Maisie Dobbs: A Novel

Rating:
Summary: First of a proposed series
Review: A new sleuth is on the scene. Jacqueline Winspear's character, Maisie Dobbs, is a girl to watch. Set in the post-WWI era (with flashbacks to Maisie's pre-war childhood, housemaid, and Cambridge years), MD is a good piece of social commentary as the times, they are a-changin'. As the first of a proposed series, it's a good setup for what is sure to follow: more crime solving based on psychology and delicate sleuth work. The primary case in this book deals with The Retreat, a refuge for deformed and otherwise damaged war veterans that may or may not be a cult. While the story line is good, the outcome is predictable, and the main character is marred by an excess of goodness. Everyone loves her, she is loyal to those who helped here climb the class/social ladder along the way, she has no known enemies, and she has no visible weaknesses or faults. We could use a little depth of character here.

Rating:
Summary: The Best In A Decade
Review: Brash statement, huh?
I am an inveterate reader of mysteries (wrote a few myself) and I am greatly disappointed in most writers, except Colin Dexter (not writing any more) Reginald Hill (still the Master) and Dennis Lehane (too changeable, suddenly but with the sharpest typewriter among American Mystery authors).
It is great to pick up a book and from the first sentence get an a prickly feeling, this is it!
Yes, it is fantasy (no, not SF)with a very short list of characters-the entire book is half what the usual overwriters produce today- with great punch and depth. One does not have to write pages to convey what a character feels. Maisie is 14 when her mother dies and her father, another fairy tale character, takes loving care of her. And Lady Rowan, and Maurice Blanche. The midnight reading of the great books in the library, and still get up early morning to do the chores, the feeling of inevitable success are all conveyed in short incidents.
There are three parts to the story: a short beginning with a whimsical mystery about a suspicious husband, and Maisie establishes her pro-feminine character in no uncertain way (shades of Cordelia Gray). The second and the most moving part, exqusitely written, is an Upstairs Downstairs story that culminates in the Great War, and unlike Bulldog Drummond, portrays an honest and perhaps the best short poignant description of the sufferings put between covers. The third part is another investigation, this time directly the result of the war.
You finish the book with a great sigh of satisfaction. Writing like this has not been in print since Ms. Dorothy L Sayers.
Good luck, Ms. Winspear! I am holding on to the next book for a nice Indian Summer weekend, to enjoy.


Rating:
Summary: A lovely addition to the mystery genre
Review: I am not a fan of historical mysteries; perhaps because the few I have read have not been that well written and/or researched. This novel is a welcome exception.

Winspear writes with a talent for bringing her characters and in particular, Maisie Dobbs to life. She also invokes the reality, the pain and the savagery of the First World War. It was indeed a savage, wrenching experience for those that lived through it and it never hurts to be reminded of the dreadful results of war. The recognition of the awful wounds resulting from it is a bitter reminder of the price paid by so many soldiers that were "lucky" enough to survive the war.

Maisie is bright, ambitious and almost too good. There is just a tad too much of the angel brushed over her. But this remains a good read. The ending is easily predicted by the expert mystery fan but, that being said, this is an engrossing, entertaining read.

I found the writing around the war particularly compelling so I am curious to see her next book and whether she is able to sustain the same interest without the historical addition of the war


Rating:
Summary: Rave reviews???
Review: I bought this based on the rave reviews it received. But the book was so predictable and incredulous! At one point, I wanted to stop reading it altogether.

If her next book is anything similar, I will not buy it.



Rating:
Summary: Deserves the accolades it has received
Review: In England, 1929, Maisie Dobbs sets herself up as a private investigator in London. Previously she has worked as a housemaid, as well as a nurse during the Great War in France. The country is still reeling from the shock of the catastrophic loss of almost a whole generation of young men. Her first case involves a man who suspects his wife of infidelity. Investigation of the case leads Maisie to The Retreat, a convalescent home for severely wounded soldiers. However, things at The Retreat are not all that they seem to be.
Jacqueline Winspear manages to lend a strong sense of reality to the historical setting of her debut novel. Interestingly, the construction of the novel is in three parts. The first part introduces us to the heroine and her first investigation. The second part of the book takes us back ten years before the war and Maisie's upward mobility from the position of a housemaid to student to nurse. While part three concerns the matter related to The Retreat. Without a doubt the strength of the book is the vivid realism of the descriptions of the people and places of England between the wars. Not since Charles Todd created his wonderful Rutledge series have we been treated to such an auspicious and original new historical series of this time period. The book's major weakness is the tepid and predictable mystery of The Retreat.
This is a book that will receive much accolades and should be on the short list of all the major awards. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: A promising series opener
Review: Jacqueline Winspear's historical mystery Maisie Dobbs begins in 1929, just over ten years after the end of the Great War, when its eponymous protagonist takes on her first case as an independent "cerebral investigator." Maisie's client comes to her with an ostensibly straightforward domestic problem, but the case leads Maisie into a greater mystery involving a home for disfigured veterans--a path that leads Maisie also to reexamine her own war-time experiences.

In a lengthy digression from her "modern" mystery in the book's midsection, Maisie's past is fleshed out. The daughter of a costermonger, Maisie went into service in 1910, at the age of thirteen, in the home of a woman who would become her benefactress. Maisie was tutored by a friend of her employer's, a Yoda-like character who spouted Eastern wisdom and taught his protégée a sort of holistic approach to detection. Later, after a brief stint at Cambridge, Maisie served as a nurse in the blood and muck of France and was courted by a charming doctor with whom she had danced once in England prior to shipping out. When the book's narrative returns to Maisie's present what we now know of her past renders her experiences in 1929 more poignant.

Maisie Dobbs is a nicely written book and a gentle read, despite its subject matter. In large part the book is successful, though Maisie's apparent ability to understand the emotions of others by adopting their posture strains credibility. The character of Maisie's tutor too, the seemingly omniscient Maurice Blanche, does not quite come to life. More literary than genre fiction--if one is to categorize the book by those unspecific terms--Maisie Dobbs does not in fact offer a compelling mystery. Its focus is rather on the characters Winspear is introducing and on recreating the feel of the period between the wars, in showing, in particular, the effect the First World War had on those who lived through it. But with this back story established in this first book, it will be interesting to see how the Maisie Dobbs mystery series proceeds, whether our heroine's powers of detection will be tested in subsequent installments by mysteries sufficiently gripping to carry a book themselves.

Debra Hamel -- book-blog reviews
Author of Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan's Scandalous Life in Ancient Greece

Rating:
Summary: Bright woman investigates in post-war England
Review: Maisie Dobbs has so much potential. With the intelligence for bigger and greater things, she rises from a house maid to a university student. After getting caught in the private library of her employers, the eccentric Maurice Blanche teaches Maisie his worldly philosophy. Then World War I starts and she enlists as a nurse to the injured and dying English boys in France. After the war, she becomes an investigator and her first case unearths the hidden wounds of those who have experienced loss during the war. She also must face her own demons about the war. The prose was quite choppy at times with short chapters that provided the reader with felt more like a short glimpse, rather than a developed storyline. Also the way Maisie disarms the villain is quite unrealistic, if not hokey. Finally, the ending seems a bit forced. I would bet it was added only in retrospect to allow Maisie to feel personally connected to the subject of her investigation.

Rating:
Summary: Good read, but a bit too neat around the edges...
Review: Maisie Dobbs was a pretty good vacation read for me. But, on reflection, I feel a bit let down by it.

Foremost, the central mystery is no mystery. If you've read detective fiction before, you'll spot it a mile off.

The novel tells the tale of a predictibly plucky heroine who pulls herself up by the bootstraps aided by a loving father (who is the perfect manifestation of Electra complex wish fulfillment), an intellectual mentor, and a benevolent suffragette patroness. She conquers the rigors of philosophy and qualifies for Cambridge's Girton College in her spare time as a char-woman. She becomes a war nurse and (you guessed it) has a tragic love-affair...

The book feels like it was written by a focus group of 18-49 year old female mystery readers. It fails not in giving them everything they might want in a mystery: period detail, flawless heroine, romantic complication, fantasy father, etc.

My chief complaint is all this neatness; of the characters and the conflicts. Maisie is completely laudable and seems not to have a flaw. Her relationship with her father is pat; as are the relationships between Lady Rowan and Lord Julian, Maisie and Billy, and most of the other characters. A little conflict and some ambiguity would have made the characters and their relationships more believable and more compelling. (The final plot surprise which does present some complexity seems, if anything, underwritten... a bit tacked-on.)

While perhaps not failing a focus group's directives, the novel does fail to give readers who appreciate more ambiguity and creativity (even in their crime fiction) what they might appreciate. (NB: If you're interested in the time period and want heartier fare, try Pat Barker's Regeneration Trilogy.)

All that aside, I visited Amazon today to read the reviews of the 2nd Maisie Dobbs novel Birds of a Feather. The reviewers say it's better than Maisie Dobbs, so I'll likely give it a try; but by borrowing it from the library. Ms. Winspear hasn't proven worth the investment yet.

Rating:
Summary: The Start of a Beautiful Friendship!
Review: Never much of a mystery reader, in the last number of years I have been introduced to two wonderful female detectives of sorts. One was Fremont Jones, a private detective based in San Francisco at the turn of the century and the heroine of a series written by Dianne Day. The other was Mma Ramotswe from the Alexander McCall Smith mystery series set in Botswana, Africa. While I enjoyed the mystery angles of both series, it was the women and their personalities, the geographical areas where they lived and the historical times which intrigued me so greatly. And as much as I loved these books, I remember thinking that I most likely would never find another female character from this genre who would appeal to me in quite the same way. But then I didn't know that very shortly I would meet up with the most intriguing character of all, one Maisie Dobbs from the book with the same title by Jacqueline Winspear. And as I said in the title of this review, I just know this is the beginning of a wonderful friendship.

We first meet Maisie Dobbs in 1929 when she is moving into her first office in London. A private detective, Maisie has been tutored and apprenticed by a Dr. Maurice Blanche who is highly regarded in London's social circles.

Her first case seems rather ordinary when a man suspects his wife of cheating on him. Following the woman in question, Maisie finds a lady mourning a childhood friend killed during W.W.I. But more than that Maisie also uncovers a rather sinister plot involving a farmhouse used as a retreat for men unable to rejoin society. Called the Retreat it holds the answer to why certain war heroes met untimely deaths while living at the Retreat.

While this book is considered a misery it almost takes a back seat to the main character for as we turn the pages we learn more and more about Maisie and her circumstances. In a series of flashbacks we first meet Maisie at 13 when her mother has died and her father, a costermonger, has no money left for Maisie's education due to the medical expenses for his wife. Maisie's father then finds a job for her as a scullery maid in the home of Lady Compton, a wealthy woman and suffragette. While working in this large London home, Maisie soon finds a wonderful library which appeals to her sense of learning. When she is found there one night by her employer while poring over a book, Lady Compton arranges for Maisie to be tutored over a period of years, then paying for her to attend Girton, the women's school from Cambridge. But then war intervenes and the book takes a different turn as Maisie faces World War I working as a field nurse and learns about both the joys and sorrows of a first love.

I so enjoyed this book that I literally gulped it down. I found that Ms. Winspear offered her readers a wonderful glimpse into the world of London before, during and after W.W.I. From the drawing rooms of the wealthy homes to the life of a young nurse, I felt as though I was in London during these times, not reading in the year 2005. But more than anything I love learning about Maisie's life which was also laid out as a misery till the final pages revealed an important piece of the puzzle.

I must say that I might never have read this book had it not been for the recommendation of a dear online friend. So not only do I thank Ms, Winspear for writing this book, I also thank my friend for reading this and passing along the recommendation. And now that I've finished Maisie Dobbs I can't wait to read the second book in this series, Birds of a Feather. I only hope that the next book will be as good as the first one. Something tells me it will be. And then I will anxiously wait for the next book by this talented and gifted author.

Rating:
Summary: Awkward and Unconvincing, Yet Endearing...
Review: One wants so much to applaud Maisie Dobbs -- both the book and its eponymous heroine. There's no question that the author's heart is in the right place; it's equally clear that she's done exhaustive research. Still, innumerable details of Edwardian costume and 1920's technology are no substitute for real atmosphere, and here Maisie Dobbs, the book, badly lets down Maisie Dobbs, the plucky investigator.

Whether describing the drawing room of the novel's admirable Lady Rowan or the traumatic history that has taken a housemaid through the trenches of World War I France and on to her own, indubitably genteel, offices in London, the novel rarely moves beyond the surface, while the vague underpinnings of Maisie's investigative philosophy, provided by her mentor, the mysterious Maurice Blanche, are sadly equally inert.

One ends up idly paging through Maisie Dobbs, wishing, perhaps, that instead of leading her own novel she had turned up as a subsidiary character in some other setting, say as a visitor to the Bellamys on Eaton Place in "Upstairs, Downstairs" or a guest at Louisa Trotter's louche hotel on "The Duchess of Duke Street." The air of Masterpiece Theatre is faint but ever-present, and one feels the character would have been better served by giving in to it!