Vick Mickunas interviews Kate Atkinson about her latest novel featuring the retired private detective Jackson Brodie. The title “Started Early, Took My Dog” is derived from a poem by Emily Dickinson.

Kate Atkinson arrived upon the literary landscape with a flash. Her debut novel, “Behind the Scenes at the Museum,” won the Whitbread Book of the Year award.

Her latest offering, “”Started Early, Took My Dog” (Little, Brown) is her fourth book featuring the now retired private investigator Jackson Brodie. Fans of this series will recall that Brodie appeared sparingly in the previous book, “When Will There Be Good News.” He actually spent the majority of that book in a coma.

In this one Brodie is trying to discover the mysterious origins of a woman who has hired him to find out her background. The woman was adopted as a child. Brodie is having a difficult time trying to learn the woman’s true identity. This puzzle forms the framework for a literary mystery about missing children, a rapidly fraying social safety net, and an abused dog who steals the show entirely.

This interview originally aired on WYSO Public Radio in Yellow Springs, Ohio. (www.wyso.org)

Listen to the podcast here: local-national-965189.mp3

comments powered by Disqus