Kate Atkinson’s Jackson Brodie novels are among my favorite mysteries, with JB being an especially fun character. So, along with many others, my initial thought when I knew there was (FINALLY!) a new Jackson Brodie novel, was “how soon can I get my hands on it?” Thanks to Little, Brown & Company and NetGalley, I received a copy of Big Sky in exchange for my honest review a few months pre-publication. This gives me time to recommend it to all my mystery-loving friends! Yes, it really is good, and it was worth the wait!

Jackson has sort of retired and is living on the coast, in the same physical area as his sort of lover Julia (the actress, whose TV series provides some great counterpoint to the story), his uber-teenage son Nathan (whiny, snarky, etc) and his sort of aging Lab Dido. Jackson spends some of his time on things like tracking unfaithful spouses, but he isn’t really a full-on PI anymore – just as he is a former policeman, he is maybe a bit rusty but his instincts are all there, sharp as ever (along with his wit).

There are several main characters, with each chapter  told from the point of view of one of them, which at first was a bit of a headscratcher (as in, “I KNOW that all these threads are going to come together, but WTF?”) but it all gets aligned in the end. That’s one thing I love about it, it is a bit disorganized and messy, just as life tends to be. There isn’t a nice linear plot for our lives, nor is there one for this novel.

TBH, I didn’t remember enough of the prior Brodie novels to recognize when references to earlier plotlines were made, other than in broad strokes (e.g. Julia and Jackson’s relationship), but it was fine. I would guess that even those who haven’t read earlier Brodie novels will enjoy this, and those who have read them and like them will LOVE it. Five stars.