Jimi Hendrix Live in Lvov – Andrey Kurkov

Each 18 September, in the Ukrainian city of Lvov, a handful of ex-hippies, or rather surviving hippies (once a hippy always a hippy) gather in the small hours at a disused cemetery where, they believe, is buried the hand of one of their musical icons, Jimi Hendrix. Alik is a regular, but this year (2011) there is a new face, who reveals himself as Captain Ryabtsev, ex-KGB officer, or maybe that too should be surviving KGB officer. Ryabtsev used to monitor dissidents such as Alik, but secretly he admired their lifestyle and now wants to befriend Alik and make amends.

As the two of them leave the cemetery, Alik is clipped by an erratically driven old Opel. Thus, we are introduced to the other main character, Taras. His driving style is deliberate. After dropping out of medical school he now operates an unconventional therapy – the shaking loose of kidney stones and their forced expulsion by micturition, all brought about by drinking cognac and being driven at speed over the cobbled streets of Lvov. At night, obviously!

More characters are introduced including Alik’s neighbour Yezhi, and his actress friend, Oksana. Taras, whose fees are paid in cash and in a variety of currencies, frequents a 24-hour exchange booth in the city, where he falls for the pretty cashier, Darka.

So far, so Kurkov. Then more so. Something is amiss in Lvov. Anomalous for a landlocked city six hundred kilometres from open water, there is occasionally a salty taste in the air, a smell of rotting seaweed. Seagulls gather, caw, swoop. One of them even attacks Oksana’s aquarium. Alik and Ryabtsev decide to investigate.

Combining wackiness with precise prose, Kurkov convincingly paints lives lived on the periphery of Lvov society. Strangely compulsive, the activities of Alik, Ryabtsev, Taras, and Darka would hold the interest even without the narrative hook of discovering the source of the seaside anomalies. There is a resolution on that, but the grave of the Jimi Hendrix hand remains a mystery.

Death at the Sign of the Rook – Kate Atkinson

Jackson Brodie, private investigator, has a new case. Immediately following the death in Ilkley of 96-year-old Dorothy Padgett, a Renaissance painting that hung on her bedroom wall has gone missing. As has her capable carer of six months, Melanie Hope. Dorothy’s offsprings, twins Ian and Hazel, want this missing and potentially valuable portion of their inheritance back. Jackson has misgivings about Ian and Hazel – why not call the police, why wasn’t it insured – but a case is a case and he is onto it.

Melanie Hope is a dead end, but researching other recent art thefts turns up a couple with a similar MO, including one in Yorkshire. The removal of a Turner landscape from its frame at the Burton Makepeace estate occurred two years previous. In the frame for the theft was new housekeeper Sophie Greenway, not seen since.

Now, as it happens, Jackson used to know someone in the Yorkshire force, and he still has her number. DC Reggie Chase takes the call with mixed feelings. She likes Brodie, shares his passion for justice, but abhors his approach and disregard of rules and due process for such things as providing an evidential trail.

Inevitably, as she worked on the Turner theft, she is drawn into working in concert with the maverick Brodie. Jackson barrels into Burton Makepeace where a range of characters – Lady Melton and her dysfunctional dynasty, a vicar who has lost his faith, and an ex-soldier who has lost his leg – await to confuse, confound, and entertain.

Expect plot twists, black humour, death, destruction, and a dramatic dénouement enhanced by the arrival at Burton Makepeace of a blizzard, a troop of murder mystery players, and an escaped convict, armed and dangerous.

How does this latest compare with the previous Jackson Brodie books? The man himself is up to scratch, and it is great to meet Reggie Chase again. The plot holds together and minor characters have the usual depth and appeal, but that frantic ending teeters on the brink of farce.

However, Kate Atkinson has literary credit in the bank with me, so that minor point is a tiny bit of rough to take with an awful lot of smooth.