Maisie Dobbs

Maisie Dobbs isn t just any young housemaid. Through her own natural intelligence and the patronage of her benevolent employers she works her way into college at Cambridge. When World War I breaks out, Maisie goes to the front as a nurse. It is there that she learns that coincidences are meaningful and the truth elusive. After the War, Maisie sets up on her own as a private investigator. But her very first assignment, seemingly an ordinary infidelity case, soon reveals a much deeper, darker web of secrets, which will force Maisie to revisit the horrors of the Great War and the love she left behind.

Once Maisie Dobbs was a domestic servant with little expectation of anything else aside from rising within the ranks. However, thanks to the sponsorship of her employer, Lady Rowan Compton, who quickly realised that there was something really special about the thirteen year old, Maisie was given an education. Now, Maisie is a young woman and eager to make her mark; and thanks to the tutorship of Lady Rowan's good friend, Maurice Blanche (a renowned detective himself), Maisie is ready to embark on her first case. Unfortunately, it looks as if her first case is going to be a case of marital infidelity: Mr. Davenham suspects that his much younger wife, Celia, is having an affair; and he wants Maisie to either confirm his worst fears or else refute them. Little does Mr. Davenham realise, however, that Maisie is no ordinary detective. A highly intuitive and empathic young woman, Maisie senses Mr. Davenham's anguish over his wife's alleged infidelity and is resolved to help the Davenhams repair their strained marital bond. Her investigation however leads her to a graveyard, and to a grave marked only with a simple tombstone and a name -- Vincent. A casual search turns up other graves -- all memorialized with tombstones and first names only. Something about the whole thing awakens Maisie's misgivings, and trusting her instincts she decides to widen her investigation, never dreaming just how much this investigation will affect her...

"Maisie Dobbs" is divided into three sections: the first section deals with Maisie's initial investigation of Celia and what she's up to, and this section does read very much like a mystery novel; the second section deals with how Maisie came to be noticed by Lady Rowan, her education, and her war experiences -- this third of the book however reads more like a novel; the last section of the book again deals with the mystery of the mysterious tombstones, and the resolution of this mystery. While "Maisie Dobbs" proved to be a good and easy read, complete with an intriguing storyline and an intelligent and likable heroine, I must admit that the book was not that much of a suspenseful read. Because the novel does rely a little heavily on Maisie's intuitive powers, there are practically no unexpected plot twists or red herring suspects. (And truly, "Maisie Dobbs" was more about how, even almost an entire decade after the war, people were still coming to terms with the horror and grief that war entails). So that while I'm not exactly sure just how successful this plot device of having an empathic detecting heroine will be, I will admit that "Maisie Dobbs" proved to be a very enjoyable read.


The Start of a Beautiful Friendship!   January 14, 2005
Nancy R. Katz (NJ)
40 out of 43 found this review helpful

Never much of a mystery reader, in the last number of years I have been introduced to two wonderful female detectives of sorts. One was Fremont Jones, a private detective based in San Francisco at the turn of the century and the heroine of a series written by Dianne Day. The other was Mma Ramotswe from the Alexander McCall Smith mystery series set in Botswana, Africa. While I enjoyed the mystery angles of both series, it was the women and their personalities, the geographical areas where they lived and the historical times which intrigued me so greatly. And as much as I loved these books, I remember thinking that I most likely would never find another female character from this genre who would appeal to me in quite the same way. But then I didn't know that very shortly I would meet up with the most intriguing character of all, one Maisie Dobbs from the book with the same title by Jacqueline Winspear. And as I said in the title of this review, I just know this is the beginning of a wonderful friendship.

We first meet Maisie Dobbs in 1929 when she is moving into her first office in London. A private detective, Maisie has been tutored and apprenticed by a Dr. Maurice Blanche who is highly regarded in London's social circles.

Her first case seems rather ordinary when a man suspects his wife of cheating on him. Following the woman in question, Maisie finds a lady mourning a childhood friend killed during W.W.I. But more than that Maisie also uncovers a rather sinister plot involving a farmhouse used as a retreat for men unable to rejoin society. Called the Retreat it holds the answer to why certain war heroes met untimely deaths while living at the Retreat.

While this book is considered a misery it almost takes a back seat to the main character for as we turn the pages we learn more and more about Maisie and her circumstances. In a series of flashbacks we first meet Maisie at 13 when her mother has died and her father, a costermonger, has no money left for Maisie's education due to the medical expenses for his wife. Maisie's father then finds a job for her as a scullery maid in the home of Lady Compton, a wealthy woman and suffragette. While working in this large London home, Maisie soon finds a wonderful library which appeals to her sense of learning. When she is found there one night by her employer while poring over a book, Lady Compton arranges for Maisie to be tutored over a period of years, then paying for her to attend Girton, the women's school from Cambridge. But then war intervenes and the book takes a different turn as Maisie faces World War I working as a field nurse and learns about both the joys and sorrows of a first love.

I so enjoyed this book that I literally gulped it down. I found that Ms. Winspear offered her readers a wonderful glimpse into the world of London before, during and after W.W.I. From the drawing rooms of the wealthy homes to the life of a young nurse, I felt as though I was in London during these times, not reading in the year 2005. But more than anything I love learning about Maisie's life which was also laid out as a misery till the final pages revealed an important piece of the puzzle.

I must say that I might never have read this book had it not been for the recommendation of a dear online friend. So not only do I thank Ms, Winspear for writing this book, I also thank my friend for reading this and passing along the recommendation. And now that I've finished Maisie Dobbs I can't wait to read the second book in this series, Birds of a Feather. I only hope that the next book will be as good as the first one. Something tells me it will be. And then I will anxiously wait for the next book by this talented and gifted author.


Did you like Nancy Drew?   August 4, 2005
ReaderGrrl (Boston)
23 out of 34 found this review helpful

If you did - well into your teens - you'll love Maisie Dobbs. If you started to get a little bored by smug perfect Nancy and the lack of characterization by, say, third or fourth grade, you might want to skip this.

After reading a couple of great reviews from sources I trust, I bought this book with great excitement. The author had been compared to Vera Brittain and Dorothy Sayers; in my world, there is no higher compliment.

Unfortunately, the only thing the author has in common with Brittain and Sayers is that she employs the same setting - England between the wars. Honestly, I can't think what the complimentary bookpress reviewers were thinking - did they read the same book? Does the author's husband employ them? I'd love to know.

Anyway, into this wonder setting, the author plops a Nancy Drew-mannequin of a heroine (many pages devoted to special, special Maisie, who may be slightly intimidated by those of a higher class, but who inspires only love, admiration, devotion, and support from both the toffs and the working class heroes she encounters), new-age philosophy (special, sensitive Maisie intuits answers from the atmosphere), and a crazy mess of Brit-slang from every decade of the previous and current centuries. All this rendered in awkward, sophomoric language, topped by a cringe-inducing ending. (If only all sociopathic killers could be disarmed and reduced to sobbing bundles by a detective singing a war song!)

The annoying part is the plot, the setting, the subtext of the post-war malaise are fascinating. I wish the author had employed a real writer to realize them. What a waste.


More Than A Mystery   July 13, 2003
Claire N. Spencer (Santa Monica, CA)
18 out of 20 found this review helpful

This book is really a mixture of a novel and mystery. Masie Dobbs is a bright girl born to a low station in pre-World War One London who is given the opportunity of to educate herself and eventually becomes a private investigator. The story of Masie's life takes up as much of the book as the case she is working on. Masie's love of books and learning and her determination to fulfill her dreams are captivating. Equally touching is the profound change that occurs in her priorites once the war breaks out. The book is permeated with the Great War and its aftermath, and the author writes very movingly about the staggering loss that seems to have left no family untouched. It's not a traditional suspense yarn, but a truly rewarding read.


This needed a lot more work   July 12, 2004
Bucky (Haunted Mansion, The Magic Kingdom)
18 out of 28 found this review helpful

Set in 1929, in England, Maisie Dobbs is the first book in a series about a former housemaid/World War I nurse who sets up in the post-war years as a psychologist and private detective. The author obviously did a great deal of research as her attention to period detail is careful and quite good. Regretfully, she seems to have put the bulk of her efforts into her research, leaving little else for writing and story.

The story is rather awkwardly divided into three chunks: in the first chunk, the reader is introduced to Maisie and a few of the people that make up her world. Her client arrives, provides her with the problem that will become the book's mystery and then...

We come to a screeching halt as the second chunk is introduced: Maisie's backstory, her rise from the bright daughter of a humble costermonger to her time in service to an aristocratic family, to her education and subsequent attendance at Oxford and finally her time in France, tending the wounded during WWI.

Then, once all this exposition is out of the way, it's back to the present (1929) and our mystery, which, if the author is lucky, her readers have not forgotten about. Once the mystery is resolved, a few loose ends from Maisie's backstory are tied up and everyone is happy.

The problem with the way this book is constructed is that the introduction of what is basically a huge chunk of exposition brings the engine of this story to a complete stop. For more than 100 pages. This is never a good idea. It's okay to weave backstory into the plot a few pages at a time, over the course of the book, in fact, that method offers a lot of advantages. But to just completely drop the narrative thread for 100 pages and cram your main character's biography into the middle of an ongoing puzzle is to risk having your readers walk away in boredom. I know I almost did.

The mystery itself is thin and its resolution left a lot to be desired. Most people will see it coming from a long way off. And like the mystery, I also found many of Maisie's interactions with the other characters to be pat and unsatisfying. Many scenes that should have had more depth and feeling to them seemed rushed. I had the feeling that I was reading a book that hadn't been written so much as it had been outlined. Those criticisms aside, I will say that the minor characters are, for the most part, very well rendered. I particularly liked Enid, Maisie's room-mate during her time in service. I can understand what the author did with Enid, because if the saucy red-headed maid had stuck around much longer, she'd have taken over completely. She was a much more interesting character than Maisie herself.

Finally, I simply cannot see how Maisie Dobbs merited Edgar and Agatha nominations. While it has its interesting points, Maisie Dobbs is simply not of that caliber.