Explore the significance of justice and injustice in Katie Atkinson's 'When will there be Good News'

In traditional crime texts justice sees the criminal appropriately punished for their crimes, thereby restoring order to the victims. Whilst Katie Atkinson displays justice for some protagonists, namely Joanna, who fights back not only against her kidnappers but the categorisation of her as a victim; for others there is a lack of justice. For instance, Marcus’ tragic death, Brodie being conned by his wife, and Billy evading prosecution for his crimes. Atkinson’s depictions of such contrasting outcomes perhaps affords us an insight into the realities of crime whereby there are not always optimistic resolutions.

Although we see Joanna constantly subject to victimisation, by Decker, her father's negligence, and her husband, in the chapter entitled ‘La Regle de Jeu’, we not only see her finally break the rules of the game, but also the title of victimhood that haunts her. Indeed, she takes control and kills her kidnappers. Therefore, there is a restoration of power to Joanna and her self-defence can be perceived as just. Atkinson places extreme stress on the recurrence of femicide, which may reflect the gender inequality in the world of crime in the context of modern-day Britain - yet, we see an inversion of stereotypical gender roles and Brody does not adhere to the male saviour figure, nor Joanna to the damsel in distress. Hence, it can be argued that in restoring agency to this female character, Atkinson is presenting her ending as just. Since justice often results in a restoration of order, Atkinson’s cyclically structured novel, whereby we see Reggie and Joanna reunited, is a further example of justice. In the final chapter, which is fittingly in omniscient narration focalised through Joanna (a repetition of the narrative voice in the first chapter) there is a familiarity in Reggie’s dialect when she states, ‘Totally doctor H’. This idiomatic expression is one that Reggie utilises in the opening chapters, hence the repetition of this at the end of the novel demonstrates that this harmonious duo is restored, united as a family once again.

However, the way in which Joanna finds justice for herself is morally ambiguous and Atkinson raises complex questions that challenge the moral framework as we know it. For instance, the visceral language of Joanna stabbing the knife in his ‘common carotid artery’ and watching the ‘blood gush as if she'd struck oil’, is extremely disquieting, asking us to question whether Joanna’s actions are fair, and whether she should face punishment herself. The boundaries between brutal murderer and innocent victim become somewhat permeable at this climactic moment. This tension is further accentuated when we perceive Joanna’s rather nonchalant response to her act of violence, whereby she immediately reverts to her maternal side singing ‘little Tommy lived in a little house’. The stark juxtaposition between the tone of the circumstances is deeply disturbing and probes our moral framework; probes at how we classify justice.

Less ambivalent instances of injustice are presented in Marcus’ untimely death and when Billy is let off for his crimes. Atkinson develops Marcus’s character in the 2-dimensional realm, as she describes him as appearing as though he was an ‘evangelist selling good news and bibles’ – a rather univocal attestation to his purity. Since Atkinson shapes his character as an emblem of innocence, this makes his untimely death even more so tragic. In focalising some chapters through Louise Atkinson is affording us an insight into the police procedural and we realise that not all cases have optimistic resolutions when Marcus dies. This demonstrates the gruelling nature of working in the police force and the nature of crime itself: not all criminals are justly punished and therefore not all victims get the justice they deserve. This motif is also apparent in the presentation of Billy's character, and his character is given an unusual focalization towards the denouement in part 6, whereby, for the first time, we are subject to the thoughts of a criminal rather than victim. In this chapter, Billy shows no indication that his trajectory as a criminal is going to slow, but, if anything, we understand it will only exacerbate, as evident in his imperative thinking that ‘he is going to kill his sister’. Since Atkinson has positioned this towards the end of the novel, whether Billy commits such horrific thoughts is left out of the narrative framework and therefore we are left to speculation, questioning whether it was a mistake for Reggie to let him go, whether it was an injustice to her own safety and the safety of others

In conclusion, Atkinson presents justice for Joanna who rebels against her captors and evades succumbing to victimisation again. Yet the path for this is morally ambivalent, and in the gory murder scenes of the climax, one cannot help but ask whether this still constitutes justice. Nevertheless, for other characters there is unequivocally an injustice in their personal resolutions: Marcus’s death, Tessa deceiving Jackson and Billy avoiding punishment. In the plurality of these personal resolutions, we realise the full spectrum of crime, its complications, and especially so in the trajectory of Joanna's character, the intimacy of justice and injustice.