68 of 69 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
suspenseful and intriguing: a very good read, May 21, 2004
This review is from: Birds of a Feather (Maisie Dobbs Mysteries) (Hardcover)
"Birds of a Feather" is Jacqueline Winspear's second Maisie Dobbs mystery novel, and it actually is a much more suspenseful and intriguing installment than the first book in the series, "Maisie Dobbs."
Maisie Dobbs, psychologist and private investigator, has been hired by mister moneybags himself, Joseph Waite, to find his missing daughter. Apparently the wealthy and successful magnate's only daughter, Charlotte, seems to have made a habit of running off whenever she feels unhappy or ill-used. Not wanting to involve the police and hoping to circumvent the press, Waite has decided to hire Maisie because he has been suitable impressed by her accomplishments. Almost at once, Maisie senses that Waite has little patience or understanding for Charlotte. And a brief inquiry amongst the household staff elicits the knowledge that while everyone likes Joseph Waite, practically no one seems to have liked Charlotte, deeming her too cold and difficult to please. And yet Maisie (who has strong emphatic powers) senses the almost crippling despair that Charlotte felt in her home. Why would a rich and pampered young lady of leisure feel such a level of despair? And what made her run away? Hoping to get some answers from a close friend of Charlotte's, Maisie stumbles into a murder investigation instead when the friend is brutally murdered. Could Charlotte's disappearance have anything to do with the murder? Is Charlotte in danger, or is the truth something much more sinister? As Maisie digs in to find the answers, she finds herself once again delving into the past and into the painful memories of the recent world war...
First a word of warning: don't read all the plot info available about this novel because (again) far too much of the plot is revealed in many of these professional endorsements. But to get back to my review, "Bird of a Feather" was a truly absorbing read -- once I started it, I found it difficult to put down. Everything was just so well done: the character portrayals, the haunting manner in which she allows us to see that everyone is still haunted by the past war, and the vivid descriptions of London and the countryside -- all this together with the fact that the book is well written, well executed and smoothly paced made "Birds of a Feather" an absolute treat to read. After reading "Maisie Dobbs," I had wondered at how successful Ms Winspear would be able to keep the reader guessing since one of Maisie's talents was empathy. I worried needlessly: this authour knows what she's doing. And I was kept happily engrossed until the last page. All in all, a very good read.
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27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Flocking to Maisie Dobbs Books!, January 16, 2005
This review is from: Birds of a Feather (Maisie Dobbs Mysteries) (Hardcover)
Birds of a Feather by Jacqueline Winspear is the second book in a series featuring the detective/psychologist Maisie Dobbs. And like the first book, simply called Maisie Dobbs, readers once again will be intrigued by both the characters in this book and the way Maisie solves the mystery.
Birds of a Father was more mystery than the first book which was used to introduce the characters and their backgrounds. While there was a thinly veiled mystery Birds of a Feather will surely captivate readers as the mystery angle of this book gets better and better as readers turn the pages.
Maisie and her business associate Billy Beale are hired by Mr. Wait to find his daughter Charlotte. Mr Wait, a wealthy store owner, further explains that Charlotte has done this before but this time she also broke off her engagement. After meeting with one of Charlotte's friends, early leads send Maisie to a convent where Charlotte might be living and protected by the nuns. Then Maisie learns that the friend of Charlotte's she's just spoke to had been killed and she's not the only one. It seems as though two other friends of Charlotte and all women who wee friends at one time are now dead under very suspicious circumstances. What did these four women have in common? And what does a small object found next to the nurses have to do with these crimes. Does a plaque in Mr. Waite's store to fallen men who served in WW I and worked for him hold a key to the murders, And most of all is the killer looking for Charlotte next?
As we read this book and consider who did it, one can't help but enjoy characters from the first book which include Maurice Blanche, Maisie's mentor and former employer, Lady Rowan, the wealthy woman Maisie worked for and helped Maisie further her education, and Maisie's devoted father Frankie. There is also a poignant part devoted how Maisie along with others help her business partner finally heal from his war injuries.
This book was a wonderful second book in what I surely hope will be a long series. One can't help but feel they are right on the streets of London so well does the author describe the city and also the country estate of Lady Jane. In addition there are wonderful descriptions of the clothes Maisie wears so we have a clear picture of the English fashion world in the 1930s.
I have thoroughly enjoyed both of these books and once again must thank a friend for suggesting them to me. Now I in turn suggest them to mystery and non-mystery readers alike. I can't wait for the next book in this series. Hope if to won't be too long before it is published. Until then I can always reread both of these intriguing historcial mysteries.
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48 of 57 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Chas Todd Has Nothing to Worry About, June 16, 2006
I bought "Birds of a Feather" (in a two-for-one edition with its predecessor, "Maisie Dobbs") on a three-dollar clearance table. "A bargain!" I thought, since the jacket blurbs made the stories sound like female versions of Charles Todd's Inspector Rutledge novels. Now that I've read them, though, I think I was overcharged.
Despite some surface similarities to Todd's work -- the post-WWI setting, the sensitive, war-scarred protagonist, the careful period details -- Winspear's novels are thin where Todd's are dense, simplistic where theirs are complex, juvenile where theirs are adult, too reassuring where theirs can be ambiguous and disturbing (I exempt Todd's stand-alone novel, "The Murder Stone," which is melodramatic and seriously implausible.) In Todd's books, the character of Hamish MacBeth may be a gimmick, but he works (or at least, he did until recently). The between-social-classes premise of the Maisie books, however, doesn't work, at least not as Winspear presents it. That's too bad, because Winspear has all the right ingredients -- interesting concepts, historical knowledge and insight, potentially-complex themes. But she just can't get the souffle to rise.
The supporting cast is a stock gallery of one-dimensional cliches; the period details are often over-explained, making portions of the text read like one of those children's storybooks determined to be "educational." As for Maisie herself, several Amazon reviewers of "Maisie Dobbs" correctly noted that she's too perfect, like a slightly more grown-up Nancy Drew. In "Birds of a Feather," Winspear does seems to be trying to make Maisie a little less of a paragon, but she doesn't quite succeed. Maisie's rift with her father is unconvincing and unprepared-for (as is its semi-resolution); her sidekick Billy's problems are too easily fixed; she and her cohort have far too many conveniently-placed sources who just happen to have the info our heroine needs (Smiley, Dame Constance, Dr. Dene); the plot ends are too neatly tied together. Even Maisie's hair is too obvious and simple a symbol.
And while I'm complaining, I might as well sound off about the whole intrusive business of Maisie's eating habits. I think the author might intend the food details to be a metaphor for aspects of Maisie's character, but I find them extraneous because they go nowhere. People are forever telling Maisie she's too thin; she's forever assuring them that she eats plenty -- all the while rarely managing to swallow more than a single bite per meal. Time and again, she forgets to eat, or learns something so disturbing that it takes her appetite away just as her dinner is served, etc. Then later, she will realize to her amazement that she hasn't eaten in ten, twelve, twenty hours. So does she at least chow down then? No, she does not. She looks forward to a "hearty helping of fish and chips" for lunch, but then she picks all the breading off the fish and feeds the chips to the seagulls. She takes one "ravenous" bite of toast after a many-hour fast -- and leaves the rest. As best I can recall, her entire food intake over the course of the story consists of gallons of tea, nibbles of toast, a bowl or two of vegetable soup, some batter-less fish, and a plate of eggs and bacon.
Yet nothing is made of any of this; the details are piled up and then ignored. If Maisie's (non)eating is supposed to have themative relevance, then I wish Winspear would do something with this thread (but preferably *not* through some anachronistic diagnosis of an eating disorder or the sort of weak narrative resolution used for Billy's problem in "Birds of a Feather.")
As the series stands now, the food thing ironically comes off as just another one of Maisie's many perfections: not only is she beloved, bright, gifted, compassionate, and capable, not only is she tall and graceful with mesmerizing deep blue eyes and striking black hair that is forever escaping its bun to curl into fetching "tendrils" that we're supposed to believe Maisie deplores (a motif that comes across as an authorial affectation), but when she does have a "flaw," it turns out to be that she's underweight! The 21st-century Western heart, with its obesity-clogged arteries, just bleeds for her.
A mouthful of dry fish might be enough for Maisie, but if I were to continue reading this series, I'd want more -- more complexity, more ambiguity, more depth, more substance. I'd at least want a bite of crispy batter and a chip or two.
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