When Will There Be Good News?

When Will There Be Good News?

by

Kate Atkinson

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

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, Julia, Nathan
Page Number: 87
Explanation and Analysis:
Jackson Risen Quotes

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, Louise Monroe, Tessa Webb
Page Number: 234
Explanation and Analysis:
Road Trip Quotes

“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, Neil Hunter, Andrew Decker
Page Number: 325
Explanation and Analysis:
High Noon Quotes

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: 337
Explanation and Analysis:
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When Will There Be Good News? PDF

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

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, Julia, Nathan
Page Number: 87
Explanation and Analysis:
Jackson Risen Quotes

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, Louise Monroe, Tessa Webb
Page Number: 234
Explanation and Analysis:
Road Trip Quotes

“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, Neil Hunter, Andrew Decker
Page Number: 325
Explanation and Analysis:
High Noon Quotes

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: 337
Explanation and Analysis: