Profile - Maisie Dobbs

Meet Maisie Dobbs (M) - psychologist and investigator - the subject of Jacqueline Winspear's atmospheric and upbeat Maisie Dobbs mysteries.

This historical mystery series is set in the years following World War I. Maisie Dobbs is a self-made woman. As a young teenager, following the death of her mother, Maisie goes into service as a maid in a Belgravia mansion. There, to her joy, she finds a well-equipped library and a mistress who kindly takes a interest in her and introduces her to Maurice Blanche. Blanche instructs her in psychology and science enabling her to go on to university. Maisie then volunteers as a nurse at the front where she falls in love. After the war she serves an apprenticeship with Blanche doing investigative work.

In her first adventure, Maisie Dobbs (M), "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." publisher

Maisie Dobbs mysteries are engaging, character-based mysteries likely to appeal to fans of Anne Perry (M) and Pat Barker (M).

In her latest adventure Elegy for Eddie (M), "Early April 1933. To the costermongers of Covent Garden—sellers of fruits and vegetables on the London streets—Eddie Pettit was a gentle soul with a near-magical gift for working with horses. So who would want to kill him . . . and why? Maisie Dobbs's father, Frankie, had been a costermonger, and she remembers Eddie fondly. But it soon becomes clear that powerful political and financial forces are determined to prevent her from learning the truth behind Eddie's death. Maisie's search for answers on the working-class streets of Lambeth leads her to unexpected places and people: to a callous press baron; to a has been politician named Winston Churchill; and, most surprisingly, to Douglas Partridge, the husband of her dearest friend, Priscilla. As Maisie uncovers lies and manipulation on a national scale, she must decide whether to risk everything to see justice done." publisher