Case Histories by Kate Atkinson

I grabbed Case Histories by Kate Atkinson off the library shelf because I thought I remembered it being recommended by someone. It was interesting and not what I expected it to be. The summary tells of private investigator who comes across three cold cases that apparently have a connection. Throughout the book, I look for that connection and expect to at least see it at the end of the story. I don't. So I don't quite understand what was hinted. The only connection that I saw was the private investigator.

Cold Case #1 - On a hot summer day, we meet a stressed mother of three girls, pregnant with her fourth child. She allows her two younger daughters to sleep in a tent in their backyard one night. The next morning, the youngest is missing.

Cold Case #2 - A widower father who dotes on his younger daughter, gets her a job at his law firm. On her first day, the daughter is fatally stabbed to death by a stranger after he asks for her father by name.

Cold Case #3 - A young new mom and wife seems overwhelmed by her new life. One night, apparently she snaps and murders her husband when he wakes up the baby.

Private investigator Jackson Brodie is first called upon by two sisters who have discovered something disturbing upon their father's death. After a long estrangement from their father, the women had returned to their family home to take care of the business and clear up the property. In their father's locked desk, they discover a stuffed animal that never left the side of their missing baby sister. This drives the sisters to try to discover what had happened to their sister - if their father had anything to do with it.

The retired lawyer makes yet another one of his endless attempts to discover the identity of the man who murdered his beloved daughter by having Brodie try to seek out clues.

A woman comes to Brodie to find out what happened to her niece after her sister was sent to prison for killing her own husband.

We follow Brodie as he goes back and traces the steps and tries to uncover what happened so long ago. There are subtle links between the cases, but none that really stand out as to being obviously connected. But as Brodie researches each particular case, he finds out relevant information to these three cold cases plus a couple of cases he is currently working on.