Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Maisie Dobbs
Book Review: Bright woman investigates in post-war England
Summary: 3 Stars
Maisie Dobbs is a unique character. With the intelligence for bigger and greater things, she rises from a house maid to a university student. After getting caught in the private library of her employers, the eccentric Maurice Blanche teaches Maisie his worldly philosophy. Then World War I starts and she enlists as a nurse to the injured and dying English boys in France. After the war, she becomes an investigator and her first case unearths the hidden wounds of those who have experienced loss during the war. She also must face her own demons about the war. The prose was quite choppy at times with short chapters that provided the reader with more like a short glimpse, rather than a well developed storyline. Also the way Maisie disarms the villain is quite unrealistic, if not hokey. Finally, the ending seems too much like an afterthought.Book Review: Not Exactly Agatha Christie
Summary: 3 Stars
With its Art Deco type front and the word mystery liberally splattered across the jacket, I expected this to be a rival to the Poirot series. In that respect, I was mightily disappointed - the mystery (such as it is) is only evident at the beginning and the end of the book.However, I thoroughly enjoyed the middle portion, with its vivid detail and descriptions of Maisie's early years. Particularly evocative were the passages on the Great War and its long lasting effects on those who returned.
A slight annoyance was the cockernee chirpiness of some of the characters, who were a bit too Dick Van Dyke-ish for me. However, that alone would not put me off buying the next in the series.
Book Review: Not Exactly Agatha Christie
Summary: 3 Stars
With its Art Deco type front and the word mystery liberally splattered across the jacket, I expected this to be a rival to the Poirot series. In that respect, I was mightily disappointed - the mystery (such as it is) is only evident at the beginning and the end of the book.However, I thoroughly enjoyed the middle portion, with its vivid detail and descriptions of Maisie's early years. Particularly evocative were the passages on the Great War and its long lasting effects on those who returned.
A slight annoyance was the cockernee chirpiness of some of the characters, who were a bet to Dick Van Dyke-ish for me. However, that alone would not put me off buying the next in the series.
Book Review: The Debut of an Interwar Nancy Drew
Summary: 3 Stars
By rights, I'm just the right reader for this book: I love mysteries (especially British ones), I find WWI fascinating, I find the interwar era and the whole "upstairs-downstairs" British class stuff interesting. And yet...while mildly diverting and obviously well-researched, this first book in a series about a plucky young female investigator/psychologist really didn't work for me. It's written as if the intended readership were 10-14 year-old girls, which is fine, but as an adult, it's hard to find Nancy Drewish escapades of a flawless heroine all that fulfilling.The framework is a little unconventional (though not the disaster some reviewers make it out to be): the first part of the book introduces us to 20something Maisie Dobbs, just opening her business in London. Her first case is a classic assignment: a man who is worried his wife is cheating on him wants Maisie to check into it. As her investigation unfolds there are allusions to Maisie's past and a mysterious mentor, but nothing is spelled out. Suddenly, the story drifts back in time to 1910 or so, and we are reintroduced to a younger Maisie as she enters service as a housemaid for an aristocratic family. We follow dutifully along as her employers discover her reading Latin in the library and extend their patronage, allowing her to be tutored by their strange friend (and apparent spy) Maurice, and eventually supporting her bid to go to Cambridge (Girton College). Despite success at school, when World War I starts, she decides to join the Red Cross, and eventually serves as a nurse in France, where she witnesses the horror of war.
The final third of the book then shifts back the the postwar era, and Maisie's patron asks her help in a family matter. This all dovetails with her earlier case, as well as the war and the scars (psychic and physical) left by the war. The mystery isn't substantial enough to satisfy most fans of the genre, and anyone with any discernment is going to find the climax painfully bad. (All I'll say is that involves singing...) As a detective, Maisie isn't particularly compelling -- her technique is a mix of keen observation and psychology. However, she's even less compelling as a character. Maisie's one of those plucky underdogs designed to provoke maximum reader projection: born into semi-poverty, raised by single father, highly intelligent, uncommonly perceptive, always composed, humble, beloved by all, and possessing big violet eyes. She's the kind of character everyone likes to imagine they would be, had they lived in that time and been born into those circumstances. The supporting cast is fairly pat: vegetable-seller father (with a heart of gold), feisty upper-class patroness (with a heart of gold), prim butler (with a heart of gold), plump cook (with a heart of gold), Cockney handyman/sidekick (with a heart of gold), etc...
The book isn't bad (except for the climax, which is terrible), it's just not very satisfying for adult readers looking for complex characters and a meaty plot. It suffers from feeling very much like a book designed to establish setting and characters for a series. I may read onward in the series (the next two are Birds of a Feather and Pardonable Lies), but may wait for the inevitable BBC TV series this will spawn.
Book Review: Not what I had hoped for
Summary: 3 Stars
like the other reviewers I was really looking forward to this - but Maisie is just an unbelievable character. Everyone loves her - from the cheery cockneys selling flowers and dropping their aitches, to the toffs who naturally see her real worth despite her lowly station in life. Maisie is a private detective and the book starts with her setting up her agency and her first investigation. It sets the scene for how she worked her way up from being a maid to attending college - then abandoning her studies when war breaks out to be a nurse.
it feels like the author watched an episode of Upstairs Downstairs as research and then threw in a few other London landmarks in - they shop at Libertys, dull descriptions of underground routes. her method of detection taught by her mentor is at odds with what she actually detects -sure she writes every observation down but never actaully seems to use this in her detection.
I think this is english detective fiction written for americans - and wasnt suprised to see the author is now based n the US not terrible but not good enough that i would read another