story.
Meanwhile, another painting has been stolen from a large country house, allegedly by the housekeeper, who has also disappeared. With a snowstorm, a murder mystery weekend and an escaped criminal, things are due to collide, and who is going to be in the middle of it - Jackson of course.
Entertaining and pacey to read.

I hadn't visited a Jackson Brodie novel in some time so it was a delight to delve into this. I loved the premise and I'm always a sucker for some sort of con involving rich people or old people. I really liked the art angle and it had me googling the real life art thefts.

As usual Kate draws you into the story, providing enough character development and back story without it becoming tedious, and enough tension and movement to create a page turner.

I’ve enjoyed the previous Jackson Brodie books but found this a little hard to get into at first. Well written with some very witty dialogue though. Glad I persevered as I loved it once I got into it. Superior writing and storytelling.

It has been a while since I read a book by Kate Atkinson and I had forgotten how different, random, unusual, her style of writing is.
It reminds me of a Ronnie Corbett sketch where he always seems to get sidetracked whilst recounting his story, often missing the punchline.
With Death at the sign of the rook, I found I was just getting involved in the story and one set of characters when the halter ended and a new set of characters and situations were introduced.
This read certainly kept me on my toes and awake for longer than usual. Once I got used to the quirky style I enjoyed the read.

Oh what a treat, a new Jackson Brodie book from Kate Atkinson. ‘Death at the Sign of the Rook’ is sixth in this fast-moving, witty character-led crime series. This time, Jackson is on the trail of a stolen painting. Or perhaps it hasn’t been stolen after all.
New grandfather Jackson, in the midst of a mid-life crisis and driving a huge new Land Rover Defender, takes on the case of a missing painting belonging to the recently deceased mother of the most boring brother and sister. As he investigates Dorothy Padgett’s carer Melanie Hope, who disappeared at the same time as ‘The Woman with a Weasel,’ Brodie finds other unsolved cases involving stolen paintings. Could they be linked? Jackson is reunited with police officer Reggie Chase who helps – checking things on the police computer, despite her misgivings – and the duo become pulled into a surreal world of a dual reality.
Burton Makepeace, a rundown Yorkshire country mansion, has also lost a painting, in this case by JMW Turner. Now partly converted into a hotel, Burton Makepeace is hosting a Murder Mystery Weekend and as the snowfall turns into waist-high drifts, travellers are stranded and the murders begin. Truth and fiction become entangled as a group of actors are let loose in the large country house with endless rooms, hidden stairs and dangerous battlements. Local vicar Simon, who has recently lost his voice, gets lost in the snow and stumbles into the Murder Mystery, immediately to be confused by the amateur sleuths as the fictional vicar on their cast list. At times I read in a haze of confusion as real people and actors merged; a social comment on today’s perception of truth, sort-of-truth and fake truth perpetuated by social media. How do we know what is really true and who to believe. Jackson, with the help of Reggie, has to sort out truth from lies and work out who’s who. The cast of characters is a combination of Agatha Christie and Cluedo.
Told at breakneck speed, so many laughs, what a wonderful book. Only Kate Atkinson could write this story, wonderful craftsmanship, tension, farce, wicked humour and dark threat. It starts off racing from the first page and doesn’t stop until the last.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/

Ive been a fan of Kate Atkinson's writing since "behind the scenes at the museum" and Jackson Brodie has been a particular favourite, so it was great to meet up with him again. Sadly I didn't enjoy this as much as the others and the gothic horror/Agatha Christie mashup didn't really work for me. However, I look forward to the next publication from the ingenious mind of this author
Thank you to netgalley and Random House for an advance copy of this book
3.5 rounded up to 4 stars

Jackson Brodie novels are how I was first introduced to Kate Atkinson and it has been a pleasure to read all her work ever since. A new Jackson Brodie novel is always a delight and this does not disappoint with an eccentric cast of characters linked by a number of missing paintings and culminating in a snowy Murder mystery weekend. This starts off slowly but the final third comes to a very dramatic close. I really enjoyed it.

I didn't realise until I was part way through that this was the latest book in a series (I just saw the author and asked for the book to review as I've loved the other books of hers I'd read). I had been feeling that I was missing information as I'd been going along and this explained why. I generally try to avoid reading a series out of order and I think I would definitely have got into the book a lot quicker had I read the earlier books.

That said, I did enjoy it. It's a good quality mystery story with many threads that somehow, are all drawn together by the end of the book. What I liked about it was that many of the bit-part players have small but important roles in the wider narrative and this meant that every scrap of information offered took on significance.

As always with Atkinson's books, this is beautifully written and there are plenty of deftly administered humorous touches. The relationship between Brodie and Reggie was particularly fun to read and I really took Lady Milton to heart. Even the less likeable characters come across really well and are interestingly wicked rather than just plain bad. As a fan of the interactive murder mystery, I especially liked the behind the scenes shenanigans with the acting company - I think anyone who has attended these events, recognises the various actor 'tropes', most notably the lead actor who seems to be just a little bit 'too' into his part.

Having come to this series at its most recent, I will probably go back to the beginning and read the earlier books as well.

Although I have read and enjoyed many Kate Atkinson books, this was my first time dipping a toe into her Jackson Brodie series. Despite not having read any of the earlier books, I did not feel like I was at a loss, the character was quickly established and any pertinent details were woven into the narrative as it played out. There are two main story threads that of course weave together as the book unfolds. The first follows Jackson as he is hired by the children of a recently deceased woman in order to track down a stolen, potentially valuable, painting which was apparently taken by their mother's carer. The second plot line involves a murder mystery weekend at Burton Makepeace, once a magnificent country house but now a struggling enterprise desperately turning to novelty events in order to make ends meet. This reads like an homage to classic mysteries in the style of Agatha Christie, and that is no accident.
There is a lot going on in this book, the cast of characters is not short and there are also a couple of different timelines to keep track of, which meant that at times I struggled a little and found myself checking back to remind myself which took me out of the book a little. I enjoyed Brodie as a character, particularly his interplay with Reggie, the police officer, and I think I would definitely like to try one of the earlier books in the series for comparison. Several of the secondary characters were also great, most notably army veteran Ben and the somewhat outrageous dowager Lady Milton, who is clearly struggling to come to terms with the change in her fortunes. While I loved the characters I thought the plot felt a little overly convoluted at times, perhaps in an effort to tie the two stories together and cram in the Christie style references the author had to push things a little too far and there is just a little too much reliance on coincidence for my taste.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

Rating: 2.4/5

I was really looking forward to reading "Death at the Sign of the Rook" after I had seen the accompanying synopsis. A play within a play (or, at least, a murder mystery within a murder mystery) with a classic "Golden Age" style setting, penned by a talented author, but, ultimately, I found it somewhat disappointing.

On the plus side, there is some very clever writing (as you would expect from Kate Atkinson) and there are regular sprinklings of witty humour, particularly in the exchanges between Jackson Brodie and Reggie Chase. However, overall, I couldn't help thinking that the book was guilty of trying to be too clever for its own good. There is quite an extensive cast list and the plot leans towards the complex side, particularly when the wandering time frame is added into the mix. Not that I mind complexity in the least. Indeed, there is something very satisfying about a complicated whodunnit - providing it ultimately hangs together, makes sense and succeeds in taking the reader along on the journey of discovery. But that is where I felt that this novel came up short. There were too many occasions where it seemed a little self-indulgent rather than remaining audience-focussed.

I have little doubt that I will return to read Kate Atkinson's work again, but this was not one of my favourites.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for supplying an ARC in return for an honest review.

Death At The Sign Of The Rook is the sixth book in the popular Jackson Brodie series by award-winning best-selling British author, Kate Atkinson. When Dorothy Padgett dies, Jackson is asked by her twins, Hazel and Ian, to look for a painting missing from her bedroom.

It’s a Renaissance-era portrait and they claim not to know if it’s worth anything, but want it back for sentimental reasons. They believe that Dorothy’s carer, Melanie Hope took it when she left but they don’t want to involve the police, and Jackson feels there’s something decidedly shifty about the pair.

He quickly deduces Melanie’s phone is a burner, checks out the address (fake), chases the painting’s provenance (something dodgy there too) and then does a little research into art theft. A couple of interesting items online have him wondering if the same woman is posing in roles that virtually guarantee her invisibility (cleaner, carer, housekeeper) and then making off with valuable artwork.

One of the thefts was from Burton Makepeace House, the home of the Marquess and Marchioness Milton, and DC Reggie Chase investigated without success. A call from Jackson Brodie, about this, or anything, isn’t really welcome: “Jackson Brodie’s MO was disruption. His attitude to the law was like that of a Wild West sheriff. All that coincidence-being-an-explanation-waiting-to-happen baloney was just a cover for not following procedure.”

“She was reluctant to let him back into her life. He constituted part of the mess out there on the mean streets. Whenever she saw him, he brought a tsunami of it in his wake that would have defeated Marie Kondo.” But what he tells her is certainly intriguing…

Atkinson’s plot is interesting and topical, and before Reggie and Jackson find themselves in the midst of a Murder Mystery Weekend where not all the corpses are actors, and not all the guns are props, there is a visit to a funeral parlour and a crusty old neighbour, and Nancy Styles novels left behind. Atkinson throws a snowstorm and a murderous prison escapee into the mix just to add a bit more excitement. By the time DCS Louise Monroe and her team turn up, Reggie has been reminded that Jackson “was always making the distinction between justice and the law. She was always trying not to.”

But Atkinson’s strength is her characters and some of their inner monologues are an absolute joy, filled with dry British (and often very black) humour and understatement. Jackson’s narrative is peppered with Julia’s (previously delivered or else anticipated, but inevitably critical) comments, or those of what he calls his “pop-up Court of Women” any time female issues come up, while Reggie is often plagued by Jackson Brodie comments.

Atkinson carefully builds up her characters until the reader is invested in them and really cares about their fate. Of those characters, Honoria Milton delights while Ben and Simon pull at the heartstrings. There is humour, too, in certain situations and the snappy dialogue, with its tangents and asides, including many laugh-out-loud moments.

Atkinson has a wonderful way with words and some of her passages are superbly evocative and vividly descriptive. While it is not essential to have read the earlier books of this series, denying yourself that pleasure is surely cruel. This is another Atkinson masterpiece.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Random House UK Transworld.

A new Jackson Brodie is always a treat. As expected of the magnificent Kate Atkinson, this novel is clever and packed full of brilliantly complex characters that we come to understand from the inside. The plot was complex and stitched together beautifully. However, although reliance on coincidence is celebrated, I found credibility stretched a little too thin in this outing and the plot suffered as a consequence. Lovers of Agatha Christie novels will love this play on a country house mystery. Despite loving the writing and becoming reacquainted with Brodie ( I would, actually, have liked more of him), I didn’t enjoy the element of farce and the country house characters that leaned too heavily into caricature.

This is the first Jackson Brodie book I have read but this story worked well as a stand alone novel. I was looking forward to reading this after the first chapter but many characters and seemly timelines were introduced quickly and I became quite confused. I did persevere with the book as it was well written and the dialog humorous. I am glad I did as I began to become more acquainted with the characters. The plot was quite complicated but well imagined in the end.
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House UK for the advance copy of this book.

I’ve enjoyed the Jackson Brodie novels in the past so was looking forward to reading this new one which has appeared after a long gap.
Jackson is that much older and is asked to investigate the theft of a painting by the heirs of elderly Dorothy who has recently passed away. Her carer is suspected and Jackson sets out to trace her.
There is also another part of the plot which centres on a stately home and its aristocratic occupants. They are holding a murder mystery evening in the middle of a snow storm. Throw in an escaped prisoner an injured army major, an elderly vicar who has lost his faith and another stolen painting, “Death at the Sign of the Rook” seems to turn into a weird sort of french farce. There were so many characters and plot strands in different time frames that I found it rather confusing and difficult to work out what was going on. I must admit I skim read some sections of the book, particularly the murder mystery parts as I found them a tad tedious.
The denouement was also strange and motivations hard to fathom.
I did think some of the main characters were well portrayed, particularly Simon, the vicar and Ben , the injured major. Hazel and Ian, the heirs, were unfortunately rather two dimensional!
I remember being thoroughly engrossed in the earlier Jackson Brodie novels but I’m afraid this one did not do it for me and I couldn’t wait to get to the end. I just think the author was trying to be too clever and it really didn’t work or hold my interest.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for my advance copy.

Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson begins so well I thought that I was in for a treat. But sadly, as I read on I was disappointed. I was looking forward to reading more about Jackson Brodie, but he only has a minor role. It is amusing in parts. But there are so many other characters, and the story became far too long winded, the narrative jumping around from one set of characters to another, and then another, which made it confusing. The ending was just pure farce, which I've never liked, pushing it into the absurd.

Looking back at some of Kate Atkinson's other books I've read I see I had the same reaction to her previous book, Shrines of Gaiety. My favourite books by her are Life After Life and A God in Ruins, both of which I loved.