On this week’s Blogging for a Good Book, I’m posting about four authors who are coming to the Williamsburg Library Theatre on Monday, March 31. We’ll be having a relaxed conversation with Margaret Coel, David L. Robbins, and Jacqueline Winspear, led by Willetta L. Heising. The event starts at 7 pm in the Theatre at 515 Scotland Street, and will be followed by light refreshments and a book-signing.
Maisie Dobbs is the brightest character to hit the Mystery world in some time. And boy, does the Mystery world recognize it! The Agatha Award for Best First Novel; named of the best books of 2003 by Publishers Weekly, Booksense, and the New York Times; nominated for the Edgar. As a follow-up, three more Agatha nominations (winning Best Novel for Birds of a Feather), and both the Bruce Alexander and Macavity/Sue Feder Awards for Best Historical Mysteries. Maisie Dobbs also earned the Alex Award for Best Adult Book for Teens. So what is it about Maisie?
Well, there’s the timeframe. Set in England between the World Wars, Jacqueline Winspear faithfully recreates a country that has had its foundations knocked from under it. Every family knows at least one man killed in the War to End All Wars. The maimed and wounded are a daily sight on the streets. The class system is surviving only on the momentum that will carry it through the end of World War II. Cutting edge technology – phones and cars – are displacing people and opening new realms.
Then there’s Maisie herself. These times of turmoil enable people to escape the old limits, and that is what Maisie has done. In the first book, we learn that Maisie was headed for a life of service before unusual circumstances gave her a way out. Then war erupts, and Maisie leaves her old life to volunteer as a nurse. Sent to a forward medical unit, she is exposed firsthand to the maiming and loyalty, the camaraderie and death, and the waste that is war. I’m not going to spoil the plot of the first book by saying any more than that, but Maisie emerges from the hell of France changed by her experience.
Ten years after the War, Maisie opens an office dedicated to using her study of psychology as an investigator. With the backing of her sponsor, Lady Rowan, and her mentor, Maurice Blanche, she begins to build a clientele. Her professional ethic – she will not divulge the results of her inquiries until clients agree to take a path of reconciliation – springs from an innate compassion honed by her experiences. Those experiences, and Maisie’s unique placement outside the rigid class structure, make her an intuitive and successful detective.
Winspear also builds a cast of secondary characters that flesh out Maisie’s place in the world, most notably Billy Beale, the wounded veteran who becomes Maisie’s assistant. Maisie’s father, Lady Rowan, Maurice Blanche – all provide both support and a source of tension in Maisie’s life. Even the minor characters are rendered as individuals, which makes the world Winspear has reconstructed come alive.
Maisie Dobbs (2003) is the first novel in the series; the fifth book, An Incomplete Revenge, came out in February 2008 to rave reviews. Jacqueline Winspear must be as entranced with the character she ‘discovered’ (as Alexander McCall Smith put it) as we readers are, as she continues to explore Maisie’s fascinating life with skill and enthusiasm.
Check the WRL Catalog for
Maisie Dobbs large print
Maisie Dobbs on CD
[…] psychological aspects will also appeal to fans of Jacqueline Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs […]