Jackson Brodie Character Analysis in When Will There Be Good News?

Jackson is a “security consultant” and private investigator. He is about 50 years old and a veteran of the Gulf War. At the beginning of the novel, he visits Yorkshire to see Nathan, the little boy he believes is his son (though his ex-girlfriend, Julia, denies his paternity). Jackson also has a daughter, Marlee, by his ex-wife, Josie, and he is newly married to Tessa. On his way back home to London, he gets on the wrong train and is nearly killed when the train crashes outside of Edinburgh. Reggie saves his life and later befriends him when she tracks him down in the hospital, claiming him as a father figure and also an ally in her search for Joanna Hunter. Having lost his sister, Niamh, to murder when they were both teenagers, Jackson has a lifelong obsession with finding and rescuing missing women, often thinking of himself as a shepherd or sheepdog. He has worked with Louise Monroe in the past and still has strong feelings for her. At the end of the novel, it’s revealed that Jackson was the young soldier who found six-year-old Joanna in the wheat field. With Reggie’s help, he finds Joanna again in the Penicuik farmhouse and destroys the evidence of the men she killed. When he finally returns to London, Jackson finds Andrew Decker dead in his flat and also learns that Tessa was an imposter, having cleaned out his bank accounts and fled. Though he fears he’s too old to start fresh, Jackson remembers that he’s a “crusader” and resolves to keep going.

Jackson Brodie Quotes in When Will There Be Good News?

The When Will There Be Good News? quotes below are all either spoken by Jackson Brodie or refer to Jackson Brodie. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

Trauma, Survival, and Reckoning with the Past Theme Icon

The mechanics of fatherhood turned out to be infinitely more primitive. He fingered the plastic bag in his pocket. A different pregnancy, a different child. His. He remembered the surge of emotion he had felt earlier in the day when he had touched Nathan’s small head. Love. Love wasn’t sweet and light, it was visceral and overpowering. Love wasn’t patient, love wasn’t kind. Love was ferocious, love knew how to play dirty.

Related Characters: Jackson Brodie, Nathan, Julia

Page Number and Citation: 87

Explanation and Analysis:

In the dream he had opened his heart and let Louise in. The dream had unsettled him. Tessa hadn’t existed in the dream world, as if she had never entered his life. The train crash had caused a rift in his world, an earthquake crack that seemed to have put an impossible distance between him and the life he shared with Tessa. New wife, new life. He had proposed to her the day after Louise texted him to tell him she was getting married, it had never struck him at the time that the two things might have been related. But then he’d never been much good at figuring out the anatomy of his behavior. (Women, on the other hand, seemed to find him transparent.)

Related Characters: Jackson Brodie, Tessa Webb, Louise Monroe

Page Number and Citation: 234

Explanation and Analysis:

“So your whole identity, basically. What if Decker’s using it? You get the driving license of a Category A prisoner with a warrant out against him, and he gets you — upstanding citizen (so-called) —credit cards, money, keys, a phone. The last person who phoned Joanna Hunter on Wednesday called on your phone, your BlackBerry, so perhaps it was Decker. He phones Joanna Hunter and then she disappears. Neil Hunter says she left at seven but we only have his word for it. Maybe she left later, after the phone call. And if she did drive away— somehow or other, not in her car, not in a rental — and she wasn’t driving down to see the aunt, then where was she going? To meet someone else? Decker? Did he catch the train to Edinburgh because they had arranged a meeting? He gets derailed, literally, he phones her afterwards, and she goes off to meet him.”

Related Characters: Louise Monroe (speaker), Joanna Mason Hunter (Dr. Hunter), Jackson Brodie, Andrew Decker, Neil Hunter

Page Number and Citation: 325

Explanation and Analysis:

She had been found once, she would be found again. She wasn’t Joanna Hunter anymore. She wasn’t a GP or a wife, she wasn’t Reggie’s employer (“and friend”), she wasn’t the woman that Louise was concerned about. She was a little girl out in the dark, dirty and stained with her mother’s blood. She was a little girl who was fast asleep in the middle of a field of wheat as men and dogs streamed unknowingly towards her, lighting their way with torches and moonlight.

Related Characters: Joanna Mason Hunter (Dr. Hunter), Jackson Brodie, Regina “Reggie” Chase, Louise Monroe

Page Number and Citation: 337

Explanation and Analysis:

Jackson Brodie Character Timeline in When Will There Be Good News?

The timeline below shows where the character Jackson Brodie appears in When Will There Be Good News?. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Jackson Brodie is visiting a small village in Yorkshire. Though he’s from Yorkshire himself, the Dales... (full context)

...a crowd of children pours out of the primary school adjacent to the village green. Jackson is looking for the playschool children. Sure enough, Nathan, one of the tiniest children, comes... (full context)

On the green, Nathan’s football rolls toward Jackson, and he picks it up, luring Nathan closer. When Nathan approaches, Jackson ruffles his hair,... (full context)

Jackson walks to the waterfall, uncomfortable to find himself alone with his thoughts. He withdraws a... (full context)

Jackson Brodie is trying to navigate his way through the bleak Yorkshire Dales back to the... (full context)

Jackson comes upon a raggedy sheep blocking his path. He waits the sheep out for a... (full context)

The bleak landscape reminds Jackson of a poem he’d had to memorize for school as a child, the “Lyke Wake... (full context)

Suddenly Jackson sees someone ahead, walking on foot. It’s a strolling woman in a cardigan and scarf,... (full context)

As darkness falls, Jackson wonders if there was some hidden message in the woman’s words—“the wrong way for what?”... (full context)

Jackson finds his way onto a “late-running and oversubscribed cattle track of a train,” cold and... (full context)

Jackson is crammed into an uncomfortable seat at a table for four. There’s a coughing businessman... (full context)

Jackson remembers visiting newborn Nathan in the hospital, even though Julia, from whom he’d long since... (full context)

Jackson finds himself thinking about Louise. They’d had a professional relationship in Edinburgh two years ago,... (full context)

Jackson is shaken out of his thoughts of Julia and her dying sister (the sister has... (full context)

A sudden jolt in the carriage startles everyone, but Jackson is more concerned about the fact that he’s accidentally caught the train from King’s Cross,... (full context)

Jackson Brodie bends down to check on a drunk guy who has collapsed on the floor... (full context)

As Jackson looks for a way to exit the train car, he heaves and drags an injured... (full context)

...with the Needler case. Louise apologizes and promises to be home soon. Louise thinks about Jackson Brodie, who cares about missing girls and wants them all to be found. Louise “didn’t... (full context)

When Louise gets home, she finds that Jackson has ordered Chinese food for her sister-in-law, Bridget, and brother-in-law, Tim. Louise thinks the Chinese... (full context)

...of its safe. She only wears it when they go out somewhere. She thinks of Jackson again, someone she could have imagined being a “comrade in arms,” but “they had been... (full context)

Jackson is seeing a brightly lit corridor. He is sitting on a plastic bench along the... (full context)

...the Royal Infirmary that morning, they’d told her that they had no record of a Jackson Brodie. (full context)

Jackson feels he’s somewhere in between life and death. He feels as if he’s being consumed... (full context)

Louise drives to the Hunters’ today to see Neil instead of Joanna. She thinks of Jackson Brodie saying, “A coincidence is just an explanation waiting to happen,” but she can’t see... (full context)

A cheerful Australian doctor tells Jackson Brodie how much blood they’d had to transfuse into him to save his life. A... (full context)

Jackson wakes up from a dream, finding a nurse who’s brought him a cup of tea.... (full context)

...knows about Joanna’s likes and dislikes. She also gives Louise the postcard she’d taken from Jackson Brodie’s pocket last night. Louise peers at the muck-splattered postcard and sees it’s addressed to... (full context)

Jackson is lonely and disoriented. Finally he’s awakened from a nap by a kiss on the... (full context)

...sure what. It’s not surprising; she’d forgotten herself altogether. She had sat and watched over Jackson for a while, but had been interrupted by a nurse before she could think how... (full context)

...after Joanna Hunter? Louise thinks Reggie’s paranoia has gotten under her skin. She thinks about Jackson and the nurse’s query about his wife. “Not only had Jackson managed to get his... (full context)

Jackson wakes up, unsure if Louise was really there or if he just dreamed of her.... (full context)

Tessa, much younger than Jackson at 34, worked at the British Museum as a curator of the Assyrian collection. She... (full context)

The next time Jackson wakes up, a girl is sitting there. She looks about Marlee’s age. She tells him... (full context)

Reggie delightedly tells Jackson that he’s in her thrall and can only be released if he reciprocates by saving... (full context)

Now that Reggie has found Jackson, she’s keeping vigil by his bedside, “Greyfriars Reggie.” Reggie convinces the attending doctor that she’s... (full context)

...the hospital, Sadie wags a greeting, and Reggie feels “something very like happiness.” She’d told Jackson that she’ll come back. “Reggie was never going to be a person who didn’t come... (full context)

...Patrick sleep and thinks about their docile lovemaking, wondering what it would be like with Jackson. She feels like a “very bad wife” for thinking this. (full context)

Jackson looks a bit like Frankenstein’s monster, and he’s groggy and sore, but he’s determined to... (full context)

Reggie has bought Jackson clothes. She got the sizes from Jackson’s old, ruined clothes, which the hospital gave her... (full context)

...that the “Andrew Decker” in the hospital was an “ordinary guy.” Privately, she’d checked on Jackson’s whereabouts and was annoyed that “the bastard” had discharged himself without even saying goodbye to... (full context)

...tea. Reggie calls Louise, and she ignores the call, then reconsiders and calls her back. Jackson answers. Louise thinks, “Didn’t it make sense that two of the most provoking people she... (full context)

Reggie wakes Jackson with breakfast. Jackson was baffled last night when a taxi brought them to a house... (full context)

...the car rental agency has to be talked into renting them the only vehicle that Jackson can drive one-handed, his other arm being in a sling. Reggie has dabbed makeup on... (full context)

Jackson and Reggie finally talk the rental agent into renting them the car, despite their lack... (full context)

A short time later, Jackson is taking a breathalyzer test while all the dazed but uninjured passengers sit by the... (full context)

Jackson sits between two officers in the emergency room at Darlington. An officer explains that he’s... (full context)

Marcus buys fish and chips for everyone. Jackson and Reggie are sitting in the back of Louise’s car with Sadie between them. Jackson... (full context)

...of Joanna’s purse again. She insists that something bad has happened to Joanna, and both Jackson and Louise agree. They can’t figure out if there is any connection between Joanna’s disappearance... (full context)

...Reggie and Marcus are buying snacks in a service station, Louise feels strong desire for Jackson and wishes she could “let her bones melt,” even momentarily, as she never does with... (full context)

They arrive back in Scotland after dark. Louise drops Reggie and Jackson in Musselburgh. Jackson promises Louise he won’t go back to London without saying goodbye. Louise... (full context)

Reggie wishes she had warned Jackson about her criminal brother. Then he wouldn’t have been so shocked when they entered Ms.... (full context)

...and digs her teeth into Billy’s forearm. He starts screaming. Sadie won’t let go until Jackson punches her in the side of the head. Then he kneels on Billy’s back, pinning... (full context)

That night, Jackson can’t sleep. He comes downstairs and finds Reggie and Sadie sleeping in the living room.... (full context)

Jackson covers Reggie with a blanket and starts out the door. But Reggie pipes up, “I... (full context)

Jackson hasn’t tailed anyone in a car for a while. Reggie warns him not to crash... (full context)

Jackson sees the Nissan parked in front of a house, next to a Toyota. The men... (full context)

Jackson checks out the inside of the house and emerges looking sick. He siphons petrol out... (full context)

Jackson is waiting outside the hospital for Louise. She ignores him, but he catches up with... (full context)

Jackson takes an overnight express coach to Heathrow to meet Tessa. He waits until the entire... (full context)

When Jackson enters his apartment, he’s greeted not by Tessa, but by the smell of death. A... (full context)

A couple of days later, Jackson goes to the British Museum. No one there has ever heard of Tessa Webb. He... (full context)

When Jackson is allowed back into his crime-scene flat and retrieves his passport, he tries to withdraw... (full context)

...the doorbell and left by the time the door opened. Louise is sure it was Jackson. (full context)

...when he’s a bit bigger. When they ask what she’s named the puppy, she says, “Jackson.” (full context)

...a brand-new PowerBook. (Billy had gifted her one before, but then he’d stolen it back.) Jackson Brodie had given Reggie a check for a lot more than she’d lent him, but... (full context)

At dawn on Christmas Day, Jackson is on Westminster Bridge, staring into the Thames. He’s holding the plastic bag containing Nathan’s... (full context)

Jackson thinks about throwing the hair into the river, but he’s lost almost everything else, so... (full context)

Jackson Brodie Character Analysis

Jackson Brodie Quotes in When Will There Be Good News?

To Brig o’ Dread Thou Com’st at Last Quotes

Jackson Risen Quotes

Road Trip Quotes

High Noon Quotes

Jackson Brodie Character Timeline in When Will There Be Good News?