I’m going to say 3.25 stars.
Case Histories is about three interwoven mysteries, or actually, Cold Cases. Olivia, the little girl (sister to Sylvia, Amelia and Julia) that vanished in to thin air over thirty years ago; Laura Wyre, who was mercilessly murdered at her father’s law office; and Michelle, the husband-axe-murderer.
The mysteries were really very good, however, the writing was far too bland and too straightforward and it made it seem either choppy or just matter of fact plain? The ending just ended, although it did wrap up the mysteries, but it still felt as though it did just came to an abrupt end.
These unsolved cases were really very good and interesting, but the straight up, no embellishment or extra descriptives didn’t grab me. I’m also going to take in to consideration this is Atkinson’s first “Brodie” book, and I am completely willing to give it the benefit of the doubt because I do absolutely plan on reading more from her.
What really frustrated me however about this book were the chapters with the character Amelia (sister to the missing Olivia). In my opinion, utterly useless chapters. Completely wasted chapters that went on and on and on and on about her “spinterish” personality and what we have mercilessly hammered in to our brains about her incredibly inactive sex life, her obsession with her sister, Julia, and Julia’s very opposite and active sex life, her persistent flirting with Brodie, and with anyone around her and their sex life. Completely unnecessary and in my opinion began to distract from the story and I began to question what it had to do with their missing sister, Olivia. I found myself skipping over huge chunks of these chapters. Because, you know…once stated in a paragraph, the reader gets it. She’s a sexually frustrated, unattractive, bitter and repressed character. Got it. Clearly. Crystal. We didn’t need for it to be repeated continuously every time Amelia is mentioned. Very, very distracting from the cold cases.
So, overall, a very enjoyable read that did have me actually laughing out loud in some instances, but had a couple of glaring flaws that doesn’t allow me to rate it any higher than the 3.25 stars.
I am absolutely however going to be tuning in to the PBS 3-part series of Case Histories, as I’ve DVRd them…I missed the first one and I started to watch while on a work-trip in the US, (can’t watch it online in Canada! Boooooo) but quickly realized that the first one was mirroring very closely the story about Olivia….I was no where near finished the book, so I didn’t want to ruin the surprise!