Quick Book Reviews Blog

  Short Summary Jacqueline Winspear has turned Maisie Dobbs into an essential instrument of national security in her eponymous long-standing series, and in the seventeenth instalment, titled A Sunlit Weapon , she plays a role in safeguarding the First Lady of the United States, Eleanor Roosevelt. Following a couple of attacks on British pilots, Maisie is called upon by her friend to lend a hand in wild investigation setting her on the trail of a deadly conspiracy ripe for execution.

  Short Summary Jacqueline Winspear has forced Maisie Dobbs through a number of war-time trials and murder investigations, cementing her as the best detective in Occupied Europe. In the latest novel of the Maisie Dobbs series, The Consequences of Fear , Maisie is pushed to investigate a dangerous murderer with deep-seated motivations going all the way back to the First World War.

  Jacqueline Winspear has sent Maisie Dobbs chasing after many threads connecting to the Second World War over the course of the series, and in the fifteenth novel, The American Agent , she investigates the strange murder of an American war correspondent during the Blitz in London.  Though the act is concealed by British authorities, the case finds its way into Maisie's lap, and with the help of an agent from the US Department of Justice, they try to unravel the mystery as death rains upon the country in the form of German bombers.

  Jacqueline Winspear has certainly turned Maisie Dobbs into a recognizable landmark in the modern detective genre, and in the fourteenth book of the series, titled To Die but Once , the beloved heroine returns to action in the months following Britain's declaration of war on Germany. This time she is tasked with tracing the disappearance of a young apprentice who happened to be working on a very sensitive government contract.

Jacqueline Winspear has dragged Maisie Dobbs through a number of life-changing investigations, and in the thirteenth book of the series, In This Grave Hour , she only ups the ante by taking us to September 3rd, 1939, when Britain declares war on Germany. In the midst of bombings and threats of invasion, Maisie is tasked with investigating a series of killings targeting those dispossessed from the previous war.

  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 has subjected Maisie Dobbs to more life experiences than most of us could ever imagine or wish for, and in the eleventh book in The Maisie Dobbs series, titled A Dangerous Place , she returns for another round of intrigue. Finding herself in Gibraltar, Maisie becomes embroiled into a web of political intrigue following the murder of a photographer.

Jacqueline Winspear doesn't seem to run short on sordid adventures for the private eye Maisie Dobbs, and in the tenth book of the series, Leaving Everything Most Loved , she delves into London's Indian immigrant community. An Indian gentleman hires Maisie to find out who killed his sister two months ago, a case which turns truly alarming when another body is suddenly added to the pile.

Jacqueline Winspear has made a unique little nest in the mystery genre for her detective heroine, Maisie Dobbs, setting her cases during the uncertain time between the two World Wars.  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 has taken Maisie Dobbs on a great journey through her numerous investigations, and in the eighth book, A Lesson in Secrets , Maisie ascends ever further into her profession as a detective, taking on an assignment for the British Secret Service.  The mission places her undercover as a professor at Cambridge in order to investigate the troubling emergence of the Nazi party.

Jacqueline Winspear has taken Maisie Dobbs on one original journey after the next as an investigator in 1930s London, and in The Mapping of Love and Death she finds yet another quest worthy of the heroine's prowess.  Hired by the parents of a young man whose remains were just unearthed after years of being missing in action, Maisie is tasked with finding the nameless nurse whose love letters were among his belongings, setting on the path of a dangerous wartime story.

Jacqueline Winspear has turned Maisie Dobbs into a true mainstay of the murder mystery genre, and her sixth novel in the series, titled Among the Mad , looks to raise the stakes a bit.  This time around, Maisie is racing against the clock to find the blackmailer of the prime minister's office, whose threats include the perpetration of a murder on a massive scale should their demands not be met.

Jacqueline Winspear will hopefully never run out of mysteries for Maisie Dobbs to solve, and in the fifth book of the series, titled An Incomplete Revenge , she sends her out into a not-so-quaint countryside. Tasked by her friend to investigate matters around a land purchase in a village in Kent, Maisie finds upon her arrival something strange and sinister at work, with mysterious fires and thefts popping up with alarming regularity.

Looking back on our entire history as a whole, I think it's safe to say artists have often had it pretty rough, and not only in terms of their ability to make money. Time and time again across continents, artists have drawn the ire of the poor and wealthy alike for the expression of their ideas and observations, often a little too close to the truth for comfort.

Jacqueline Winspear will likely never run out of adventures to send her beloved Maisie Dobbs on, and in Pardonable Lies she sends her to solve a mystery pulling her back into the First World War. A deathbed plea leads Maisie on the search of a pilot, Ralph Lawton, whose disappearance and supposed death in the war never convinced his mother. As she digs through the ruins of the past, she unearths dangers and answers in equal measure.

Jacqueline Winspear created with the Maisie Dobbs series a goose which still lays golden eggs to this very day. In the second novel of the series, titled Birds of a Feather , Maisie is hired during the Spring of 1930 to locate a runaway heiress. What at first promises to be a walk in the park turns into a grim massacre as three of old friends of the heiress are found murdered. With there obviously being some connection between the two events, Maisie sets out on a path bound to take her into the everlasting tragedy of the First World War.

Jacqueline Winspear probably didn't know she would start writing the series which defines her today with her first Maisie Dobbs novel, but it's a path which has certainly given life to many interesting stories. In this debut published back in 2014, we are introduced to the eponymous private investigator as she returns to her hometown in 1929, taking on two cases. The first one revolves around a suspiciously complex infidelity, and second one around a closed WWI veterans' retreat.