Close Reading: the Scene of the Crime

Close reading: the scene of the crime

When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson and The Invisible Man by G.K.Chesterton

Step 1 - read through

Read through the text below twice – the first time to understand the content; the second time to understand what the writer is saying.

Text 1 is taken fromWhen Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson published by Black Swan in 2009.

Reggie is sixteen and has been acting as a nanny for the Hunters’ baby. She has been back to the house after being told by Mr. Hunter that his wife has gone to visit an elderly aunt. Sadie is the Hunters’ dog.

Mr. Hunter burst through the front door at his usual velocity and was brought up short at the sight of her.

‘Still here, Reggie?’

‘Just been to the loo.’ Reggie said, feigning nonchalance. The phone had stopped ringing a beat before Mr. Hunter entered the house.

‘Don’t you have a home to go to?’ Mr. Hunter said.

‘Yep, sure do,’ she said, marching past him and out of the front door. Sadie raced past her, hoovering up familiar smells in the border at the side of the drive. When Reggie reached the gate she whistled to Sadie, who came trotting up tail whirling round, the way it did when she was excited at retrieving treasure. She was carrying something in her mouth and when she reached Reggie she placed her find at her feet and sat obediently, waiting to be praised.

Reggie’s heart nearly stopped when she saw what Sadie had dropped on the ground.

The baby’s comforter, his square of moss green blanket. It looked as if it had been trampled in the mud and when Reggie picked it up and examined it, she could see a stain on it, a stain that wasn’t tomato sauce or red wine, a stain that was blood. Reggie knew blood now. She had seen more in the last twenty four hours than she had seen in a previous lifetime.

Read the extract. Write down your first impressions of what the extract is about.

Read through the text again. Discuss what you think the writer is saying. Write this in one sentence.

Close reading: the scene of the crime

When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson and The Invisible Man by G.K.Chesterton

Step 2 - annotate

Highlight a phrase from this text that tells you Mr. Hunter does not expect to find Reggie in the house.

In a different colour, highlight Reggie’s reaction to Mr. Hunter’s entrance.

Underline what Sadie finds that makes Reggie’s heart nearly stop.

In another colour, highlight the phrase that suggests Reggie has previously been involved with some kind of accident.

Step 3 – analyse

With a partner, discuss why you think Kate Atkinson includes:

a)the ringing telephone

b)Mr.Hunter’s hostile reaction to Reggie

c)the blanket square

d)the bloodstain

Make a storyboard of six frames to show the way Kate Atkinson builds up the tension.

Step 4 – evaluate

Work with a partner and decide what kind of story you think Kate Atkinson is writing.

Give reasons for your conclusion.

What do you think the following phrases suggest about how the writer wants her readers to feel?

… stopped ringing a beat before
… hoovering up familiar smells in the border
… was carrying something in her mouth
… heart nearly stopped
… baby’s comforter
… a stain that was blood

Write one or two paragraphs about how Kate Atkinson uses language effectively in this text.

Close reading: the scene of the crime

When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson and The Invisible Man by G.K.Chesterton

Step 1 - read through

Read through the text twice – the first time to understand the content; the second time to understand what the writer is saying.

Text 2 is taken from The Invisible Man by G.K. Chesterton from ‘The Innocence of Father Brown’. You can find this text at

Father Brown and the detective are investigating threats against Isidore Smythe, the inventor of a series of robotic ‘servants’that have made his fortune.

The unimportant Father Brown, who stood back, looking modestly at the pavement, here ventured to say meekly, “Has nobody been up and down stairs, then, since the snow began to fall? It began while we were all round at Flambeau’s.”

“Nobody’s been in here, sir, you can take it from me,” said the official, with beaming authority.

“Then I wonder what that is?” said the priest, and stared at the ground blankly like a fish.

The others all looked down also; and Flambeau used a fierce exclamation and a French gesture. For it was unquestionably true that down the middle of the entrance guarded by the man in gold lace, actually between the arrogant, stretched legs of that colossus, ran a stringy pattern of grey footprints stamped upon the white snow.

“God!” cried Angus involuntarily, “the Invisible Man!”

Without another word he turned and dashed up the stairs, with Flambeau following; but Father Brown still stood looking about him in the snow-clad street as if he had lost interest in his query.

Flambeau was plainly in a mood to break down the door with his big shoulders; but the Scotchman, with more reason, if less intuition, fumbled about on the frame of the door till he found the invisible button; and the door swung slowly open.

It showed substantially the same serried interior; the hall had grown darker, though it was still struck here and there with the last crimson shafts of sunset, and one or two of the headless machines had been moved from their places for this or that purpose, and stood here and there about the twilit place. The green and red of their coats were all darkened in the dusk; and their likeness to human shapes slightly increased by their very shapelessness. But in the middle of them all, exactly where the paper with the red ink had lain, there lay something that looked like red ink spilt out of its bottle. But it was not red ink.

With a French combination of reason and violence Flambeau simply said “Murder!” and, plunging into the flat, had explored, every corner and cupboard of it in five minutes. But if he expected to find a corpse he found none. Isidore Smythe was not in the place, either dead or alive. After the most tearing search the two men met each other in the outer hall, with streaming faces and staring eyes. “My friend,” said Flambeau, talking French in his excitement, “not only is your murderer invisible, but he makes invisible also the murdered man.”

Close reading: the scene of the crime

When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson and The Invisible Man by G.K.Chesterton

Read the extract. Write down your first impressions of what the extract is about.

Read through the text again. Discuss what you think the writer is saying. Write this in one sentence.

Step 2 - annotate

Highlight four words or phrases in the first paragraph that suggest Father Brown is not pushy.

Underline Father Brown’s question that causes consternation.

Highlight the phrases that make the Inspector exclaim ‘Murder!’

In another colour, highlight the words used to describe both the murderer and the corpse.

Step 3 – analyse

Make a list of Detective Flambeau’s reactions to the different pieces of evidence.

With a partner, discuss how his reactions differ from those of Father Brown.

What do the following phrases suggest about how Chesterton wanted his readers to feel?

… a fierce exclamation and a French gesture
… the Invisible Man
… looking about him in the snow-clad street
… explored every corner and cupboard of it in five minutes
… the most tearing search

Step 4 - evaluate

If your exam board is OCR you will compare fiction texts. They will both be texts from the 20thor 21stcentury. In both these texts people are presented with bloodstains as evidence of a crime, but their reactions are very different.

Working with a partner discuss:

your impressions of the people themselves
their reactions to the bloodstains
the different ways the writers present their thoughts and feelings.

Find quotations from the texts to support your conclusions.