Customer Reviews

Birds Of A Feather - A Maisie Dobbs Mystery

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3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

"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.

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.

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.

It is more than fifteen years after the Great War ended and England is recovering even though the depression makes the division between the classes more noticeable. Masie Dobbs was lucky to find a patron who funded her studies in nursing and psychology. She served as a nurse in France where she was injured and her great love Simon came back from the war in a catatonic state that has not lifted since his return. Masie works as a private investigator, who uses meditation as a way of opening up her senses to the world around her. Although her methods of combining investigation with psychology are unusual, it always works.

Rich supermarket magnate Joseph Waite hires Masie to find his daughter Charlotte who has a habit of running away from home even if she is thirty-seven years of age. Masie deduces that she left the day she saw in the newspaper that one of her old friends from boarding school was murdered. Two more of Charlotte's former friends die and a white feather is found on or near each murder victim. Masie must find a way to keep Charlotte safe and bait a trap to catch the killer.

Readers will thoroughly enjoy this delightful and charming mystery and find themselves interested in the historical details of England between the wars. The protagonist is not a radical feminist but an independent person who believes that she is as capable as any man in her chosen profession. Although she has known much sorrow, she is a kind-hearted and generous person who cares about people, especially those who are suffering the aftereffects of WWI. BIRDS OF A FEATHER will definitely appeal to fans of great mysteries.

Harriet Klausner

Slightly better than the first book. Not quite as hokey, but the new agey "aura sensing" involved in the investigating is pretty lame. The characters are rather dull and lack any depth or heart (Billy Beale and his phony accent are too much.) There is still too much pseudo-intellectual psycho-babble and a pretty thin subplot featuring Billy Beale drags the story down a little.

However, the main story is better in structure and content. (Although I figured out who the murderer was well before the fianle so it can't be that great.

And thank God the ridiculous Khan the "Blind Ceylonese Mystic" character is only mentioned briefly.

I'm willing to give Maisie one more shot though.

This is a very clever mystery set during the time after "the Great War," or World War I, in England. Maisie Dobbs is the daughter of a groom, who has, probably unrealistically, been taken under the wing of the wealthy family that employs her father. One of the primary themes of this book, as well as it's predecessor, the self-titled Maisie Dobbs, is the collapsing of class barriers in England, which is occuring at least in part because of the decimation of the population of young English men. Maisie Dobbs is young, female, smart, interesting, and, most important, independent, and she has opened her own "detective agency" albeit a funny sort of detective agency where she sets interesting conditions on her agreement to assist the people who come to her for help.

So, in Birds of a Feather, the daughter of a very wealthy man disappears, and he hires Maisie to find her and bring her home. As Maisie attempts to locate Charlotte, she finds a disturbing connection to a brutal murder that is being investigated by the Murder Squad.

The story is well-written. I realized who the killer was long before I figured out why, and before I figured out the significance of the title. The author uses a fascinating historical footnote to provide the motive for the murder. I don't want to spoil this book for the readers, but I will say that I was sufficiently intrigued that I did some internet searches and discovered that, in fact, the group from which Jacqueline Winspear drew her title, did indeed exist.

All together, an absorbing read.

Another delightful Maisie Dobbs mystery from Winspear. Set in between the two world wars, Dobbs is perhaps the epitome of do-gooder investigators and gives mighty good book with enough detail that the setting comes alive as do the circumstances of her interesting characters. An entertaining read, indeed.

When I was recently invited to join a small book club under the auspices of something of a celebrity librarian where I live--she organizes successful events and authors readings, many of which I have attended over the years--I couldn't resist accepting. What kind of books might this small and intimate grouping of admirers of fine literature read? A list of books covering the next few months to come was intriguingly diverse in style, genre, time period. This would be an interesting exploration, no doubt pushing me to read books I might never have otherwise read.

Including the first book on the list: Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear. Two of this series, in fact. The first one, then a second of our own choosing. I headed for the library, but the first book was off the shelf. Perhaps another book club member. So I chose another in the series, skimming through several. I was not familiar with the author or the series, as mysteries, admittedly, are not a genre I favor. As soon as I opened the book to read, I was reminded why. They all seem painfully alike. The only difference here is that Maisie Dobbs, detective-psychologist, was female rather than the tiresome Bogey-type that seems to keep popping up in other detective novels. And you know that "Girl Friday"? The fawning, too-sexy-for-her-own-good type who is doggedly devoted to Bogey to the point of being codependent? In this book, Maisie's sidekick would be a cockney called Billy Beale, a retired vet with a bum leg. Yes, he's doggedly devoted if blessedly married. I rolled my eyes. I had to wonder, why do readers so enjoy these types of series, alike as a stack of pancakes, with characters all cast from the same mold, predictable as formula? I don't get it.

And then, of course, I got immersed in the book.

It took a while. And I did roll my eyes once more as I read an editorial miss, where a main character, Joseph Waite, a wealthy man who hires Maisie to find and bring home his missing daughter (32 years old! I'd be missing, too!) grinds out his cigar after enjoying his smoke. Grinds? Mind you, as editor-in-chief of a literary ezine called The Smoking Poet, featuring an extensive page on cigars called Cigar Lounge, I know a thing or three about cigars. You never grind out a cigar. Cigarettes, yes, but cigars give out toxic, bitter fumes when so ground. Any cigar smoker worth her ash knows this. Adding insult to cigar injury, Mr. Waite has the seemingly same cigar magically reappear in his fingers a page later as he and Maisie stroll the gardens. Oops.

Yet once the smoke had cleared, I found myself reading the book more and more often, each time for a longer sit. The British author, Jacqueline Winspear, knows her twists and turns. She also does her homework well, if not particularly on the grinding of a stogie, because the story is rich with historical detail and color. It is set in London, spring of 1930. There are scenes in city and outlying areas, flashbacks to The Great War, and doings and ongoings with coppers in Scotland Yard's Murder Squad. Keeping this time period in mind, the accomplishments of Maisie Dobbs are very respectable. Once a battlefield nurse, she has now made her place in a male-dominated field of private investigators, so not only does she need to solve her case, she must solve it with more finesse than any male counterpart.

I'm liking this.

Unlike most detective novels, this detective is also, happily, no womanizer. What a relief. A woman herself, she deals with the opposite sex respectfully, even while demanding respect. Yet, just like a woman, when she is dealing with a heartbroken victim, of whatever gender, she is compassionate and kind, gathering her information even while soothing the broken and setting things right. No damsel in distress she! Indeed, Maisie's great love is a soldier who is so wounded in war that she now visits him regularly in a home, even though he cannot any longer respond to her presence. An under story here is that Maisie is struggling to find the right place for her heart: to remain faithful to her love, a physically and mentally broken man, yet open it to a future possibility of happiness. She is not without her suitors, including a detective inspector at Scotland Yard, who is at times ego-wounded when Maisie solves cases that leave him floundering and accusing an innocent man. And Doctor Dene, a kinder and more considerate sort, who seems to be something of a kindred spirit. Yet these hinting-of-future-romance characters never become more than passing background to the story--a wise choice on the author's part, or this would move too far into another, cheaper genre. (Hurrah for books about women that aren't always centered around romance!)

Maisie pursues her clues with dogged determination yet light touch. Adding to that feminine approach, she seems to use intuition as much as logic to solve her case, and is quite comfortable doing so. Sidekick, Billy Beale, the limping veteran, is a good help to her, but she notices his quiet struggle with an addiction often seen in veterans at that time, too--cocaine. A history lesson woven into the story tells us soldiers were given morphine and other painkillers in unmeasured doses on the battlefield, often leading to addiction. Maisie helps Billy get back on the straight and narrow perhaps a little too easily, and without interrupting her pursuit of the missing heiress, now joined in a tightening circle of two other women, found murdered.

The book title comes from the link between all three women: white feathers. Another fascinating historical sidenote, but one I won't here reveal. Maisie notes this tiny detail and eventually catches the bird, so to speak. It is a pretty remarkable scene when she does. Masterful, even. One very much, I think, requiring a female author.

Judge for yourself. As for me, I'm pleased to have been nudged into reading this detective novel, even as I continue to be less than a fan of the genre, but a fan won over by Maisie Dobbs.

BIRDS OF A FEATHER, Jacqueline Winspear's second book in the Maisie Dobbs series is much better than her first book which was the best mystery I'd read in a while. In fact this second book is a masterpiece and an Anglophile's dream come true. As I was reading the book I thought to myself, Dorothy Sayers has been reincarnated and she has come back as Jacqueline Winspear. I read history as well as mysteries, particularly the history of England, and am fascinated with the early 20th Century.

Winspear includes a great deal of relevant historical information in her novels which makes me feel as if I am on a tour of England with a guide who knows her way around and can share all sorts of anecdotal information you will hear no where else. Her story is set the early 1930s and by default includes the late teens and 1920s as it covers the Great War and it's aftermath in retrospect. This period, as many readers know is approximately the period Dorothy Sayers covered in her masterpieces involving Lord Peter Wimsey who fought in France and was saved by Bunter the man who became his valet and chauffeur.

Time period and an appreciation of history are not the only similarities between these two authors. Winspear writes a complex and satisfying tale that involves a plot filled with verismilitude and characters so real you will swear she must be writing nonfiction. Maisie Dobbs is a woman you would like to know better and come to care a great deal about, just as Harriet Vanes was that woman, and although the two come from different class backgrounds they are both difficult to get to know because they carry the pain of having suffered personal tragedy involving a financé.

But Maisie Dobbs is far more complex than Harriet Vanes. Maisie had a tutor who taught her about aspects of the world Harriet never knew or understood. While Harriet (ala Sayers) sulked about the things that were not available to her as a female member of Virginia Woolfe's class, Maisie went out and made her way in the world, acquiring the education that did not come her way naturally as a female member of the `Downstairs' class.

Because she straddles two words-upstairs and downstairs-like Sherlock Holmes who disguised himself and went out and mixed with the common folk, Maisie has complex insights about the world around her. She recognizes the hard truth that many people suffer and that social justice is not available for all.

While you will probably enjoy this book, you won't like the 'birds of a feather' who ruined many lives and who are -- as one character observes -- a band of harpies. If you haven't read MAISIE DOBBS, read that book first and get to know Maisie before you tackle this book. You are in for a treat. May Winspear keep this character around for a long, long while.

In Birds of a Feather, the daughter of a very wealthy man disappears, the last thing he needs is a scandel so he hires Maisie Dobbs an investigater to find his daughter and bring her home quietly. As Maisie attempts to locate Charlotte, she finds a disturbing connection to a brutal murder that is being investigated by the Police. Maisie must not only locate the girl, but also discover whether Charlotte might be hiding from the killer or is she actually the murderer.

Birds of a Feather is a refreshingly written mystery as most women at this time are either housewives or domestics. Maisie was once a battlefield nurse, she has now made her place in a male-dominated field of private investigators, so not only does she need to solve her case sutterly but she does it will feminine style and finesse.

After listening to hundreds of mysteries on audio, Maisie Dobbs is like a breath of fresh air.