UK author Kate Atkinson has been on a winning roll since she started writing. Among many other awards, she won the Whitbread Book of the year for her debut, Behind the Scenes at the Museum (M). Now she has just won again, being awarded the Costa novel prize (formerly Whitbread) for her latest novel, Life After Life (M).

She is also the creator of the popular Jackson Brodie series (M), which took the UK by storm with the exciting television adaptation Case Histories. Here is how author Atkinson describes her character Jackson Brodie:

Jackson Brodie is a private investigator, originally from Yorkshire. A former soldier and policeman he now makes his money working from investigating infidelity and finding missing cats. Jackson’s tough-guy exterior belies a deeply empathetic heart. He’s unable to resist coming to the rescue and increasingly he becomes a magnet for the bereaved, the lost and the dysfunctional. His ability to connect comes from his own tragic childhood that still haunts him.

The first novel is also titled Case Histories (M),

“Cambridge is sweltering, during an unusually hot summer. To Jackson Brodie, former police inspector turned private investigator, the world consists of one accounting sheet – Lost on the left, Found on the right – and the two never seem to balance. Jackson has never felt at home in Cambridge, and has a failed marriage to prove it. Surrounded by death, intrigue and misfortune, his own life haunted by a family tragedy, he attempts to unravel three disparate case histories and begins to realise that in spite of apparent diversity, everything is connected…