“Journey to Munich” by Jacqueline Winspear – Into the Jaws of the Beast

 

Jacqueline Winspear has put Maisie Dobbs through the meat grinder of adventurism time and time again, sending her perhaps into the den of the most dangerous beast she has ever faced in Journey to Munich. 

Tasked with retrieving a British subject about to be released from prison in Dachau, Maisie must venture deep into Hitler's Germany, and her Secret Service has some ideas about the whole situation.

Jacqueline Winspear sends Maisie into the Secret Service

The Second World War, by virtue of its immense impact on the vast majority of the world, has largely overshadowed the complexity of the decade preceding it, when Europe teetered on the brink of war with an extremely uncertain sense of balance. In her Maisie Dobbs series, Jacqueline Winspear dedicated a great amount of effort to exploring this era, and Journey to Munich takes things one step further.

While it is indeed the twelfth book in the series, you are by no means obligated to read them in any particular order. Each one of them works perfectly as a standalone novel, and even though there is an overarching story to them, you're always given enough information to prevent any confusion from setting in.

In any case, the novel begins by taking us to 1938, right before the start of World War II, when relations between Great-Britain and Germany were rather strained and complex. A British subject is about to be released in Dachau, but only under the stipulation he be picked up be a family member of his.

With his actual family being unable to perform the deed for health-related reasons, the British Secret Service decides to send in Maisie Dobbs, largely due to her resemblance to the prisoner's daughter. And so, with nary a moment to gather her thoughts, she finds herself headed straight for the maw of the beast.

Naturally, the mission proves to be more problematic than originally anticipated, especially as Dobbs finds herself in Munich when the Anschluss takes place, and her nemesis rears his head, looking for help despite being responsible for the death of her husband. Maisie longs to return to her days of being a private eye, but as usual, the Secret Service has some other plans for her.

A Departure from the Formula in Journey to Munich

If you've been keeping up with the series and are acquainted with all the novels which came previously, then you're probably coming into this one expecting more of the same...which is to say, Maisie Dobbs solving mysteries with her psychological and detective skills. However, this time Jacqueline Winspear takes a slightly different road.

Rather than being a detective mystery (though these elements are still very much present here and there), the novel is more akin to a piece of historical fiction centred on the topic of espionage. More than an investigator, Maisie Dobbs is now a true agent of the Secret Service, with her capabilities being tremendously valued.

So how does Winspear fare with this new approach to things? For starters, it seemed to me as if the pace of the story didn't suffer one bit from it, perhaps even feeling more urgent than previously due to the vast ramifications of the historical events our beloved main character is living through.

Second, there is still plenty of mystery to go around, with Maisie being seldom, if ever certain about who she can trust and what sorts of schemes are being laid behind her back, even by her own superiors. I think the author captured rather succinctly the feelings of uncertainty and paranoia which I can't imagine not reigning supreme in the realm of espionage.

While I will admit I had the impression the author isn't as knowledgeable about spycraft as she is about the art of being a private investigator, I never found myself really having to suspend my disbelief. She still does all the necessary research, and there is definitely an overall accuracy to her portrayal of the craft, the kind you'd expect to find in a work of fiction.

The Forgotten Decade

Like I mentioned at the start of the review, the Second World War overshadowed the couple of decades preceding it, especially the 1930s, for how impactful of an event it ended up being. I certainly understand the need to study the bigger historical events with a higher level of priority, but understanding how we reached them in the first place is just as important.

As a little personal addendum, I am quite fond of literature shedding light on the decade this story takes place in; each and every entry plays its role in helping us understand how normal, educated and rational people got swept by a current which brought with it an unimaginable evil.

I believe I've mentioned this in my review of the previous book in the series (and perhaps in all of them, come to think of it), but Jacqueline Winspear is without a doubt one of the best writers of historical fiction of the twenty-first century. The amount of research she has conducted on the era of this novel is likely enough to land her a university degree in this field.

Nearly every single passage in this book contains some historical elements and details, ranging from small observations about how the streets looked and the clothing people used to wear, to the flow of social currents and the mentalities said people abided by. Everything comes together to form a memorable living tableau of Europe in the 1930s.

Most importantly, Winspear never loses sight of her ideology as a writer. As she says herself in the interview at the back of the book, “...the best thing a writer of historical fiction can do is to remember that you are a storyteller first and foremost.” All the historical details we're treated to serve the story in one way or another, which, I believe, is precisely what makes them so poignant.

The Final Verdict

Journey to Munich by Jacqueline Winspear is yet another powerful addition to the Maisie Dobbs series, successfully deviating from the tried-and-true formula to bring a story focused more on espionage than mystery, all while retaining the amazing wealth of historical details the series has become renowned for.

If you're looking for a historical fiction novel revolving around the politics and spycraft of late 1930s Europe, then I highly recommend you check this novel out.

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Jacqueline Winspear Personal 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.