Horrors that ripple far beyond their time and place

Kate ATKINSON’S highly acclaimed first book, “Behind the Scenes at the Museum,” won the Whitbread First Novel Award and was chosen as the Whitbread book of the year in 1995. “Case Histories,” her fourth novel, at first might seem to fit into the crime genre. But the principal pleasures to be found are not simply who did what to whom. Instead, she focuses on the psychological damage her characters bear, tracking their attempts to discover what has happened to them as well as what it means.

Three crimes have been committed. The first takes place in 1970. A mathematician and his wife plug through an unhappy marriage in England with four girls in tow -- Sylvia, Julia, Amelia and Olivia, mother’s favorite, a cherubic 3-year-old. One night Amelia and Olivia sleep in a tent in the backyard. The next morning, Amelia wakes to find her little sister gone. Neighbors and police form a search party, but Olivia is nowhere to be found. By afternoon, “the tent in the back garden had become the center of a circle that had grown wider and wider as the day progressed, pulling more and more people inside it.”

That is an excellent description of Atkinson’s novel as well. The circle that starts with the loss of Olivia eventually takes in many lives. Its ripples subsume others who have suffered loss. It grows through the years, linking hearts and tragedies. The particular frisson one feels reading “Case Histories” is the way in which people are connected by grief, whether they are aware of it or not.

Case history No. 2 begins in 1994. It involves an attorney named Theo, whose wife has died. He dotes on daughters Jennifer and Laura, his favorite. The sweet-natured teenager decides to work for her father at his law firm before starting college, but one day a stranger wearing a yellow golfing shirt walks into the office and slits her throat. With Laura’s death, Theo succumbs to grotesque obesity, quits his practice and holds on as best he can, hoping to one day find his Laura’s killer.

Case history No. 3 returns the reader to 1970. A young married couple, Michelle and Keith, live on an English farm, struggling to survive. Michelle is bright and talented, but with a baby to take care of, she cannot finish college. Resentful, she and Keith fight constantly. The baby is always crying. When Keith comes home one day, a fight breaks out. Michelle emerges from a mental haze to realize that Keith has been struck in the head with an ax. She’s covered in blood, the baby still crying when the police arrive to arrest her.

The character linking these seemingly disparate case histories is private detective Jackson Brodie, an ex-cop who has been divorced for four years. He and his former wife have an 8-year-old daughter. Jackson can barely manage his own life (he does not get along with his ex-wife and her new husband) yet his line of work often requires him to serve as counselor and friend to complete strangers.

By the time they hire Jackson, Julia and Amelia have become spinster sisters. Their parents have died, and Sylvia has gone to a convent. One afternoon they discover Olivia’s beloved stuffed animal, a blue mouse, hidden away in their father’s bedroom. Why was it there? Why was it hidden? They contact Jackson. Theo has contacted Jackson, too. He cannot go on without a final attempt to solve the crime that destroyed his life.

Shirley Morrison, Michelle’s sister, has also hired Jackson. After Michelle’s conviction, Shirley promised to look after Tanya, Michelle’s baby, but she ended up turning the child over to foster care. Michelle has been released and has taken on a new identity. Shirley doesn’t know where she is or what she’s doing, but it’s not Michelle she’s after. She wants to find Tanya.

Toward the end of the novel, Jackson reflects on what it takes to commit the perfect crime. “When you left you didn’t leave any traces,” he muses. That is also, he realizes, the way a person who wishes to be free of attachments must negotiate life. Pack light, keep on the move, don’t get involved. But as Jackson begins to solve the three puzzles, he learns that it is impossible to leave without a trace. Every good detective knows there is always something left behind, circles that ripple out from events. Healing can only begin when one owns up to this fact. *