“Leaving Everything Most Loved” by Jacqueline Winspear – Obscured Victims in the Metropolis
Jacqueline Winspear Delves into the Realm of Outsiders
The city of London has always stood out as one of the capitals of the world, so to speak, a city tales about which reached around the globe for centuries upon centuries. However, it has also gone through its fair share of strife, crime, poverty and discrimination, and in Jacqueline Winspear's Leaving Everything Most Loved, Maisie Dobbs dives right into the city's immigrant realm.
More precisely, while Maisie is struggling with some aspects of her personal life in the Depression-era London of 1933, she receives a call from Scotland Yard which draws her attention to more important and Earthly matters than her own happiness. As she has become so accustomed to hearing over her life, there has been a murder, and the police are getting nowhere with their investigation.
The victim in question is a young Indian immigrant, Usha Pramal, and the clues really are far and few in-between, with the circumstances of her death being rather mysterious in their nature. Her brother has just arrived from India to seek justice for her death, and he sees Maisie as his last hope for some kind of closure on the case.
In order to find the answers she seeks, Maisie will have to dive into London's Indian immigrant culture, largely comprised of people who have fallen between the cracks and are left to fend for their own interests... despite being victims of mass colonization. As it turns out, she might even have to go further back into Usha's biography to find the elusive motive for the murder, all the way back to her homeland.
As if the investigation on her shoulders wasn't enough, Maisie is also trying to decide on the fate of her private eye practice, in relation to her aristocratic lover who wants her to close it down in order to move in with him. Not an easy choice to make, especially considering how much her useful assistants, Billy and Sandra, have come to depend on her... like so many others have in a destitute London.
The Overlooked Class in Leaving Everything Most Loved
With this already being the tenth novel in the Maisie Dobbs series, it's a little hard to believe Jacqueline Winspear can still find unexplored areas of Depression-era London for us to visit, but she has succeeded in doing so once again. Taking a break from the more traditional characters of the city, we're taken deep into the Indian immigrant community.
First off, I do want to say Winspear has evidently done a tremendous amount of research on the subject, and her portrayal of these characters doesn't come across as having any sort of agenda. She does her best to impartially relay the historical information she has accumulated on the time period, and I think she succeeded at keeping everything historically-believable.
With this being said, I was quite interested to see how close we would get to this group of people and their culture, being in a bit of a unique situation compared to most other Londoners. While I'm certain there are more depths to this subject than a novel would allow us to explore, I thought Winspear had quite a few interesting details about morals, values and cultures to share with us.
Naturally, the investigation itself is coloured by the setting it's taking place in, and I found the author made good use of unusual elements to keep the plot fresh and the developments in it unexpected. I'm certain there are many among you who will indeed feel at home in the world she's taking us into, but to me it felt unfamiliar enough to the point where I didn't really know what to expect from the plot.
Additionally, I would just like to mention I really enjoyed how Jacqueline Winspear added another layer of intrigue with a secondary investigation conducted by Maisie's underling, Billy Beale. It tied in quite cleverly into the main story and adds a welcome bit of intrigue to the whole thing.
The Great Social Gap
For those of you who are familiar with the Maisie Dobbs novels, I think it won't come as a surprise the novel has additional major elements besides the investigation. Namely, Winspear takes a rather close look at the various dynamics in play in Depression-era London, more often than not focusing on the class division which reigned supreme.
We get a thorough exposition of how the Indian immigrants are systematically segregated from the rest of the population, and how they were pushed away into slums and out of sight from the other parts of society. It becomes all the more stinging when you realize such practices are far from being left in the past century, even if they're not performed as overtly anymore.
Besides this, I thought Jacqueline Winspear did an excellent job at describing and illustrating the gap between social classes through Maisie Dobbs, and just how extremely it divided the rich and the poor. As someone who was able to cross the gap with the help of her unexpectedly rich lover, we are privy to her discomfort with the situation, and her sorrow for those who didn't get as lucky as her.
Of course, in this portrayal of a less-than-stellar London we are inevitably treated to some heavier subject matter and moments of violence. Thankfully though, they're never out of place, and most importantly, they always have a reason for being, something I unfortunately cannot say for every novel out there.
Thankfully, the cultural and historical excursions we are treated to never put a halt to the investigation or the progress of the story, instead adding small details and layers which we can ultimately put together to form a complete picture of the case at hand.
The Final Verdict
Leaving Everything Most Loved by Jacqueline Winspear is an excellent addition to the Maisie Dobbs series, this time taking us on a murder investigation in the realm of Indian immigrants in Depression-era London, all while treating us to the captivating historical context the series has become known for. If you've enjoyed the previous books, or are looking for a book which blends historical fiction and murder mystery, then I highly recommend you give this book a read.
 | 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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