Winspear, Jacqueline: An Incomplete Revenge


Book excerpt: In her fifth outing, Maisie Dobbs, the extraordinary psychologist and investigator, delves into a strange series of crimes in a small rural community.

With the country in the grip of economic malaise, and worried about her business, Maisie Dobbs is relieved to accept an apparently straightforward assignment from an old friend to investigate certain matters concerning a potential land purchase. Her inquiries take her to a picturesque village in Kent during the hop-picking season, but beneath its pastoral surface she finds evidence that something is amiss. Mysterious fires erupt in the village with alarming regularity, and a series of petty crimes suggests a darker criminal element at work. As Maisie discovers, the villagers are bitterly prejudiced against outsiders who flock to Kent at harvesttime--even more troubling, they seem possessed by the legacy of a wartime Zeppelin raid. Maisie grows increasingly suspicious of a peculiar secrecy that shrouds the village, and ultimately she must draw on all her finely honed skills of detection to solve one of her most intriguing cases.

Rich with Jacqueline Winspear's trademark period detail, this latest installment of the bestselling series is gripping, atmospheric, and utterly enthralling.

This is definitely my favorite so far of the series. Especially considering I found the last one to be most depressing. Hope seems to be returning to Maisie's world, despite her suffering one more loss in this book. And the portent of WWII looms in the not so distant future.

Winspear's books are very much a recommended read, and as I have now caught up with the books so far published, I shall sit here and sulk until another comes out...

For those who know a little as I do about the Depression era in the UK as compared to the US, this would help realize the helplessness and hopelessness and despair of the time.

Here is a passage that I found rather moving:


Quote:
'"In some ways, Maisie, similar work has engaged us of late. We --- my contacts overseas and my colleagues in London --- are most concerned with a growing frustration on the other side of the Channel. The depression we find ourselves in here, and which is causing havoc in America, is allowing people to give weight to that which divides them, rather than to the shared experiences and elements of connection they see mirrored in their fellow man. There are those in Germany who would use discrimination to elevate their politics, which gives us cause for disquiet. And on the continent in Spain, inequities threaten to become incendiary. There are many people, Maisie --- and I confess, I am among their number --- who believe our peace to be only so resilient and who fear another war."
"I pray it doesn't come to that, Maurice."
"Yes, pray, Maisie. Do pray."
And as her beloved mentor regarded the vista before him, his hands clenched on the arms of his chair, Maisie reached across and placed her hand on his.'



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Winspear, Jacqueline: Messenger of Truth

Book cover:

London, 1931. ON the night before the opening of his new and much-anticipated exhibition at a famed Mayfair gallery, Nicholas Bassington-Hope falls to his death. The police declare the fall an accident, but the dead man's twin sister, Georgina, isn't convinced. When the authorities refuse to conduct further investigations and close the case, Georgina---a journalist and infamous figure in her own right---takes matters into her own hands, seeking out a fellow graduate from Girton College: Maisie Dobbs, psychologist and investigator.

The case soon takes Maisie to the desolate beaches of Dungeness in Kent, as well as the sinister underbelly of the city's art world. And while navigating her way into the heart of the aristocratic yet bohemian Bassington-Hopes, Maisie is deeply troubled by the tragedy of another, quite different family in need.

In Messenger of Truth, Maisie Dobbs again uncovers the dark legacy of the Great War in a society struggling to recollect itself in difficult times. But to solve the mystery of the artists's death, she will have to remain steady as the forces behind his fall come out of the shadows to silence her.

Following on the bestselling Pardonable Lies, Jacqueline Winspear delivers another vivid, thrilling, and utterly unique episode in the life of Maisie Dobbs.

Okay, first off, this is an exceptional book. Delving into the mysteries and lives of the art world and the plot line of this story. Great book. Highly recommended.

But.....I think I hated this book. It is so filled with pain and despair that it affected my mood, or maybe it was my mood that affected how I related to the book, who knows. Several of the plot twists I probably could have lived without, personally. But they do not take away from the book, it really just enhances the emotions that the characters in the book are going thru.

But one pet peeve: I know we live in a time of "liberation" and "self-sustaining" lifestyles for women. I'm all for a strong female character. But it seems that time and time again, I am drawn to these series where the female lead is "doomed" "meant to" (whatever) be alone. As someone who is alone, I find it really irritating. It is all well and good to have characters who are so self assured that they don't "need" anyone else to make them whole. That is really great. But it seems to be a trend to have female characters standing alone rather than in a compatible relationship with whomever.

Not to take away from the character of Maisie Dobbs. It is just that by this time you've seen her go thru so much pain and desolation, that you just hope and pray that she finds someone, if not a mate/soul companion, then a truly good friend that she can enjoy life with. She is by now seeming to be so isolated. I hope that in the next installment, she starts living "outside/with-out" herself and has some joy in her life.

Okay, here are some of my favorite passages in the book...

[Billy] "So, what you're sayin' is that I've just got to swallow it and go on wiv me job."

Maisie nodded. "Look at the world beyond your immediate emotion, the immediate fury of inequality. Choose your battles, Billy."

The sea lapped even closer, though Maisie remained in place, her hands holding her collar to protect her neck. It's because it's the beginning, and also the end. That was what she loved about the place where the water met the land---the promise of something fresh, a suggestion that, even if what is happening now is to be suffered, there is an end and a beginning. I could sail away on that beginning, thought Maisie, as she turned to leave.

Something had been ignited within her in that house. If her soul were a room, it was as if light were now shining in a corner that had been dark. And she'd been touched by something less tangible, something she'd found among people who saw nothing unusual in painting trees on walls. Perhaps it was the freedom to strike out on one's own path, seeing not a risk in that which was new, only opportunity.

---but Nolly is the eldest, and that's almost like being another parent.

Winspear, Jacqueline: Pardonable Lies

Book cover excerpt:

In the third novel of this bestselling series, London investigator Maisie Dobbs faces grave danger as she returns to the site of her most painful memories from the Great War to resolve the mystery surrounding a pilot's death.

Agatha Christie's Miss Marple. Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone. Alexander McCall Smith's Precious Ramotswe. Every once in a while, a detective bursts on the scene who captures readers' imaginations---and hearts---and doesn't let go. And so it was with Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs, who made her debut just three years ago in the eponymous first book of her series and is already on her way to becoming a household name.

In the third novel of this unique and masterly crime series, a deathbed plea from his wife leads Sir Cecil Lawton to seek the aid of Maisie Dobbs, psychologist and investigator. As Maisie soon learns, Agnes Lawton never accepted that her aviator son was killed in the Great War, a torment that led her not only to the edge of madness but also to the doors of those who practice the dark arts and commune with the spirit world.

Maisie accepts the assignment--determined to prove Ralph Lawton either dead or alive--and in doing so is plunged into a case that tests her spiritual strength, as well as her regard for her mentor, Maurice Blanche. The mission also brings her together once again with her college friend Priscilla Evernden, who served in France and who lost three brothers to the war--one of whom, it turns out, had an intriguing connection to the missing Ralph Lawton.

Following on the heels of the triumphant Birds of a Feather, Pardonable Lies is the most compelling installment yet in the chronicles of Maisie Dobbs, "a heroine to cherish" (Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review).

I continue to love this series, but this one is a most troubling installment. Maisie goes thru a "dark night of the soul" that threatens her stability. You travel with her through her roller coaster of a case. Actually, there are 3 cases, and somehow they all have a connection. But the devastation to Maisie herself is really what moves this installment. Her relationship with her late mother is dipped into a little bit more. The spirituality side of Maisie comes thru even more here, and is what helps her deal with her memories of the war, a betrayal of trust, and attempts on her life. Quite an emotional tale, this one.

I have a hard time reviewing these books without giving something away, which is why I include the book cover excerpts. Needless to say, I haven't been disappointed by this series yet, and truly doubt I will be.

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Winspear, Jacqueline: Birds of a Feather

Book cover detail:

Jacqueline Winspear's marvelous and inspired debut, Maisie Dobbs, won her fans from coast to coast and raised her intuitive and resourceful heroine to the ranks of literature's favorite sleuths. Birds of a Feather finds Maisie on another dangerously intriguing adventure in London between the wars. It is the spring of 1930, and Maisie has been hired to find a runaway heiress. When three of the heiress's old friends are found dead, Maisie must race to find out who would want to kill these seemingly respectable young women before it's too late. As Maisie investigates she discovers that the answers lie in the unforgettable agony of the Great War.

This book is as good as the first, and lends even more insight into the world of the time and life after WWI. Details of the times that I first learned about in one of Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody books. To reveal it here would be to give away an important plot detail in the book, so read it and find out.

Jacqueline Winspear is rapidly joining the ranks of my favorite authors. I enjoy a good read that requires me to pay attention to even some of the smallest details. She delves into a spiritual level of investigation that insists that we each take stock in our own intuition and instincts. That to deny them or to push them aside as not worthy or notice is to deny part of ourselves, and part of our inherent warning system. Maisie Dobbs is a character that prompts us to use more of our "brain power", our intellect, our observations, our gut urges, etc. Brava!

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Stevenson, Robert Louis (1850–1894). A Child’s Garden of Verses and Underwoods. 1913.

38. From a Railway Carriage


FASTER than fairies, faster than witches,

Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches;

And charging along like troops in a battle,

All through the meadows the horses and cattle:

All of the sights of the hill and the plain 5

Fly as thick as driving rain;

And ever again, in the wink of an eye,

Painted stations whistle by.


Here is a child who clambers and scrambles,

All by himself and gathering brambles; 10

Here is a tramp who stands and gazes;

And there is the green for stringing the daisies!

Here is a cart run away in the road

Lumping along with man and load;

And here is a mill and there is a river: 15

Each a glimpse and gone for ever!



(quoted in Birds of a Feather by Jacqueline Winspear)

Winspear, Jacqueline: Maisie Dobbs

From book cover:

She started as a maid in an aristocratic London household when she was thirteen. Her employer, Lady Rowan Compton, a suffragette, took the remarkably bright youngster under her wing and became her patron, aided by Maurice Blanche, a friend often retained as an investigator by the elite of Europe. It was he who first recognized Maisie's intuitive gifts and helped her to earn admission to prestigious Girton College at Cambridge where Maisie planned to complete her education.

The outbreak of war changed everything. Maisie trained as a nurse, then left for France to serve at the Front, where she found---and lost---an important part of herself.

Ten years after the Armistice, in the spring of 1929, Maisie sets up on her own as a private investigator, one who has learned that coincidences are meaningful, and truth elusive. Her very first case involves suspected infidelity but reveals something very different. In the aftermath of the Great War, a former officer has founded a convalescent refuge for those grievously wounded, ex-soldiers too shattered to resume normal life. It is a working farm known as The Retreat. When fate brings Maisie a second case involving The Retreat she must confront the ghost that has haunted her for ten years.

I was charmed and very moved by this book. The empathy and insight of the title character, Maisie Dobbs, is a delight to read. She sounds like a person everyone should be blessed to have in their life. And to read her backstory, it is touching and heartbreaking. And she uses her insight to aid her client(s).

Her first client is a gentleman who suspects his wife of infidelity. Maisie makes sure that she finds out what he intends to do with the information, and how he would react if it were proven true. She is an ethical person, who wants to make sure that nothing untoward and "evil" will come of her investigation. The story then spins into another case. The whole book is truly a joy to read and I cannot recommend it enough!