When Will There Be Good News
Crime Features
The type of crime text itself- detective fiction, a postmodern text,
revenge tragedy
Setting used as a backdrop from crime itself
The nature of the crimes and criminals
The inclusion of violence, murder, theft, betrayal
The detection of the criminal, the criminals’ motives and actions
How far there is moral purpose and restoration of order
Guilt and remorse, confession and the desire for forgiveness
The creation of the criminal and their nemesis
The sense there will be resolution
The victims of crime and the inclusion of suffering
The central motifs of love, money and danger
Punishment, justice, retribution, injustice, accusation, the legal system,
criminal trials and courtroom drama, imprisonment, death
The structural patterning of texts through crisis to a sense of order
Specific focus on plotting
The way the language is used in the world that is created; use of
criminal register, legal register, police register
Comments on society
How crime writings affect readers, creating suspense, repugnance,
excitement and relief
(OVERVIEW) is in a category that explores elements of crime writing since it
is about murder, violence, kidnapping, drug-dealers, victims, criminals and
detectives of various types. It is a Jackson Brodie novel.
The Novel begins with the shocking murder of Joanna Hunter’s family.
Includes immediate motifs of danger. The novel is used to subvert
expectations of crime, ‘The New York Times’ calls her novels “literary
hybrids”, and she certainly pushes the boundaries of the crime writing genre
in this text. What she does here is carefully interweave the crime story with
the love story (though even as a love story, she does not offer a
straightforward take on the genre). There is little mystery, only with what
happens to Joanna Hunter.
(CRIMES AND CRIMINALS) Beginning with the crime of Andrew Decker which
is based on real-life crime, Chillingden murder of Lin and daughter Megan
Russell and their pet dog. A second daughter, Josie Russell was brutally
, attacked but survived the crime. Jonna is the child that survives. Rather
unusually for crime fiction, this crime is given little further prominence in the
narrative in terms of investigation. The focus shifts to a number of other
crimes and events: the search for murderer David Needler, on the loose
having shot the mother and sister of his estranged wife at one of his
children’s birthday parties, whose wife and children live in terror of his
return; the shady business arrangements of Neil Hunter; the drug dealing
and intimidating acts of Billy and his connections; the sudden disappearance
of Joanna; and the Edinburgh train crash which draws together a number of
different incidents and characters through a volley of coincidences, all of
which are part of Atkinson’s complex plotting.
The crime driving the present storyline is the mysterious disappearance of
Jonna and the baby, investigated by Reggie, then Brodie and finally Munroe.
We can agree with Louise- there was nothing suspicious about Jonna leaving
and the doubts are just of a schoolgirl's imagination.
(VICTIMS) The obvious victims are victims of murder, Gabrielle, Jessica, and
Joseph Mason, the mother and sister of Alision Needler and the young
policeman, Marcus, who was shot by Needler. There are also victims of
accidents- Reggie's Mother, Ms. McDonald and Jackson Brodie, also dogs are
victims whilst heroic.
Jonna Hunter is a victim in a number of different ways: the six-year-old who
witnessed the murder of her family, she is the victim of a father who doesn’t
love her. Later, the victim of her husband's corrupt actions. Yet we
sympathies for her but do not pity her. She is not a helpless victim instead a
“warrior queen” escaping her kidnapping by killing her captors to save her
baby. Also persuading Decker to commit suicide.
Reggie is a victim of life’s vagaries. She pursues education to get out of her
poverty and working as a nanny for Jonna. Her attempts at self-improvement
are often frustrated by the behaviour of her thieving, drug taking brother and
she is intimidated and beaten by both Billy and his pursuers, Ginger and
Blondie, who want payment and want to know where Billy is.
(DETECTIVES) Jackson Brodie is still a maverick and somewhat comic,
working as a private investigator. As a detective, he is decisive, quick
thinking and brave. Instinctively setting fire to the house after finding the
dead captors.
Reggie as a detective with Brodie follows traditional detective and side kick
(Poirot and Hastings). However, Reggie comically points up with the skills of
Crime Features
The type of crime text itself- detective fiction, a postmodern text,
revenge tragedy
Setting used as a backdrop from crime itself
The nature of the crimes and criminals
The inclusion of violence, murder, theft, betrayal
The detection of the criminal, the criminals’ motives and actions
How far there is moral purpose and restoration of order
Guilt and remorse, confession and the desire for forgiveness
The creation of the criminal and their nemesis
The sense there will be resolution
The victims of crime and the inclusion of suffering
The central motifs of love, money and danger
Punishment, justice, retribution, injustice, accusation, the legal system,
criminal trials and courtroom drama, imprisonment, death
The structural patterning of texts through crisis to a sense of order
Specific focus on plotting
The way the language is used in the world that is created; use of
criminal register, legal register, police register
Comments on society
How crime writings affect readers, creating suspense, repugnance,
excitement and relief
(OVERVIEW) is in a category that explores elements of crime writing since it
is about murder, violence, kidnapping, drug-dealers, victims, criminals and
detectives of various types. It is a Jackson Brodie novel.
The Novel begins with the shocking murder of Joanna Hunter’s family.
Includes immediate motifs of danger. The novel is used to subvert
expectations of crime, ‘The New York Times’ calls her novels “literary
hybrids”, and she certainly pushes the boundaries of the crime writing genre
in this text. What she does here is carefully interweave the crime story with
the love story (though even as a love story, she does not offer a
straightforward take on the genre). There is little mystery, only with what
happens to Joanna Hunter.
(CRIMES AND CRIMINALS) Beginning with the crime of Andrew Decker which
is based on real-life crime, Chillingden murder of Lin and daughter Megan
Russell and their pet dog. A second daughter, Josie Russell was brutally
, attacked but survived the crime. Jonna is the child that survives. Rather
unusually for crime fiction, this crime is given little further prominence in the
narrative in terms of investigation. The focus shifts to a number of other
crimes and events: the search for murderer David Needler, on the loose
having shot the mother and sister of his estranged wife at one of his
children’s birthday parties, whose wife and children live in terror of his
return; the shady business arrangements of Neil Hunter; the drug dealing
and intimidating acts of Billy and his connections; the sudden disappearance
of Joanna; and the Edinburgh train crash which draws together a number of
different incidents and characters through a volley of coincidences, all of
which are part of Atkinson’s complex plotting.
The crime driving the present storyline is the mysterious disappearance of
Jonna and the baby, investigated by Reggie, then Brodie and finally Munroe.
We can agree with Louise- there was nothing suspicious about Jonna leaving
and the doubts are just of a schoolgirl's imagination.
(VICTIMS) The obvious victims are victims of murder, Gabrielle, Jessica, and
Joseph Mason, the mother and sister of Alision Needler and the young
policeman, Marcus, who was shot by Needler. There are also victims of
accidents- Reggie's Mother, Ms. McDonald and Jackson Brodie, also dogs are
victims whilst heroic.
Jonna Hunter is a victim in a number of different ways: the six-year-old who
witnessed the murder of her family, she is the victim of a father who doesn’t
love her. Later, the victim of her husband's corrupt actions. Yet we
sympathies for her but do not pity her. She is not a helpless victim instead a
“warrior queen” escaping her kidnapping by killing her captors to save her
baby. Also persuading Decker to commit suicide.
Reggie is a victim of life’s vagaries. She pursues education to get out of her
poverty and working as a nanny for Jonna. Her attempts at self-improvement
are often frustrated by the behaviour of her thieving, drug taking brother and
she is intimidated and beaten by both Billy and his pursuers, Ginger and
Blondie, who want payment and want to know where Billy is.
(DETECTIVES) Jackson Brodie is still a maverick and somewhat comic,
working as a private investigator. As a detective, he is decisive, quick
thinking and brave. Instinctively setting fire to the house after finding the
dead captors.
Reggie as a detective with Brodie follows traditional detective and side kick
(Poirot and Hastings). However, Reggie comically points up with the skills of
