Started Early, Took My Dog

Kate Atkinson's novel "Started Early, Took My Dog" is a mystery thriller that pays homage to Agatha Christie while exploring issues of police corruption and cover-ups. The story is told through different time periods, beginning in the mid-1970s in Leeds, England.

In the present day, Jackson Brodie, the protagonist, is in Leeds investigating a woman's search for her biological origins. While in the city, Brodie revisits his own tragic past, which includes the death of his mother, sister's murder, and brother's suicide. He also finds out that the supposed birth parents of a woman named Hope McMaster do not exist.

Meanwhile, Brodie's former colleague, Tracy Waterhouse, is now retired and works in security in a shopping complex. She takes in a child she finds in a flat, caring for her for nearly 500 pages while evading the possibility of legal consequences. The child, Kelly, eventually turns out to be a victim of abuse and murder.

As Brodie delves deeper into the case, he discovers that a private detective named Jackson is also investigating a murder in Lovell Park from 1975. He finds a photograph in Linda Pallister's drawer that matches the one she gave him, leading him to connect the two cases. Brodie also learns that a child was locked inside a flat with his dead mother for three weeks, and the journalist he meets in Whitby also had a similar case.

In the end, Brodie rescues Tracy and Courtney, connecting the various cases and uncovering a web of deception and corruption within the police force.