KATE ATKINSON Started early, took my dog ***(*)

Both Rachel and I enjoyed this, the third novel to feature private detective Jackson Brodie. But I wonder if we'd have liked it so much if we'd come to it without having read the others, because the story is told in a very staccato manner with lots of references to people and events from previous books.

It's set in modern-day Yorkshire (mostly Leeds), with flashbacks to the 1970s, when we were there. So that's another reason we enjoyed it.

At the core of the story is what happens when Tracy, an ex-policewoman, now a security chief, sees a young girl being abused by the woman she assumes is the child's mother. In a moment of madness Tracy buys the child off the woman. That sets in train a thriller which is also funny and sad in turns.

It's great fun.