Case Histories

Kate Atkinson’s haunted private investigator, Jackson Brodie, is brought to life in this wonderful BBC adaptation.

I haven’t gotten around to reading Kate Atkinson’s popular Jackson Brodie series—though it’s been on my list since its debut with Case Histories in 2004 when Stephen King heralded it as “the best mystery of the decade.” (Check out Sarah R.’s review here.) But I was too intrigued to pass up the BBC adaptation of the first three books starring Jason Isaacs that recently ran on PBS’s Masterpiece Mystery. Isaacs, probably best known as Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies, offers a fabulous portrayal of a haunted private investigator who in the first episode suddenly finds himself with two heart-wrenching cases: a cold case involving a missing child and the murder of a woman on her first day working in her father’s law office by a seemingly ordinary and unidentifiable man. Both remind him of a past personal tragedy.

I was impressed! The writing was great; I loved the acting—fans of PBS Masterpiece or BBC fare will recognize a number of familiar faces including a run of actors also featured in last year’s Sherlock (reviewed here); and the overall presentation right down to the soundtrack had me completely enthralled. I highly recommend it.