Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs series has been one of my go-to’s for years, both for my own reading and for recommending to others.
Until, however, the 11th entry.
A Dangerous Place completely put me off the series because of the horrifying (and, in my opinion, unnecessary) tragedy our heroine experienced right at the beginning. I can’t remember being so shocked at a twist in a series. So, I put Maisie away for awhile.
Then In This Grave Hour was published this year, and I thought I’d get reacquainted with the series. I found an older and wiser Maisie, to be sure, but also a woman who has experienced tremendous grief and is only just recovering some semblance of “normal” life. She has returned to London and restarted her detective agency with the ever trustworthy Billy. She has the means to live comfortably, and she does, even if alone and lonely. Then, England goes to war with Germany, which changes everything…and nothing.
Finding the mysterious Francesca Thomas in her garden late one afternoon, Maisie is once again plunged into a mystery. Thomas, a secretive and powerful attache with the Belgian Embassy, asks Maisie to investigate the death of a former Belgian refugee who was found executed outside his place of work. While Maisie takes the job, she knows that Thomas has not been entirely truthful with her. As Maisie delves deeper into the investigation, she uncovers a web of deceit stretching back to the First War. This part of the story seemed incidental to the bigger story of Maisie herself. The plot here was a little muddied and not terribly compelling. The real story here is Maisie.
While the Thomas investigation gives us the professional side of Maisie Dobbs, the declaration of war reveals the unsteady and somewhat raw personal side. Maisie must cope with the possibility of her beloved “nephews,” the offspring of best pal Priscilla, going off to war and never coming home. She is also drawn back to Surrey, where her father, stepmother, and mother-in-law are coping with children from London being resettled to the country. Maisie is particularly taken with a small girl who doesn’t speak and doesn’t seem to belong anywhere. Though both father and stepmother warn her not to get too attached to the child, Maisie can’t help herself.
In This Grave Hour is a watershed moment for Maisie. She has restored her career, she appears to have made as much peace as possible with her losses from A Dangerous Place, she is tentatively reconnecting with an old male friend, and I am predicting that the introduction of Anna, the displaced child, foreshadows a shift from Maisie the Student to Maisie the Teacher. She is slowly stepping into Maurice’s shoes (for those of you who haven’t read Maisie, Maurice was her mentor), bringing the series full circle. Winspear has won me back, and I am once again eagerly anticipating the next entry in the Maisie Dobbs series. Highly recommended.
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