Birds of a Feather

Rating:
Summary: suspenseful and intriguing: a very good read
Review: "Birds of a Feather" is Jacqueline Winspear's second Maisie Dobbs mystery novel, and it actually is a much more suspenseful and intriguing installment than the first book in the series, "Maisie Dobbs."

Maisie Dobbs, psychologist and private investigator, has been hired by mister moneybags himself, Joseph Waite, to find his missing daughter. Apparently the wealthy and successful magnate's only daughter, Charlotte, seems to have made a habit of running off whenever she feels unhappy or ill-used. Not wanting to involve the police and hoping to circumvent the press, Waite has decided to hire Maisie because he has been suitable impressed by her accomplishments. Almost at once, Maisie senses that Waite has little patience or understanding for Charlotte. And a brief inquiry amongst the household staff elicits the knowledge that while everyone likes Joseph Waite, practically no one seems to have liked Charlotte, deeming her too cold and difficult to please. And yet Maisie (who has strong emphatic powers) senses the almost crippling despair that Charlotte felt in her home. Why would a rich and pampered young lady of leisure feel such a level of despair? And what made her run away? Hoping to get some answers from a close friend of Charlotte's, Maisie stumbles into a murder investigation instead when the friend is brutally murdered. Could Charlotte's disappearance have anything to do with the murder? Is Charlotte in danger, or is the truth something much more sinister? As Maisie digs in to find the answers, she finds herself once again delving into the past and into the painful memories of the recent world war...

First a word of warning: don't read all the plot info available about this novel because (again) far too much of the plot is revealed in many of these professional endorsements. But to get back to my review, "Bird of a Feather" was a truly absorbing read -- once I started it, I found it difficult to put down. Everything was just so well done: the character portrayals, the haunting manner in which she allows us to see that everyone is still haunted by the past war, and the vivid descriptions of London and the countryside -- all this together with the fact that the book is well written, well executed and smoothly paced made "Birds of a Feather" an absolute treat to read. After reading "Maisie Dobbs," I had wondered at how successful Ms Winspear would be able to keep the reader guessing since one of Maisie's talents was empathy. I worried needlessly: this authour knows what she's doing. And I was kept happily engrossed until the last page. All in all, a very good read.

Rating:
Summary: suspenseful and intriguing: a very good read
Review: "Birds of a Feather" is Jacqueline Winspear's second Maisie Dobbs mystery novel, and it actually is a much more suspenseful and intriguing installment than the first book in the series, "Maisie Dobbs."

Maisie Dobbs, psychologist and private investigator, has been hired by mister moneybags himself, Joseph Waite, to find his missing daughter. Apparently the wealthy and successful magnate's only daughter, Charlotte, seems to have made a habit of running off whenever she feels unhappy or ill-used. Not wanting to involve the police and hoping to circumvent the press, Waite has decided to hire Maisie because he has been suitable impressed by her accomplishments. Almost at once, Maisie senses that Waite has little patience or understanding for Charlotte. And a brief inquiry amongst the household staff elicits the knowledge that while everyone likes Joseph Waite, practically no one seems to have liked Charlotte, deeming her too cold and difficult to please. And yet Maisie (who has strong emphatic powers) senses the almost crippling despair that Charlotte felt in her home. Why would a rich and pampered young lady of leisure feel such a level of despair? And what made her run away? Hoping to get some answers from a close friend of Charlotte's, Maisie stumbles into a murder investigation instead when the friend is brutally murdered. Could Charlotte's disappearance have anything to do with the murder? Is Charlotte in danger, or is the truth something much more sinister? As Maisie digs in to find the answers, she finds herself once again delving into the past and into the painful memories of the recent world war...

First a word of warning: don't read all the plot info available about this novel because (again) far too much of the plot is revealed in many of these professional endorsements. But to get back to my review, "Bird of a Feather" was a truly absorbing read -- once I started it, I found it difficult to put down. Everything was just so well done: the character portrayals, the haunting manner in which she allows us to see that everyone is still haunted by the past war, and the vivid descriptions of London and the countryside -- all this together with the fact that the book is well written, well executed and smoothly paced made "Birds of a Feather" an absolute treat to read. After reading "Maisie Dobbs," I had wondered at how successful Ms Winspear would be able to keep the reader guessing since one of Maisie's talents was empathy. I worried needlessly: this authour knows what she's doing. And I was kept happily engrossed until the last page. All in all, a very good read.

Rating:
Summary: More Maisie is a Mighty Good Thing sez Kat from Readerville
Review: Another delightful Maisie Dobbs mystery from Winspear. Set in between the two world wars, Dobbs is perhaps the epitome of do-gooder investigators and gives mighty good book with enough detail that the setting comes alive as do the circumstances of her interesting characters. An entertaining read, indeed.

Rating:
Summary: Flocking to Maisie Dobbs Books!
Review: Birds of a Feather by Jacqueline Winspear is the second book in a series featuring the detective/psychologist Maisie Dobbs. And like the first book, simply called Maisie Dobbs, readers once again will be intrigued by both the characters in this book and the way Maisie solves the mystery.

Birds of a Father was more mystery than the first book which was used to introduce the characters and their backgrounds. While there was a thinly veiled mystery Birds of a Feather will surely captivate readers as the mystery angle of this book gets better and better as readers turn the pages.

Maisie and her business associate Billy Beale are hired by Mr. Wait to find his daughter Charlotte. Mr Wait, a wealthy store owner, further explains that Charlotte has done this before but this time she also broke off her engagement. After meeting with one of Charlotte's friends, early leads send Maisie to a convent where Charlotte might be living and protected by the nuns. Then Maisie learns that the friend of Charlotte's she's just spoke to had been killed and she's not the only one. It seems as though two other friends of Charlotte and all women who wee friends at one time are now dead under very suspicious circumstances. What did these four women have in common? And what does a small object found next to the nurses have to do with these crimes. Does a plaque in Mr. Waite's store to fallen men who served in WW I and worked for him hold a key to the murders, And most of all is the killer looking for Charlotte next?

As we read this book and consider who did it, one can't help but enjoy characters from the first book which include Maurice Blanche, Maisie's mentor and former employer, Lady Rowan, the wealthy woman Maisie worked for and helped Maisie further her education, and Maisie's devoted father Frankie. There is also a poignant part devoted how Maisie along with others help her business partner finally heal from his war injuries.

This book was a wonderful second book in what I surely hope will be a long series. One can't help but feel they are right on the streets of London so well does the author describe the city and also the country estate of Lady Jane. In addition there are wonderful descriptions of the clothes Maisie wears so we have a clear picture of the English fashion world in the 1930s.

I have thoroughly enjoyed both of these books and once again must thank a friend for suggesting them to me. Now I in turn suggest them to mystery and non-mystery readers alike. I can't wait for the next book in this series. Hope if to won't be too long before it is published. Until then I can always reread both of these intriguing historcial mysteries.

Rating:
Summary: Dorothy, you're back......
Review: BIRDS OF A FEATHER, Jacqueline Winspear's second book in the Maisie Dobbs series is much better than her first book which was the best mystery I'd read in a while. In fact this second book is a masterpiece and an Anglophile's dream come true. As I was reading the book I thought to myself, Dorothy Sayers has been reincarnated and she has come back as Jacqueline Winspear. I read history as well as mysteries, particularly the history of England, and am fascinated with the early 20th Century.

Winspear includes a great deal of relevant historical information in her novels which makes me feel as if I am on a tour of England with a guide who knows her way around and can share all sorts of anecdotal information you will hear no where else. Her story is set the early 1930s and by default includes the late teens and 1920s as it covers the Great War and it's aftermath in retrospect. This period, as many readers know is approximately the period Dorothy Sayers covered in her masterpieces involving Lord Peter Wimsey who fought in France and was saved by Bunter the man who became his valet and chauffeur.

Time period and an appreciation of history are not the only similarities between these two authors. Winspear writes a complex and satisfying tale that involves a plot filled with verismilitude and characters so real you will swear she must be writing nonfiction. Maisie Dobbs is a woman you would like to know better and come to care a great deal about, just as Harriet Vanes was that woman, and although the two come from different class backgrounds they are both difficult to get to know because they carry the pain of having suffered personal tragedy involving a financé.

But Maisie Dobbs is far more complex than Harriet Vanes. Maisie had a tutor who taught her about aspects of the world Harriet never knew or understood. While Harriet (ala Sayers) sulked about the things that were not available to her as a female member of Virginia Woolfe's class, Maisie went out and made her way in the world, acquiring the education that did not come her way naturally as a female member of the `Downstairs' class.

Because she straddles two words-upstairs and downstairs-like Sherlock Holmes who disguised himself and went out and mixed with the common folk, Maisie has complex insights about the world around her. She recognizes the hard truth that many people suffer and that social justice is not available for all.

While you will probably enjoy this book, you won't like the 'birds of a feather' who ruined many lives and who are -- as one character observes -- a band of harpies. If you haven't read MAISIE DOBBS, read that book first and get to know Maisie before you tackle this book. You are in for a treat. May Winspear keep this character around for a long, long while.

Rating:
Summary: Maisie is a hard person to like . . .
Review: I was taken with Maisie Dobbs, the first book in this new series, not so much as a mystery novel but as a portrait of England, especially London, at the end of the 1920s and the lingering effects of the Great War on the survivors of that generation. Maisie is a sort of combination consulting detective, practical psychologist, and freelance social worker. She takes a holistic approach to her cases, insisting that everything, including all personal relationships, be wrapped up to her own satisfaction, not merely to the client's. Her methods often are what we would think of as New Age, and one almost expects her to begin quoting from Madame Blavatsky -- a part of her personality I could do without, frankly. This time, Maisie's looking for the thirty-year-old daughter of a grocery store magnate who has fled her father's mansion, and not for the first time. She eventually locates the young woman, who has sought refuge both from her father and from her own past, but she also comes to realize that the case is connected to a recent murder and another death which appears to be a suicide. And then a third woman dies gruesomely, and Maisie must protect her subject, who might be next on the killer's list. Again, it all goes back to the War, this time focusing on the "White Feather" girls, whose thoughtless pseudo-patriotism brought grief to many families, including that of Maisie's client, and also of her assistant, Billie Beale. There's more "mystery" in this installment than in the first book, but Maisie still grates a bit. She's awfully goody-goody and I suspect trying to be friends with her could be a trial. Still, I'll be looking forward to Winspear's next effort.

Rating:
Summary: 'Elp, 'Elp!
Review: If you're interested in reading a book where every character is a flaming stereotype, this is your cup of tea.

We have everything--the incapacitated lover, the crusty old dad, the Cockney employee with his wife and little nippers, the royal benefactress and the scholarly mentor. Maisie Dobbs, self-styled psychologist, meditation expert, investigator, and all-around know-it-all, has been hired to find the daughter of a successful London merchant.

Along the way, she manages to diagnose and solve her employee's little substance abuse problem, come to a new and enlightened understanding of her relationship with her father, share with us the quaint religious customs of "Dame Constance", and solve three murders! And all without eating anything!

If I've missed the point and this was written completely tongue-in-cheek, I'd have to give it a 5...Otherwise, give it a miss.

Rating:
Summary: delightful and charming between the great wars mystery
Review: It is more than fifteen years after the Great War ended and England is recovering even though the depression makes the division between the classes more noticeable. Masie Dobbs was lucky to find a patron who funded her studies in nursing and psychology. She served as a nurse in France where she was injured and her great love Simon came back from the war in a catatonic state that has not lifted since his return. Masie works as a private investigator, who uses meditation as a way of opening up her senses to the world around her. Although her methods of combining investigation with psychology are unusual, it always works.

Rich supermarket magnate Joseph Waite hires Masie to find his daughter Charlotte who has a habit of running away from home even if she is thirty-seven years of age. Masie deduces that she left the day she saw in the newspaper that one of her old friends from boarding school was murdered. Two more of Charlotte's former friends die and a white feather is found on or near each murder victim. Masie must find a way to keep Charlotte safe and bait a trap to catch the killer.

Readers will thoroughly enjoy this delightful and charming mystery and find themselves interested in the historical details of England between the wars. The protagonist is not a radical feminist but an independent person who believes that she is as capable as any man in her chosen profession. Although she has known much sorrow, she is a kind-hearted and generous person who cares about people, especially those who are suffering the aftereffects of WWI. BIRDS OF A FEATHER will definitely appeal to fans of great mysteries.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: delightful and charming between the great wars mystery
Review: It is more than fifteen years after the Great War ended and England is recovering even though the depression makes the division between the classes more noticeable. Masie Dobbs was lucky to find a patron who funded her studies in nursing and psychology. She served as a nurse in France where she was injured and her great love Simon came back from the war in a catatonic state that has not lifted since his return. Masie works as a private investigator, who uses meditation as a way of opening up her senses to the world around her. Although her methods of combining investigation with psychology are unusual, it always works.

Rich supermarket magnate Joseph Waite hires Masie to find his daughter Charlotte who has a habit of running away from home even if she is thirty-seven years of age. Masie deduces that she left the day she saw in the newspaper that one of her old friends from boarding school was murdered. Two more of Charlotte's former friends die and a white feather is found on or near each murder victim. Masie must find a way to keep Charlotte safe and bait a trap to catch the killer.

Readers will thoroughly enjoy this delightful and charming mystery and find themselves interested in the historical details of England between the wars. The protagonist is not a radical feminist but an independent person who believes that she is as capable as any man in her chosen profession. Although she has known much sorrow, she is a kind-hearted and generous person who cares about people, especially those who are suffering the aftereffects of WWI. BIRDS OF A FEATHER will definitely appeal to fans of great mysteries.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Great story
Review: This is one of the few mystery novels whose ending sent chills up my spine. I look forward to the next installment of the Maisie Dobbs saga.