“Elegy for Eddie” by Jacqueline Winspear – Drawn Back into Childhood
In the ninth book of the series, titled Elegy for Eddie, Maisie finds herself drawn into the investigation of the supposed accidental death of a childhood friend of hers. Needless to say, the case screams of murder rather than accident.
Jacqueline Winspear Brings Maisie Back into the Past
While there are many good book series in existence, few of them have the ability to carry their quality on a consistent basis, especially if there is no end in sight. In my opinion, Jacqueline Winspear accomplished this amazing feat, a testament to her talent, with the Maisie Dobbs Mysteries series, the ninth book of which we'll be looking at today, titled Elegy for Eddie.
Before proceeding further, it isn't necessary to have read any of the previous novels to enjoy or understand this one; each one works perfectly on its lonesome. If you'd like to, you can take a look at our reviews of the previous novels, including A Lesson in Secrets and The Mapping of Love and Death.
Moving on to our current subject, Maisie is trying to run her detective agency in a country still reeling from the First World War, and quite terrified of a second one. With Hitler's rise to power, tensions are only escalating ever-higher. However, what's to come in the near future is neither here nor there (for the moment), as Maisie finds herself drawn into a rather personal case.
A street peddler has apparently suffered an accidental death, with nothing out of the ordinary on the surface. However, said peddler was a childhood friend of Maisie's, and what's more, it seems to our investigator his death was anything but an accident.
Following the trail of clues, rumours, witnesses, and evidence, Maisie finds herself wandering back into the working class neighbourhoods from her own childhood and once again meeting the people who made up a giant segment of her past. Though the country may lie in a state of relative ruin and on the brink of another conflict, few things can actually stop Maisie from closing her cases.
An Exposition of True Character in Elegy for Eddie
If you've read any of the previous novels in the series, then you're likely aware of Jacqueline Winspear's proficiency for focusing on her characters and their development above anything else. For fans of her approach, such as myself, I'm glad to announce she really hit an impressive stride in this one.
While in the previous books we did learn about who Maisie Dobbs is, there always remained many questions about who Maisie Dobbs was before she made her entrance as one of England's most remarkable detectives.
In Elegy for Eddie, Winspear manages to weave the investigation and Maisie's past into a single thread, with both elements complementing each other more often than not. We get to see who her friends and family were and where she came from all while advancing the investigation at the centre of the entire story.
We also learn quite a bit about the peripheral characters, even the ones who don't really have much to do with the mystery. There are moments where it feels like the plot does slow down in favour of characterization, but Jacqueline Winspear is such a talented wordsmith I never minded those passages even for a moment.
Additionally, all these characters who don't play a huge part in the investigation do have an important role in helping us understand where Maisie's outlook on life comes from, why she feels and thinks the way she does.
In other words, we delve much deeper into our heroine's psyche than ever before, and I believe the author did a fantastic job at making her inner world feel nuanced and realistic. There are definitely things to love and dislike about her, and together those different parts of her combine into a human being I think we can all relate to on some level.
The Eclipse of the Looming War
As I mentioned it earlier, the story in this novel takes place during Hitler's rise to power; Winspear has always maintained a strong element of historical fiction in the series, and this outing proves to be no exception.
We don't get an outright exposition of how exactly everything unfolded, a job better left to actual historical textbooks. Instead, Winspear has a greater preoccupation with conveying to us the general atmosphere and psychology of the times, relaying how the people felt and the kinds of thoughts they had in the moment.
I found she did a remarkable job at portraying Great Britain during the precarious and relatively terrifying period between the two World Wars, making me appreciate the kind of pressure and tension the people had to deal with on a daily basis.
As you might expect, there are some darker and heavier themes discussed along the way, but they're handled with class and care as usual. Most notably, we see how people can be pushed towards a truly engulfing inner darkness by the social, economic, environmental and political factors of their times. In turn, this also gives the villains a welcome layer of complexity when they arrive on-stage.
Being a piece of historical fiction, the main case of Eddie's strange death does tie into the political context of the period in some fashion, and for these few overlaps between truth and fiction you will probably have to suspend your disbelief a little bit... especially when the events begin to mesh with Winston Churchill himself.
However, I think the overall result and the many accurate historical elements do afford Jacqueline Winspear a good amount of leeway in this department, especially since she has shown a great understanding for how to delicately address more sensitive subjects.
The Final Verdict
Elegy for Eddie by Jacqueline Winspear is a superb continuation of the series, meeting the same high quality standards as all the works before it. Taking us back to Maisie's past as well as an extremely turbulent time in recent history, the investigation is never short on twists and turns carrying real surprises.
If you've enjoyed the series up until now, or are looking for a historical fiction murder mystery set during a rather unique and underexplored time, then I wholeheartedly recommend you give this novel a shot.
 | Jacqueline WinspearPersonal site Jacqueline Winspear is a mystery author hailing from the United Kingdom, best-known for writing the Maisie Dobbs Series, taking place after WWI and following the titular inspector's investigations across over fourteen books at this point. The first novel in the series, Maisie Dobbs, earned her numerous award nominations, Such as the Edgar Award for Best Novel and the Agatha Award for Best First Novel. Additionally, she was also a finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize in 2015. |
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