If you enjoy stories in which children and animals are serendipitously rescued from abusive homes and circumstances,
Started Early, Took My Dog (and others by Kate Atkinson) is for you. Tracy Waterhouse, a recently retired policewoman, impulsively buys a very young child from a drug-abusing prostitute and tries to disappear. Jackson Brodie, a private detective, hired by an adopted orphan to trace her roots, impulsively rescues a small dog from an abusive master. These two stories, seemingly unconnected, finally cross near the end of the book, and most, but not all, of the mysteries are solved.
