Rating: 
Summary: A determined heroine and a fine series premise
Review: Set in 1929 and the first in a projected series featuring World War I nurse turned London private-eye Maisie Dobbs, Winspear's novel explores the lingering trauma suffered by mutilated war veterans. Initially taking on what seems to be an infidelity case, Maisie is lead to a home for convalescent veterans run by a man whose charisma seems mesmerizing. Beset by her own demons, Maisie is drawn to the place, curious about the men - most with devastating facial damage - who give up the world to live in this closed-off compound.While cult tactics are familiar to modern readers, Winspear does a good job of presenting Maisie's investigation as a tentative, but dogged foray into the unknown. Maisie is a careful, driven character with plenty of inner scarring from her own war experience. Winspear artfully presents the psychological effect the war had on its generation and the changes being wrought on society. Its flaws are a long middle section detailing Maisie's rise from lower-orders poverty, thanks to a titled benefactor and a wise mentor, and a jarring ending. But these are first-novel flaws, which won't stand in the way of a beguiling heroine and great series premise.
Rating: 
Summary: This needed a lot more work
Review: Set in 1929, in England, Maisie Dobbs is the first book in a series about a former housemaid/World War I nurse who sets up in the post-war years as a psychologist and private detective. The author obviously did a great deal of research as her attention to period detail is careful and quite good. Regretfully, she seems to have put the bulk of her efforts into her research, leaving little else for writing and story. The story is rather awkwardly divided into three chunks: in the first chunk, the reader is introduced to Maisie and a few of the people that make up her world. Her client arrives, provides her with the problem that will become the book's mystery and then... We come to a screeching halt as the second chunk is introduced: Maisie's backstory, her rise from the bright daughter of a humble costermonger to her time in service to an aristocratic family, to her education and subsequent attendance at Oxford and finally her time in France, tending the wounded during WWI. Then, once all this exposition is out of the way, it's back to the present (1929) and our mystery, which, if the author is lucky, her readers have not forgotten about. Once the mystery is resolved, a few loose ends from Maisie's backstory are tied up and everyone is happy. The problem with the way this book is constructed is that the introduction of what is basically a huge chunk of exposition brings the engine of this story to a complete stop. For more than 100 pages. This is never a good idea. It's okay to weave backstory into the plot a few pages at a time, over the course of the book, in fact, that method offers a lot of advantages. But to just completely drop the narrative thread for 100 pages and cram your main character's biography into the middle of an ongoing puzzle is to risk having your readers walk away in boredom. I know I almost did. The mystery itself is thin and its resolution left a lot to be desired. Most people will see it coming from a long way off. And like the mystery, I also found many of Maisie's interactions with the other characters to be pat and unsatisfying. Many scenes that should have had more depth and feeling to them seemed rushed. I had the feeling that I was reading a book that hadn't been written so much as it had been outlined. Those criticisms aside, I will say that the minor characters are, for the most part, very well rendered. I particularly liked Enid, Maisie's room-mate during her time in service. I can understand what the author did with Enid, because if the saucy red-headed maid had stuck around much longer, she'd have taken over completely. She was a much more interesting character than Maisie herself. Finally, I simply cannot see how Maisie Dobbs merited Edgar and Agatha nominations. While it has its interesting points, Maisie Dobbs is simply not of that caliber.
Rating: 
Summary: Enjoyable blend of romance, history and mystery
Review: The book got off to a little bit of a slow start, but once I got into the characters, I could not put it down. I loved this book and was so disappointed to finish the story. I particularly enjoyed the historical aspect and learning more about life during the period covered by the book (1913-1929). This may not be the best book for mystery lovers... I think it is stronger as a historical fiction with a touch of romance. I can't stop thinking about the sweet, sad ending... I was crying my eyes out while reading the last few pages!
Rating:
Summary: Whoosa, this is a good one, says Kat from Readerville.com
Review: The eponymous character is an anomaly of the time (housemaid made good so to speak) who, with the help of the kindly bourgeoisie, transcends her humble birth to become a psychologist-detective with experience as a nurse in WWI, a tragic lost love, schooling at Cambridge/Girton (before women were able to attain degrees) and so on. There's a mystery here, too, but mostly the story is Maisie's and she's terrific. The prose is redolent of its place and time and, even though Maisie may be a revisionist, she's most refreshingly wonderful if too pure and serious. Can't wait for the next Maisie mystery.
Rating:
Summary: Gosford Park Meets the English Patient
Review: While Maisie Dobbs is certainly less "literary" than "The English Patient," in the course of an entertaining, mystery-driven read, it gives us new perspectives on the impact of the Great War and the suffering it caused. Who knew that when maimed young men returned from the front, they were made uncomfortable by "normal" society and sought refuge in camps where they could be among their own? The book also introduces a character like no other. Maisie is a woman of her time in that she is riding the crest of change (the work women performed during the war changed things for her gender). But as a sleuth, she relies on her highly trained powers of intuition much like Sherlock Holmes relies on his ability to observe and deduce. Oh yeah, if you liked Gosford Park and Upstairs Downstairs, you'll eat up the back story in this book, which tells of Maisie's early life below stairs and occupies a large portion of the story in flashback. In all, Maisie Dobbs is a charmer and a page turner that leaves one wishing it was a hundred pages longer.
Rating:
Summary: A good read but not a great mystery
Review: Winspear's Maisie Dobbs is a rather predictable and perhaps a bit juvenile. But it is well written and if the reader does not come to the book with great expectations, they will likely find themselves pleasantly entertained. Maisie faces great odds but overcomes them, owning up that she gets very tired sometimes and even once or twice, a bit cranky. A bit too Horatio Alger with a dash of Dudley Do-Right, but still entertaining particularly for the distaff audience.
An excellent but less charitable earlier review mentioned that the construction of the plot involves a large section of exposition that is simply background and does not advance the mystery in any way. While this is quite true, I have come to like the author's audacity in using a non-forumalic construction. While it might not pass muster at a writers workshop, the author constructs the story as she sees fit, and does so in a way that keeps you reading. It is not perfect, but it is perfectly readable. The price of this is the pacing of the mystery portion of the story. But it is not so great a mystery after all.
The procedural aspects are pleasant, with a very feminine viewpoint, and some eye for the little details. While I may not purchase another of the Dobbs series novels, I think many people will.
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