Among the Mad (Maisie Dobbs, Book 6) [Paperback]

Jacqueline Winspear (Author)

Book Description

Release date: November 24, 2009

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

"An outstanding historical series . . . deeply empathetic.” (The New York Times Book Review)

Christmas Eve, 1931. On the way to see a client, Maisie Dobbs witnesses a man commit suicide on a busy London street. The following day, the Prime Minister’s office receives a letter threatening a massive loss of life if certain demands are not met--and the writer mentions Maisie by name. Tapped by Scotland Yard’s elite Special Branch to be a special adviser on the case, Maisie is soon involved in a race against time to find a man who proves he has the knowledge and will to inflict destruction on thousands of innocent people.

In Among the Mad, Jacqueline Winspear combines a heart-stopping story with a rich evocation of a fascinating period to create her most compelling and satisfying novel yet.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Jacqueline Winspear on Among the Mad

From the time I realized that in Maisie Dobbs I had a series character, I've wanted to explore further the phenomenon of the range of war neuroses known to the layperson as "shell shock," and how we see those whose behavior isn't always within the bounds of what we consider "normal." I also wanted to look again, through the lens of story and history, at the manner in which society treats wounded veterans, especially those whose wounds cannot be seen, but are of the mind and spirit. To do this, I drew as much upon personal experience as my research.

As many of my readers know, my grandfather suffered both physical wounds and shell shock in the Great War, and as a child I remember having to be quiet around him, so as not to excite or trouble an elderly man with terrible memories. Later, in my mid-teens, I attended a school where we were required to undertake community service one afternoon each week (and we had to attend school on Saturday mornings to make up for it!). So, on Wednesday afternoons, I joined a small group who visited a psychiatric hospital--to talk to the patients, make the tea, read to them and generally offer kindness and companionship. I can recall many of the patients, some who were obviously not able to live outside an institution, and others who inspired one to wonder why they were there at all--and when you found out, the reason was often shocking. I remember one patient I talked with each week, an astoundingly sharp, intelligent man. He had been a top-ranking surgeon, one who was regarded as almost without peer. He was also a madman, a murderer. I thought of him often while writing Among the Mad.

Last year, during my book tour, a military chaplain came to one of my events and stayed behind afterwards to talk to me. He told me that he recommended my books to the families of those who have suffered loss during the Iraq war, and especially to people who are trying to accommodate the special needs of a soldier suffering from what we today call Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD). He added that in reading a story where such losses are suffered in a time of war, yet separated by history, it facilitates a deeper understanding of what the returning veteran might be experiencing, and challenges involved in coming home from war.

The recent news that servicemen and woman wounded by PTSD will not be eligible for the Military Order of the Purple Heart--awarded to US military personnel who have been wounded or killed in a war zone--struck a chord. In Britain during and following the Great War there was much controversy about war neuroses, and many soldiers were denied a pension as a result of a clampdown on the diagnosis of shell shock. In my second novel, Birds of a Feather, one of the characters says, "That’s the trouble with war, it’s never over when it's over, it lives on inside the living." Such a sentiment is never more true than in the case of the man or woman who has served their country in a time of war, but who has to live with that war reverberating in their mind every single day for the rest of their lives. Maisie Dobbs is such a person, as is the person she is in a race to find in Among the Mad. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Bestseller Winspears sixth Maisie Dobbs novel (after 2008s An Incomplete Revenge) raises the stakes considerably for her psychologically astute sleuth. On Christmas eve 1931, a man Maisie passes on a London street detonates a bomb, killing himself and slightly wounding Maisie. This traumatic event turns out to be linked to threatening letters the British prime minister starts to receive, the first of which mentions Maisie by name. Maisie joins a high-powered investigative team devoted to averting the cataclysmic disaster promised by the unknown author of the messages. By providing the letter writers perspective, Winspear removes some of the mystery. In addition, Maisies speculative guesses about the profile of the criminal, while accurate, have less logical grounding than traditional puzzle fans might prefer. Still, Winspear does her usual superb job of portraying London between the world wars. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Picador; Reprint edition (November 24, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312429258
• ISBN-13: 978-0312429256
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 6.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (101 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,795 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #88 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery > British Detectives

More About the Author

Jacqueline Winspear is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Among the Mad and An Incomplete Revenge, as well as four other Maisie Dobbs novels. She has won numerous awards for her work, including the Agatha, Alex, and Macavity awards for the first book in the series, Maisie Dobbs. Originally from the United Kingdom, she now lives in California.

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

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#21 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Historical

#45 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Historical

#52 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery

#84 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Mystery & Thrillers > Mystery

#21 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Historical

#45 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Historical

#52 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery

#84 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Mystery & Thrillers > Mystery

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Too much of a good thing March 24, 2009

By Angie Boyter VINE™ VOICE

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

This is the sixth book in the series about Maisie Dobbs, a former domestic servant who "made good" as a result of sponsorship by her former employer and is now operating as a psychologically-oriented private investigator in depression-era London. I enjoyed several of the earlier books, especially for their compelling picture of a British society still reeling from the effects of WWI and now experiencing the economic tribulations of the Depression. Unfortunately, in this book the atmosphere took over to the detriment of the plot and the characters.

Although the Depression is an important element of the society that Ms. Winspear effectively constructs, the psychological injury caused by the Great War seems to be the dominant theme and the major depressant on the characters. The book opens with a former soldier committing suicide on the sidewalk as Maisie witnesses in horror; it continues as the police and Maisie try to track down an insane former soldier who is threatening to commit terrorist attacks in London to bring attention to the needs of veterans; the wife of Maisie's employee Billy becomes deranged by the death of her young daughter and has to be hospitalized; and Maisie has to deal with what seems to be the impending nervous breakdown of her best friend Priscilla. Practically EVERYONE in this book has serious mental problems; it exceeds credibility.

The atmosphere of this psychologically dysfunctional society overwhelms the book to the detriment of the plot. During most of the book, Maisie and the police are racing against time to locate a potential mass murderer, but there is little sense of suspense because all the details about the society and the historical background that created it and molded the characters slow the plot to a plod.

The overwhelming attention to the atmosphere also seemed to result in short shrift being given to the development of the characters. Two police officers, McFarland and Stratton, might be interested in Maisie romantically, but they were not QUITE well-developed enough for me to be sure...or to care. There is a significant subplot about a scientist whose devotion to his science or maybe to ego gratification leads him to commit immoral acts, but the character of this scientist should have been developed more, so that we could have understood him better. The point of view never let us get inside these people. Maisie herself seems flat; it is hard to tell what motivates her.

I listened to this book, and the medium may have affected my impressions, since I enjoyed the 3 Maisie Dobbs books I read the traditional way much more. The reader has a wonderful British accent, but her delivery seemed a bit melodramatic and unnatural. I found especially annoying her habit of accenting certain words in a sentence that struck me as NOT the words a person would normally stress. I kept wondering, "Is she implying some emotion or attitude I don't get, or is this just bad reading?" Whichever it was, I would suggest that you read other Maisie Dobbs books before you tackle this one, and if you get as far as book 6, read the book rather than listening to the audio.

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars From the violence of war to.... "peace"? February 20, 2009

By S. McGee TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

In the world that Maisie Dobbs ("Psychologist and Investigator") inhabits, peace is an elusive phenomenon, even 13 years after the Armistice put an end to the trench warfare that she witnessed as a nurse. In the aftermath of the Great War, Maisie now finds herself battling with the legacy of that conflict. In Winspear's five previous novels, she has dealt with the aftermath of mysterious wartime Zeppelin attacks, evil doings at a hospital for disfigured soldiers and myriad other crimes tied to the aftermath of the war.

In this, Winspear's sixth novel in the series, Maisie is unwittingly dragged into a case that involves terrorist threats. After witnessing a man she believes to be a troubled veteran blow himself up with a hand grenade, her name is mentioned in a threatening letter that another soldier sends to Scotland Yard and top government ministers. Along with her former admirer, Inspector Stratton, Maisie must work with Special Branch police to fend off a chemical weapons threat from a disturbed individual demanding that the government treat veterans -- disabled or otherwise -- fairly and honorably. It's a difficult case for Maisie, not only because she must grapple with her own mixed emotions -- she has seen, all too clearly, the struggle that the men she once nursed in France have when they try to return civilian life -- but because she is also grappling with the personal problems of her assistant, Billy Beale, and her closest friend.

Not surprisingly, perhaps, given this somber backdrop, the novel often feels very intense and even downright melancholy. That's appropriate, given the subject matter. Still, this would have been a stronger book had Winspear had a lighter touch with both plot and characters. (I have read serial killer novels that felt less dark and depressing.) Still, Winspear's writing is exceptionally strong and powerful, doing justice to the themes she chooses to explore. She also avoids the easy plot twists; Maisie, a complex character who has risen to her current status from life as a servant, has yet to find romance in her postwar life.

I am beginning to wonder, however, how long a series with such a narrow focus can endure. Shell shock and the trauma of rebuilding a life after a war is not a theme that offers enough that is new and fresh to remain the core of Maisie's investigations and Winspear's writing for many more books. Yes, it's unquestionably important, but at some point the reader is going to start to shrug his or her shoulders, saying that they've heard it all before. Moreover, as 1932 dawns in Maisie's fictional world, other factors are now emerging as important. There is a global depression taking hold, the Blackshirts are marching in London (a fact that gets one short, cryptic reference in this book) and within a year, Hitler will take power in Germany. I, for one, hope that Winspear finds a way to blend her fascination with the Great War with a more diverse array of mysteries for Maisie to investigate and plots that depend as much upon what is happening contemporaneously as what happened more than a decade previously. Continuing to revisit the same territory without some new element will, I fear, cause some of her readers, myself among them, will begin to fall by the wayside.

For those who have not yet stumbled across Rennie Airth, I'd recommend two other mysteries set in the same time period: The Blood-Dimmed Tide (Penguin Mysteries)and River of Darkness. I was elated to discover this superb author has a third book coming out this summer. While I'll give Winspear's latest four stars, either of Airth's books -- which deal with similar issues -- easily capture a fifth star. Charles Todd's longer series features a Scotland Yard detective grappling with shell shock, but who investigates a wide array of crimes, some of which have no connection to the war itself. Increasingly, I am coming to prefer that series to Winspear's books, simply because of the variety of themes the books explore.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars "Will they hear my voice--our voices? I am not one man, no, I am legion." February 21, 2009

By Mary Whipple HALL OF FAMETOP 100 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

The intrepid Maisie Dobbs, psychologist and private investigator, is walking through London on Christmas Eve, 1931, when a man she believes to be a shell-shocked veteran of World War I suddenly blows himself up, injuring Maisie and several other bystanders. Maisie herself has served in the Great War as a nurse, and she, too, suffered injuries, both physical and emotional during the war, so she has always been particularly sympathetic to the plight of these unfortunate, mentally ill veterans. Ineligible for the kinds of pensions, benefits, and services that physically injured veterans receive, they are often homeless and too damaged to get and keep a job to support themselves. They have been abandoned: no one even knows the name of the suicide victim.

Another anonymous (and mentally ill) veteran observes the suicide, and shortly afterward issues a threat, telling the authorities that he will "demonstrate [his] power," if the government does not alleviate the suffering of war veterans within forty-eight hours. "If you doubt my sincerity," he says, "ask Maisie Dobbs." Interviewed by Scotland Yard, the Special Branch, and military intelligence, Maisie convinces the authorities that she has had no previous contact with the suicide, and they eventually hire her to help them identify and then find the person who has issued the threat. As the hours tick down, the brilliant but obviously insane man takes action, quickly demonstrating that he is an expert on gases and proving that he will use them. Old Year's Day, on Dec. 31, is the day he intends to demonstrate his full power on the crowds celebrating in London.

Maisie's investigation takes her into the dark world of insane asylums, those who run them, the treatments they provide, and their chances for success, at the same time that the author also depicts the political and social unrest in the aftermath of the war. The issue of mental illness takes on particularly poignant notes because Doreen Beale, the wife of Billy Beale, Maisie's conscientious assistant, is still so fixated on the death of one of their children, though a year has passed, that she refuses to believe her child has died, and she is unable to care for their two surviving children.

Jacqueline Winspear writes in an exceptionally clear and simple style, and though her theme is thought-provoking, she never lets complex details bog down her fast-paced narrative. Her depiction of the social mores and the political policies of the era between the two world wars give an authenticity to the atmosphere which pervades the novel. As Maisie gradually comes to terms with her own emotional limitations as a result of her war experiences, the novel hints at new directions to come in future novels. n Mary Whipple

Maisie Dobbs, 2003
Birds of a Feather (Maisie Dobbs Mysteries), 2004
Pardonable Lies: A Maisie Dobbs Novel, 2005
Messenger of Truth: A Maisie Dobbs Novel, 2006
An Incomplete Revenge: A Maisie Dobbs Novel, 2008