Started Early, Took My Dog

Started Early, Took My Dog (2011) by Kate Atkinson. This is one of the most pleasurable reads I've encountered lately, endlessly amusing, with layer upon layer of meaning folded into the narrative. The story has a theme: People adopting other people's children, or in one case, a dog. The main protagonist is Atkinson's favorite, former cop Jackson Brodie, who now works as a private investigator. It is Brodie who adopts the dog, a small terrier that is being abused by its master. Adopt may be too kind a word, as Brodie punches the master in the stomach and takes the dog away from him. Also prominent in the book is Tracy Waterhouse, a former policewoman who "adopts" a little girl by paying her mother $3,000 -- or maybe it's 3,000 pounds. The novel takes place in England. Each character has an internal dialogue, which includes side trips down memory lane and little asides that are occasionally extremely funny. I loved reading this book. Grade: A