Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in When Will There Be Good News?, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Trauma, Survival, and Reckoning with the Past
Appearances vs. Reality
Lies and Deceptions
Family
Summary
Analysis
Jackson Brodie is visiting a small village in Yorkshire. Though he’s from Yorkshire himself, the Dales are foreign to him. It’s a quiet Wednesday in early December. He hides behind a newspaper, figuring that the villagers have “a well-developed radar for the wrong kind of stranger.” He has driven here in an inconspicuous rental and is disguised in a North Face jacket and hiking boots.
The story jumps 30 years into the future and introduces a main character, detective Jackson Brodie. He seems to be traveling incognito on some kind of investigative assignment. He feels as though he sticks out in a small-town setting.
Themes
After a slow ten minutes, 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 out wearing a snowsuit. Jackson knows that Nathan’s mother, Julia, is visiting her sister who has breast cancer, and “The False Dad,” “Mr. Arty-Farty,” isn’t around. Figuring he’s safe, Jackson gets out of the car and casually ambles toward the children.
It becomes clear that Jackson is here not on a professional assignment, but a personal one. Jackson’s evident disdain for Nathan’s “false” father suggests that he believes he’s the rightful father, and thus that he and Julia have a not-too-distant past. Given the tragic horror of the previous chapter, Jackson’s uninvited approach is somewhat unsettling.
Themes
On the green, Nathan’s football rolls toward Jackson, and he picks it up, luring Nathan closer. When Nathan approaches, Jackson ruffles his hair, startling the boy. A nearby mother, with a fake smile, asks if she can help. Jackson turns on his charm and asks directions to the nearby waterfall.
Jackson’s intentions toward the boy are not harmful, but the watching mother doesn’t know that, and her vigilance anticipates the attitudes that other female characters will show in the story—a fierce protectiveness.
Themes
Jackson walks to the waterfall, uncomfortable to find himself alone with his thoughts. He withdraws a plastic bag from his pocket and drops a thin black hair into it, his job done. Then he walks back to his car, ready to get on a train to London and go home.
Jackson seems unaccustomed to dwelling too much on his thoughts, suggesting they’re often dark ones. It becomes clearer what his intentions have been—he wants DNA evidence of his paternity.
Themes
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