Big Sky (jackson Brodie, #5)

The fifth installment in Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie series is set along the East Coast of Yorkshire, where multiple storylines converge around a decades-old child abuse scandal, a present-day sex trafficking ring, and the investigations of former policeman Jackson Brodie.

The novel opens with a flash-forward: Jackson drives away from a church with a woman in a wedding dress. An older couple congratulates them, and Jackson replies, "It's not what it looks like" (1). The narrative jumps back one week.

Jackson, a private investigator, former policeman, and ex-soldier, is spending the summer in a rented cottage on the coast with his thirteen-year-old son, Nathan. While in Scarborough, he spots a girl carrying a blue unicorn backpack hitching on the Esplanade. Before he can intervene, she climbs into a gray Peugeot and vanishes. A brief chapter reveals her name: Darcy Slee, thirteen, who follows the driver into a house despite her instinct to run. The next morning, Jackson finds the backpack on the beach. The police dismiss his concerns.

Meanwhile, two Polish sisters, Katja and Nadja, are interviewed over Skype by a man calling himself Mark Price, who promises them hotel jobs through a recruitment agency called Anderson Price Associates. The narration reveals that Price is a fraud operating from a mobile home in a coastal field.

Vincent "Vince" Ives plays golf at the Belvedere Golf Club with Tommy Holroyd, owner of a haulage company, and Andy Bragg, who runs a hotel and travel agency. Vince's wife, Wendy, has expelled him from their home, and he has secretly lost his job. His old school friend Stephen Mellors, a corporate solicitor handling Vince's divorce, introduced him to Tommy and Andy. At the clubhouse, Tommy mentions that Michael Carmody, a convicted child abuser, may be released early and might start naming names. Tommy and Andy exchange a look that excludes Vince.

The novel reveals the Bassani and Carmody backstory: Antonio Bassani and Carmody ran a child sexual exploitation network along the East Coast for decades, luring children from care homes. Bassani hanged himself in jail; Carmody was imprisoned. Rumors of an unidentified "third man" persist.

Crystal Holroyd, Tommy's second wife, is devoted to her three-year-old daughter, Candace (Candy), and fond of her stepson, Harry. She maintains an obsessively constructed appearance to bury a past she refuses to discuss. She notices a silver BMW following her. After binge-eating and purging, she thinks, "Up to some of your old tricks again, Christina" (50), hinting that Crystal is not her real name.

Harry Holroyd, Tommy's sixteen-year-old son, works as an assistant to Barclay Jack, a disgraced comedian headlining the Palace Theatre. Harry befriends Bunny Hopps, a drag queen who becomes a surrogate parent figure. Crystal distrusts Barclay Jack, knowing from her own past that he is predatory.

Detective constables Reggie Chase and Ronnie Dibicki conduct Operation Villette, a task force investigating new accusations connected to the Bassani and Carmody case. The accusations originated with Bronte Finch, daughter of a Crown Court judge, who described years of abuse by her father and his associates in a group called "the magic circle."

After a routine interview with Vince, officers arrive to inform him that Wendy has been murdered, her skull smashed with a golf club. Detective Inspector Marriot treats Vince as a suspect because of his golf clubs, Army background, and lack of alibi. That evening, Jackson finds Vince on the edge of a cliff and pulls him to safety, taking him back to his cottage.

Crystal hires Jackson to investigate who is following her. After they meet, Jackson finds an envelope on her car addressed to "Tina," containing a photograph of Candy with the message "Keep your mouth shut, Christina" (200).

Crystal drives to the flat of Felicity "Fee" Yardley, her childhood friend and a former sex worker. Through their conversation, the novel reveals their shared past: as twelve-year-olds named Christina and Felicity, they ran away from a care home to Bridlington, where Bassani and Carmody forced them into sexual abuse by powerful men in the magic circle. Fee reveals that Tommy worked for Bassani and Carmody, and that Tommy, Andy, and Steve now run a sex trafficking operation. Crystal is devastated to learn her husband is connected to the network that abused her.

Andy Bragg, posing as a representative of Anderson Price, picks up trafficked women at Newcastle Airport and delivers them to Silver Birches, a decommissioned nursing home serving as a holding facility. Through Andy's narration, the full operation emerges: Steve created the fake agency, Andy's travel business funnels women into the country, and Tommy provides muscle. The women are drugged and distributed to brothels across northern England.

Two men carjack Crystal's car with Harry and Candy inside. Jackson drives Crystal in pursuit, but the trail leads to a decoy. Harry and Candy are imprisoned in a trailer. Harry keeps Candy calm until he breaks a window and escapes. A silver BMW stops on a dark road; the driver, who knows Harry by name, delivers them safely to High Haven.

At Silver Birches, Maria, one of the trafficked Filipino women, dies by suicide. Tommy and Andy dump her body at sea. Carmody dies in prison. Vince retrieves a Browning 9mm pistol he smuggled home from the Army, drives to Silver Birches, and shoots Andy. Jackson arrives after Vince's panicked call and finds rooms where drugged, handcuffed women are held. He cuts their restraints. Steve Mellors arrives with a baseball bat, and Vince holds him at gunpoint. When Ronnie and Reggie arrive, Katja identifies Mellors as Mark Price. Nadja seizes the gun and shoots Mellors, saying "For my sister" (337). Jackson pockets the gun before armed officers arrive.

Jackson and Reggie give coordinated statements claiming Andy grabbed the gun and shot Mellors in self-defense. Jackson pressures Andy into claiming amnesia and later throws the gun off Whitby pier, destroying the forensic evidence.

Crystal, having learned the full truth about Tommy from Fee and from messages on his hidden second phone, lures him to their indoor swimming pool and pushes him in. Tommy cannot swim. She holds him up briefly, then lets go. He drowns.

The aftermath resolves all threads. Nicholas Sawyer, a former MP, is convicted as the magic circle's "third man." Andy dies of sepsis in hospital. Tommy's death is ruled an open verdict. Wendy's actual killer is revealed as Craig Cumming, a lifeboat man she briefly dated, who murdered her in a jealous rage. Vince disappears abroad. Fee testifies against the magic circle members.

The closing sequence resolves the flash-forward. Jackson attends the wedding of his daughter, Marlee, but she tells him at the church entrance that she cannot go through with it. He supports her, and they run together. Crystal picks up Harry and tells him they are leaving. Jackson drives to the address of the gray Peugeot, enters the house, and rescues Darcy Slee from the cellar after seven days of captivity. In the final scene, Bunny performs "Nessun Dorma" at the Palace Theatre. Harry, watching from the wings with Crystal, translates the last word: "It means 'I will win'" (384). Crystal replies, "And so you will, Harry. So you will."