An excellent continuation of the Jackson Brodie series, in that it puts Brodie in perilous and strange situations, and also at least one prior character shows up (now all grown up).
There is a different flavor to this novel, though, since Atkinson is attacking a supremely difficult subject - human trafficking. I have a feeling that using this as a subject matter has limited Atkinson in some ways, in that she spends so much time making sure she's doing justice to the seriousness of the crimes that she loses sight of what makes the Brodie novels so fun to read - that air of mystery that places Brodie and his companions in the oddest of situations. Not that the situations here are not odd, but you can see where the road will end, which you never could in the previous 4 novels.
At least in this one you get to meet Brodie's son as a nigh-adult, and that is both fun and funny - it's Atkinson riffing as a parent, obviously. Our previous character (from a previous novel) is also delightful - in her essentially grownup ways - but a little too sketchily drawn. Why has she broken up with her boyfriend? How did she get to be a police detective, and why? And I certainly don't remember her being blond & petite, so that's a confusing image.
I deeply desire that this is not the last Brodie novel, but then again, I never thought this one would exist. Crossed fingers!
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