"Started Early, Took My Dog" by Kate Atkinson

An audio book.

1975. Leeds. Tracy and Ken Arkwright (police) are climbing to a 15th floor flat to investigate an incident. We learn later that they find the 2 week old corpse of a prostitute mother (Carol Braithewaite) and a child, Michael. Tracy's suspicious - the child says that his dad was the murderer, and the flat had been locked from the outside, but her colleagues don't follow those leads.

In the present, Tracy, 50+, a big woman, works in security in a shopping centre. She sees a woman, Kelly, (who she knows from her past life in the police) abuse a child and buys the child (Courtney) on a whim for £3k.

Tillie, 70+, has also seen the bad mother. She's becoming forgetful. Jackson helps her. Leslie takes her in for a chat. She's childless, had a miscarriage. Julia (Jackson's ex; his son's mother) and Tillie are both in "Collier", a TV series is being filmed locally. Tillie's confused when she sees the show on TV.

Colin abuses a dog. Jackson (once a soldier, then a cop, then a gumshoe) thumps him and takes the dog. "Tessa" (ex-wife, con-artist) stole his money. His daughter's Marley. His sister was murdered decades ago. He's become interested in culture. He has found out he has a young son. He's trying to find out about the past of a New Zealand client, Hope, who was adopted. He plans an interview with Linda (who deals with adoptions) about Carol.

Linda phones Tracy about Carol Braithwaite. Tracy phones Barry, who's still in the force. Barry has a secret.

In 1974 we get Ray's PoV. He's a policeman with a wife Marge. Marge is friends with Kitty who's married an older doctor. Both women are infertile. Kitty had been a model and a muse for a writer. An abortion 5 months into an unwanted pregnancy made her infertile. Ray had a carefree affair.

Tracy wonders about killing Kelly - a loose end - then entering Kelly's place finds that she's already been killed. Tracy's a suspect. She starts driving Courtney to a cottage she's rented but crashes into a deer. Jackson picks them up. When he leaves the car she drives away. A car picks Jackson up - a Private Investigator who'd put a tracker on the dog. The PI's called Brian Jackson. Jackson interviews Marilyn Needles, the reporter from 1975. She was told not to pry. Jackson's assaulted by 2 thugs. He's told not to pry.

We learn more about Tracy. She lost her virginity to her married driving instructor when she was 20, and got her own flat.

Jackson watches a train station incident - Tillie and a thug fall under a train while Tracy and Courtney (with new IDs) catch a train. In weeks they're in DisneyLand, Paris. The other Jackson's client is Michael Braithewaite - Hope's brother!

Back in 1975, we hear about the murder of Carol from the murderer's PoV - a detective, the father of Michael. His colleague, Eastman, covered it all up, arranged the girl's adoption with Kitty and husband, who emigrated to New Zealand.

Barry kills his daughter Amy (in a permanent coma) then himself. Ray is arrested - the other Jackson got Linda to confess. Ray gave the child to childless Kitty rather than his own wife.

It's entertaining. Several characters muse over how things have changed since their day. Several characters have similar senses of humour and feelings of disappointment - Tracy "only realised when they died that [her parents] would never love her"; A boy's acne is so bad that if you knew braille you could read his face. The plot is full of coincidences and parallels (Jackson finding a permanent companion - a dog; Tracy finding a child) at the expense of [psychological] credibility. The quality of the observation and character insight cover the cracks.

Other reviews

• Justine Jordan (Kate Atkinson's novels have always been built around lost girls ... Tracy's awkward transformation into would-be parent is wryly moving, and Atkinson swerves the obvious sentimentality by channelling it all into Tilly, who has her own pity-soaked memories of maternal heartbreak. Tracy's new role is also mirrored by Jackson's adoption of a particularly winning dog)
• shereadsnovels (there were too many [characters] whom I struggled to distinguish from each other; in particular, the other police officers involved in the 1975 storyline all seemed to blend into one which made that part of the book difficult to follow. There were also some subplots that didn’t seem to go anywhere and some important questions that remained unanswered at the end. Compared with the first three books in the series, I thought this one was disappointing)
• Amy Adams (Atkinson is operating in a gray area between realism and metaphor. ... Atkinson isn't interested so much in Tracy's character as she is in Tracy's situation--the sudden change of your world, the madness that is parental love, the way the inclusion of a child into your life fundamentally changes who you are. ... it's a fascinating book, intricately plotted, with layers of meaning playing off against each other, raising the ongoing challenge of how our culture treats children. Atkinson also liberally sprinkles the pages with ruminations on poetry and how it illuminates our lives.)