Death at the Sign of the Rook

Death at the Sign of the Rook

Summary

Discover the new novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Shrines of Gaiety and Life after Life.

Welcome to Rook Hall.

The stage is set. The players are ready. By night’s end, a murderer will be revealed.


In his sleepy Yorkshire town, ex-detective Jackson Brodie is staving off boredom, his only case the seemingly tedious matter of a stolen painting.

But one theft leads to another and soon Jackson has uncovered a string of unsolved cases, including the disappearance of a valuable Turner from Burton Makepeace, home to Lady Milton and her family. Once a magnificent country house, Burton Makepeace has now partially been converted into a hotel, hosting Murder Mystery weekends.

As paying guests, a vicar, an ex-army officer, impecunious aristocrats, and old friends converge, we are treated to Atkinson’s most charming and fiendishly clever mystery yet; one that pays homage to the masters of the genre—from Agatha Christie to Dorothy Sayers.

Brilliantly inventive, with all of Atkinson’s signature wit, wordplay and narrative brio, Death at the Sign of the Rook may be Jackson Brodie’s most outrageous and memorable case yet.

About the author

Kate Atkinson

Kate Atkinson is one of the world's foremost novelists. Her most recent novel, Shrines of Gaiety, set in the aftermath of the First World War, is a Sunday Times bestseller. She won the Whitbread Book of the Year prize with her first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum. Her three critically lauded and prize-winning novels set around the Second World War are Life After Life, an acclaimed 2022 BBC TV series, A God in Ruins (both winners of the Costa Novel Award) and Transcription. Her bestselling literary crime novels featuring former detective Jackson Brodie, Case Histories, One Good Turn, When Will There Be Good News? and Started Early, Took My Dog, became a BBC television series starring Jason Isaacs. Jackson Brodie later returned in the novel Big Sky. Kate Atkinson was awarded an MBE in 2011 and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
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