One Good Turn

A City Stretched to Breaking Point

In the scorching heat of Edinburgh’s famous Festival Week, the streets swell with artists, tourists, and locals seeking escape—and for former detective Jackson Brodie, it means a city on edge. As Brodie navigates crowded closes and grand boulevards, he is drawn into a chance encounter: a near-fatal collision between two unsuspecting strangers that unleashes a fury of public outrage. But beneath the roar of protest lies something darker, and Brodie’s instincts tell him that this “accident” is anything but random. With the festival’s energy crashing against the stone walls of the Old Town, secrets pressure the seams of everyday life, threatening to explode in a blaze of violence.

A Murder That Echoes Through Festival Streets

When a body is discovered in a narrow wynd, Brodie finds himself racing against time—and a tidal wave of misinformation—to piece together the victim’s identity and motive. Every witness carries their own story: a frustrated playwright nursing grievances, a street performer with a violent past, a tourist whose curiosity masks guilt. As Brodie interviews suspects in noisy venues and silent graveyards alike, he uncovers tangled connections that span decades. Each new revelation pulls him deeper into a web of betrayal, where loyalties shift as swiftly as Edinburgh’s festival crowds and every clue threatens to slip through his fingers.

Paths of Guilt and Grace

Haunted by his own past failings and driven by a relentless pursuit of justice, Jackson Brodie must reconcile the line between retribution and redemption. With lives hanging in the balance and the festival’s crescendo approaching, he confronts the moral ambiguities of truth: Can a man ever make amends by uncovering another’s sins? And in a city built on history and storytelling, which narrative will endure? In One Good Turn, Kate Atkinson delivers a masterful blend of suspense, dark humor, and poignant insight into the human capacity for both cruelty and compassion.

.Kate Atkinson is an internationally acclaimed author whose richly textured novels blend intricate plotting with deep character studies, earning her prestigious awards and a devoted global readership.