Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Maisie Dobbs
Book Review: Somebody give this girl a flaw!
Summary: 3 Stars
Pluses: Great setting, nice detailed descriptions, insightful exploration of the psychological damage done to both soldiers and civilians by the Great War. Some humorous dialogue. A heroine that I couldn't help liking (because what's not to like)?
Minuses: Totally unrealistic characters -- everyone is entirely perfect except the bad guy. Even Maisie, who is supposedly made "vulnerable" by her sensitivity to others' emotions and her memories of the war, channels that vulnerability into an irritating ability to know exactly what people are thinking and what the best response to any given situation will be. And she's brilliant and good-looking (if not precisely beautiful) too, of course.
There isn't much of a mystery here either, though it reads fine as a novel. I will probably read at least one more book in the series, to see whether Maisie develops a few other sides to her character. (Maybe she has a secret shoplifting habit!) I hate to give up on such a promising premise, but the execution (forgive the expression) leaves a lot to be desired.
Book Review: Lighthearted But Top-Rate Writing
Summary: 5 Stars
I have become an instant Maisie Dobbs fan, to the extent that I ordered copies of older titles through Amazon.com. It combines mystery and suspense with humane sensitivity and a touch of the supernatural. The research appears to be excellent and the writing style is marvelous. Highly recommended.Book Review: Delightful but flawed...
Summary: 3 Stars
Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear is a delightful first novel, but it is not without some flaws. Winspear provides us with a new niche in the mystery genre, and I bet the Dobbs series will get better with each book.
Maisie Dobbs opens in 1929, when Dobbs opens her own private investigative office. One of her first cases is a gentleman who believes his wife is having an affair. Instead, Dobbs discovers that the wife has been traveling twice a week to a cemetery. There, she mourns over the grave of a World War I soldier. He was terribly disfigured in the war and died on a "farm" called The Retreat, which is run by a former soldier for other men who were maimed in the war. His headstone contains only a surname, which seems strange to Dobbs.
Winspear then flashes back to 1910-1917. Frankie Dobbs, Maisie's dad, is a costermonger--selling fresh vegetables from a cart. When his wife dies, Maisie is just thirteen. Frankie convinces his daughter to go to work as a domestic for one of his customers, Lady Rowan. Dobbs is a very bright girl, and soon steals into the library at night to read. When she is discovered, Lady Rowan realizes her potential. She has Dobbs privately tutored and then sends her to Cambridge. When World War I begins, she takes a leave from college to serve as an army nurse.
Winspear then returns to the present, where Dobbs believes that something sinister is going on at The Retreat. She enlists the help of a number of characters including Lady Rowan, Maurice Blanche (her tutor and mentor) and Billy Beale (a former soldier and caretaker of her building).
I enjoy British mysteries and Maisie Dobbs gives us a peak at the old-time English class structure. It's also interesting to read about how people dealt with World War I and its aftermath. This was also a time of great change as both the war and the suffrage movement empowered women. It was also becoming possible for servants to better themselves and move into more meaningful jobs. But Maisie Dobbs suffers from a number of problems. First, the story is very slow to develop. There are also big gaps in Maisie's history, although maybe it was intentional and Winspear is saving material for later books. And without spoiling the story, the ending was totally hokey.
Still, the Maisie Dobbs series has great potential and I already have book number two, Birds of a Feather, up on deck.
Book Review: Charming Historical Whodunnit
Summary: 4 Stars
In many ways, this book was a delightful blend of "Brideshead Revisited" and an Agatha Christie mystery. Maisie Dobbs is a terrific character. She is complex without ever being pompous and Winspear throws her into a difficult social conundrum that she may never escape from. The book's moments of levity are balanced by some bleak truths about war, and I admire the depth that these darker passages brought to the narrative as a whole. I plan to read the rest of the books in this series. Book Review: a very linear and slow story
Summary: 3 Stars
I came across this title due to the fact that it was one of five finalists for the Edgar award a couple of years back. The Edgar is a prestigious award for the best 'mystery' of the year. However, more than half of Maisie Dobbs is not a mystery but a fictional memoir of a young Brittish lass who over comes hardships to find a position of status despite the long odds against her. I could have done without any of this. Its a long tedious flash back and I have read it all before. In summation, the 60% middle of the book is written without panache and little inspiration.
However, the saving grace of this book, is the beginning and end, where a slight mystery unfolds. In this part of the book, Maisie is a mature woman with a gift of insight into others that is breath taking. I would love to read a book that has this character delving into the minds of her contemporaries. Maisie uses psychology to both solve problems and heal wounds of people who dont quite understand one another. I would give the start and end of this book five stars. Its well worth reading this as a novella or long short story. I would suggest that you read the start, and if you grow tired of Maisies life story like I did, flip through the pages until you are once again in the midst of events unfolding in the stories present tense.
I look forwards to reading more Winspear books. This is not a great one, but parts of the story are good enough to leave one longing for more, which is a good sign.