Big Sky by Kate Atkinson

 

 


This is my first Jackson Brodie experience, book or tv. And, to be honest, I'm left a tiny bit confused.

Ok, so I enjoyed it. As a stand alone novel, it was fine. So, am I right in thinking that Jackson Brodie is a detective who does detecting? Only, because, he doesn't in this book. At all. He's sort of involved by accident and coincidence. And that's it. He's like a sideline character in a series of events.

I thought it would be darker too. Which is weird given it's about a sex trafficking gang. I can't 100% pinpoint this feeling, when I think back on it. It's not like they characters were all rolling in the aisles with joviality but somehow they just didn't feel dark or threatening either.

Quick summary - Vince, Stephen, Andy and Tommy are friends. Stephen, Andy and Tommy traffic girls from around the world and sell them to sex gangs. They have ties to an old sex-gang of the rich and powerful, the ringleaders of which are now in jail but dying. Vince doesn't know about this. One of the historical victims has come forward and is dishing the dirt. Vince's soon-to-be-ex wife gets murdered. Turns out Tommy's wife, Crystal, used to be one of the girls from the previous sex-gang but neither of them realise this about each other. Her kids get kidnapped, but they escape and get home. Oldest son works in a theatre where another of the old sex-gang is one of the acts, total co-incidence and wholely irrelevant to any part of the plot. Jackson Brodie bumbles around somehow managing to be in the same place as the key events every time.

Many things go unexplained:-

  • Crystal is being threatened, by people telling her to keep her mouth shut. Thing is, by who?! It's never explained and I really can't work this out. I assume she's being threatened because of the girl who came forward, but she showed no sign that she would ever tell anyone at all what happened to her when she was younger and then suddenly people are leaving notes on her car telling her to shut up. Maybe the threateners think she might also join in? God knows.
  • Then two thugs kidnap her kids. Again, who??! They take them to the caravan park where some of the trafficking work of the main trio is based. A place which the husband Tommy and the other two go on a regular basis. But again, Tommy doesn't know about her, so why there?! It shows that it's connected to them but none of the trio know she was part of it. Or does they then? I've got no idea. Is it part of Tommy's digusting sick mind to have married her? But it's never mentioned and certain actions later in the book suggest he has no suspicion of her at all.
  • At one point Stephen brings Vince to the place where they were keeping the girls. He drives there for some business or other, goes inside and tells Vince to wait, leaving him in the car for an hour. Vince goes into investgate where he is. I mean, come on!
  • What was the point in the murder of Vince's wife. This happens right at the beginning and it feels like it's going to be the main focus of the investigation. But then it's practically ignored until a strange afterthought of a reveal in the summing up. Was it to shoehorn in a feeling of threat by the police? I mean, they were already reinvestigating so the murders because of the girl who came forward so this extra interest feels superfluous, to be honest.
I would give another Jackson Brodie book a chance, I guess. But this one is, well, just a little bit peculiar.

I've also just realised I have no idea what the title has to do with the book.

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