From the moment she burst onto the literary scene with the dazzling Behind the Scenes at the Museum, Kate Atkinson has been fusing genres and defying categorisation to deliver wonderfully satisfying, funny, sad, wholly original and compelling fiction.

When Will There Be Good News? is her latest brilliant work, and the third to feature charming anti-hero ex-detective Jackson Brodie. Perhaps because he is only one of a large cast of characters – characters that not only leap off the page, but grab you firmly by the hand to pull you inexorably into their world – readers can fully enjoy Good News without having read the previous two works in which Jackson appeared, Case Histories and One Good Turn. Then again, it’s a great opportunity to become acquainted with those novels as well. Because that’s the thing about Kate Atkinson – she never disappoints. Whether you love her fantastical plots, the seductive lilt of her prose – infused with an acerbic intelligence – or her flawed-but-fascinating characters, being an Atkinson fan is one of the most rewarding pastimes a reader can have. Which means that Good News is not so much a must-read as a must-devour, a must-revel-in, a must-savour-every-page novel.