In this special series, our librarians are introducing you to more series and authors that keep them reading long into the night. In this post, one of our librarians talks about one of her favorite series: Maisie Dobbs by Jaqueline Winspear.
This historical mystery series has 16 books to it and I’m still ready for more! The story starts soon after World War I in London. Winspear’s sleuth, Maisie Dobbs, started life as a street vendor's daughter who went into service and started reading books from the library of the family she served, the Comptons. When Lady Compton found this out, she found a tutor for Maisie named Dr. Maurice Blanche. Masie studied hard and was admitted to Grifton College. When World War I broke out she left college to be a nurse. She was wounded, but recovered. Her compassion is based on her own experiences. After the war, Maisie continued working with her tutor learning to be a psychologist/investigator. Dr. Blanche mentors her as Maisie learns meditation, mindfulness, and visualization to develop her intuition along with many other skills.. As the series opens, Maisie is starting a private investigation company of her own.
Maisie hires Billy Beal as her assistant. Maisie rents an office for her new investigation firm and Billy was the caretaker of the building. Billy was injured in World War I and Maisie hires him to not only give him a job but to help him recover mentally and emotionally. Billy’s family also appears as mostly secondary characters, but are main characters in some of the books. Maisie’s close-college friend Priscilla marries a man with money and privilege. Priscilla tries to get Maisie to lighten up, have a drink, and go to parties. Most of the time she isn’t successful. Priscilla has three young boys who think of Maisie as their aunt. The boys are rambunctious and a bit hard to manage, but both Priscilla and Maisie love them fiercely. .
Maisie’s private investigation firm thrives. Her first case is that of a young girl who is accused of murder. Maisie uses her impressive skill set to find out what really happened. Each book has its own mystery to solve. Time keeps rolling on and eventually stories are set in World War II and begin to involve Priscilla’s husband and boys and many others.
These stories are smart, compassionate, and interesting. Maisie uses a new tool in solving the mysteries; case maps that visually show connections between suspects and events just like detectives in the future will use. She goes to places the victim lived or worked and studies the person’s space and belongings with meditation and often gets a small inkling of a clue. The mysteries themselves are complex and filled with twists and turns. I do recommend reading them in order to enjoy all the period detail and the character development.
All of the books in the series are on Overdrive/Libby. Hoopla has several of the books available. The print books are available from the Library’s catalog. Winspear also wrote a stand-alone, not a mystery, titled, The Care and Management of Lies: A Novel of the Great War and I enjoyed that too. It is available on Overdrive/Libby in both ebook and eaudiobook. Look for Winspear’s nonfiction book, What Would Maisie Do? It was published in March. I look forward to reading it as soon as I can get my hands on it.
Keep Calm and Read On!
Michelle S.
Popular Materials Asst.