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
Louise wonders what they’re all doing up at such an unearthly hour. Even after operating through the night, chipper Patrick has made fancy French toast for Bridget and Tim. Louise is in a “mutinous” mood and criticizes the expensive imported raspberries. Patrick, she thinks, got to spend the night in a sterile operating theatre, while she spent the night in the rain, finding severed limbs and comforting victims on the scene. Patrick is taking the guests sightseeing, but Louise can’t bear it and she returns to work.
The morning after the train crash, Patrick carries on as if everything’s normal, and this makes Louise furious. She feels he can’t relate to the raw horror she experienced caring for victims at the crash scene. She’d rather distance herself from the family than deal with the emotions—her typical survival mechanism—and she goes to work instead, where she feels relatively safe.
Themes
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 any connection between Neil Hunter’s brushes with the law and Andrew Decker’s release from prison. The Hunters’ house is quiet; only Neil is there. He seems unsurprised about the alleged arson, and he tells her about Joanna’s sudden trip to see her sick aunt, whom he identifies as Agnes Barker. Louise thinks that Joanna has “a very handy aunt.”
Jackson’s saying about coincidences is his catchphrase as a detective, and it seems especially applicable to this book, as characters’ lives draw together in surprising ways. Right now, though, Joanna’s disappearance—just as Neil Hunter is being suspected of arson and Andrew Decker has been released—doesn’t make much sense.
Themes
Louise questions Neil about any enemies he might have and tells him there will be a warrant for his documentation. When Neil leaves the room for a phone call, Louise studies Joanna Hunter’s notice board. It’s covered with pictures of her life, seeming to broadcast the message that she’s “no longer a victim.” Louise notices that one of Joanna’s activities in university had been the Rifle Club. She muses, “[Joanna] could run, she could shoot. She was all ready for next time.” Neil comes back looking rattled and asks if Louise would like a dram of whiskey.
Joanna has taken care to show her best face to the world—the one that has moved on from tragedy and knows how fend for herself. Louise, always thinking about survival, figures that Joanna is making sure she won’t be caught helpless again. Neil, meanwhile, appears to be caught up in something he wasn’t prepared for.
Themes
