Atkinson is an English writer primarily known for her award-winning novels. She is a three-time winner of the Costa Book Award (formerly known as the Whitbread Prize) for Behind the Scenes at the Museum (1995), Life After Life (2013), and A God in Ruins (2015). Atkinson was born in York, England, and studied literature at the University of Dundee. She went to graduate school but failed her qualifying exams, or viva, and had a series of odd jobs before she began to make a living as a writer.

Atkinson’s most popular works are her Jackson Brodie mysteries, of which Case Histories is the first. Critics praised this series for its literary prose and insight into characters, which favorably differentiates it from the typically plot-driven mystery genre. Robin Vidimos wrote in a review for the Denver Post that “Atkinson draws her characters to some depth, and in revealing their flaws and motivations achieves a richer, more satisfying result” than a typical crime novel (Vidimos, Robin. “Absurd Looms Large in Mystery.” The Denver Post, 2006). However, Atkinson herself has resisted the idea that she writes novels in a particular genre.