Death at the Sign of the Rook is the 6th Jackson Brodie cozy(ish) mystery by Kate Atkinson. Released 3rd Sept 2024 by Knopf Doubleday on their Doubleday imprint, it's 336 pages and is available in hardcover, paperback (UK), audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links.
This is a meandering cozy absolutely full of secondary characters. The author writes very well and there are moments of genuine humor and a few giggle/snort-worthy scenes and dialogue. That being said, the pacing is odd. Ms. Atkinson's adept enough at her craft that it has to be an conscious stylistic choice, but for the first time in this series, I found myself really slogging to finish it. The stately home murder mystery weekend premise is effective and a fun niche genre, but it never quite achieves liftoff. There are moments, however, and for voracious readers who are already fans, it's likely worth a look.
There is a LOT of backstory development from earlier in the series, and especially given the stylistic and pacing departures from the rest of the series, it doesn't work very well as a standalone. The author *is* indisputably wonderful, so if reading out of order, and disillusioned by the weird pacing and bizarre cast of secondary characters, readers should grab one or more of the earlier books to give it a fair shot.
There are some odd developments in this book which aren't clearly dealt with directly. It's weirdly annoying that they're not cleared up or directly addressed before the end of the book. Not a deal-breaker, but noticeable.
The unabridged audiobook has a run time of 9 hours 31 minutes and is expertly read by Jason Isaacs. He has laser sharp control and hops between a *vast* cast of characters of both sexes and a dizzying array of regional accents with surgical precision.
Three and a half stars. Capably written, but not at all smoothly integrated in the series to date.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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