Customer Reviews

Maisie Dobbs

5 star:		(71)
4 star:		(41)
3 star:		(27)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

While "Maisie Dobbs" has been categorized as a novel/mystery, the book actually reads more like a novel (even though there is a mystery at hand, and our heroine is a detective) than it does a 'straight' mystery novel. But this did not stop me from enjoying the book at all.

Once Maisie Dobbs was a domestic servant with little expectation of anything else aside from rising within the ranks. However, thanks to the sponsorship of her employer, Lady Rowan Compton, who quickly realised that there was something really special about the thirteen year old, Maisie was given an education. Now, Maisie is a young woman and eager to make her mark; and thanks to the tutorship of Lady Rowan's good friend, Maurice Blanche (a renowned detective himself), Maisie is ready to embark on her first case. Unfortunately, it looks as if her first case is going to be a case of marital infidelity: Mr. Davenham suspects that his much younger wife, Celia, is having an affair; and he wants Maisie to either confirm his worst fears or else refute them. Little does Mr. Davenham realise, however, that Maisie is no ordinary detective. A highly intuitive and empathic young woman, Maisie senses Mr. Davenham's anguish over his wife's alleged infidelity and is resolved to help the Davenhams repair their strained marital bond. Her investigation however leads her to a graveyard, and to a grave marked only with a simple tombstone and a name -- Vincent. A casual search turns up other graves -- all memorialized with tombstones and first names only. Something about the whole thing awakens Maisie's misgivings, and trusting her instincts she decides to widen her investigation, never dreaming just how much this investigation will affect her...

"Maisie Dobbs" is divided into three sections: the first section deals with Maisie's initial investigation of Celia and what she's up to, and this section does read very much like a mystery novel; the second section deals with how Maisie came to be noticed by Lady Rowan, her education, and her war experiences -- this third of the book however reads more like a novel; the last section of the book again deals with the mystery of the mysterious tombstones, and the resolution of this mystery. While "Maisie Dobbs" proved to be a good and easy read, complete with an intriguing storyline and an intelligent and likable heroine, I must admit that the book was not that much of a suspenseful read. Because the novel does rely a little heavily on Maisie's intuitive powers, there are practically no unexpected plot twists or red herring suspects. (And truly, "Maisie Dobbs" was more about how, even almost an entire decade after the war, people were still coming to terms with the horror and grief that war entails). So that while I'm not exactly sure just how successful this plot device of having an empathic detecting heroine will be, I will admit that "Maisie Dobbs" proved to be a very enjoyable read.

Never much of a mystery reader, in the last number of years I have been introduced to two wonderful female detectives of sorts. One was Fremont Jones, a private detective based in San Francisco at the turn of the century and the heroine of a series written by Dianne Day. The other was Mma Ramotswe from the Alexander McCall Smith mystery series set in Botswana, Africa. While I enjoyed the mystery angles of both series, it was the women and their personalities, the geographical areas where they lived and the historical times which intrigued me so greatly. And as much as I loved these books, I remember thinking that I most likely would never find another female character from this genre who would appeal to me in quite the same way. But then I didn't know that very shortly I would meet up with the most intriguing character of all, one Maisie Dobbs from the book with the same title by Jacqueline Winspear. And as I said in the title of this review, I just know this is the beginning of a wonderful friendship.

We first meet Maisie Dobbs in 1929 when she is moving into her first office in London. A private detective, Maisie has been tutored and apprenticed by a Dr. Maurice Blanche who is highly regarded in London's social circles.

Her first case seems rather ordinary when a man suspects his wife of cheating on him. Following the woman in question, Maisie finds a lady mourning a childhood friend killed during W.W.I. But more than that Maisie also uncovers a rather sinister plot involving a farmhouse used as a retreat for men unable to rejoin society. Called the Retreat it holds the answer to why certain war heroes met untimely deaths while living at the Retreat.

While this book is considered a misery it almost takes a back seat to the main character for as we turn the pages we learn more and more about Maisie and her circumstances. In a series of flashbacks we first meet Maisie at 13 when her mother has died and her father, a costermonger, has no money left for Maisie's education due to the medical expenses for his wife. Maisie's father then finds a job for her as a scullery maid in the home of Lady Compton, a wealthy woman and suffragette. While working in this large London home, Maisie soon finds a wonderful library which appeals to her sense of learning. When she is found there one night by her employer while poring over a book, Lady Compton arranges for Maisie to be tutored over a period of years, then paying for her to attend Girton, the women's school from Cambridge. But then war intervenes and the book takes a different turn as Maisie faces World War I working as a field nurse and learns about both the joys and sorrows of a first love.

I so enjoyed this book that I literally gulped it down. I found that Ms. Winspear offered her readers a wonderful glimpse into the world of London before, during and after W.W.I. From the drawing rooms of the wealthy homes to the life of a young nurse, I felt as though I was in London during these times, not reading in the year 2005. But more than anything I love learning about Maisie's life which was also laid out as a misery till the final pages revealed an important piece of the puzzle.

I must say that I might never have read this book had it not been for the recommendation of a dear online friend. So not only do I thank Ms, Winspear for writing this book, I also thank my friend for reading this and passing along the recommendation. And now that I've finished Maisie Dobbs I can't wait to read the second book in this series, Birds of a Feather. I only hope that the next book will be as good as the first one. Something tells me it will be. And then I will anxiously wait for the next book by this talented and gifted author.

By rights, I'm just the right reader for this book: I love mysteries (especially British ones), I find WWI fascinating, I find the interwar era and the whole "upstairs-downstairs" British class stuff interesting. And yet...while mildly diverting and obviously well-researched, this first book in a series about a plucky young female investigator/psychologist really didn't work for me. It's written as if the intended readership were 10-14 year-old girls, which is fine, but as an adult, it's hard to find Nancy Drewish escapades of a flawless heroine all that fulfilling.

The framework is a little unconventional (though not the disaster some reviewers make it out to be): the first part of the book introduces us to 20something Maisie Dobbs, just opening her business in London. Her first case is a classic assignment: a man who is worried his wife is cheating on him wants Maisie to check into it. As her investigation unfolds there are allusions to Maisie's past and a mysterious mentor, but nothing is spelled out. Suddenly, the story drifts back in time to 1910 or so, and we are reintroduced to a younger Maisie as she enters service as a housemaid for an aristocratic family. We follow dutifully along as her employers discover her reading Latin in the library and extend their patronage, allowing her to be tutored by their strange friend (and apparent spy) Maurice, and eventually supporting her bid to go to Cambridge (Girton College). Despite success at school, when World War I starts, she decides to join the Red Cross, and eventually serves as a nurse in France, where she witnesses the horror of war.

The final third of the book then shifts back the the postwar era, and Maisie's patron asks her help in a family matter. This all dovetails with her earlier case, as well as the war and the scars (psychic and physical) left by the war. The mystery isn't substantial enough to satisfy most fans of the genre, and anyone with any discernment is going to find the climax painfully bad. (All I'll say is that involves singing...) As a detective, Maisie isn't particularly compelling -- her technique is a mix of keen observation and psychology. However, she's even less compelling as a character. Maisie's one of those plucky underdogs designed to provoke maximum reader projection: born into semi-poverty, raised by single father, highly intelligent, uncommonly perceptive, always composed, humble, beloved by all, and possessing big violet eyes. She's the kind of character everyone likes to imagine they would be, had they lived in that time and been born into those circumstances. The supporting cast is fairly pat: vegetable-seller father (with a heart of gold), feisty upper-class patroness (with a heart of gold), prim butler (with a heart of gold), plump cook (with a heart of gold), Cockney handyman/sidekick (with a heart of gold), etc...

The book isn't bad (except for the climax, which is terrible), it's just not very satisfying for adult readers looking for complex characters and a meaty plot. It suffers from feeling very much like a book designed to establish setting and characters for a series. I may read onward in the series (the next two are Birds of a Feather and Pardonable Lies), but may wait for the inevitable BBC TV series this will spawn.

This book is really a mixture of a novel and mystery. Masie Dobbs is a bright girl born to a low station in pre-World War One London who is given the opportunity of to educate herself and eventually becomes a private investigator. The story of Masie's life takes up as much of the book as the case she is working on. Masie's love of books and learning and her determination to fulfill her dreams are captivating. Equally touching is the profound change that occurs in her priorites once the war breaks out. The book is permeated with the Great War and its aftermath, and the author writes very movingly about the staggering loss that seems to have left no family untouched. It's not a traditional suspense yarn, but a truly rewarding read.

This won an Alex (young people's library award) NOT an Agatha. It was also nominated for an Edgar. This is hardly suprising given the author's lenghthy experience in the publishing industry, and the numerous contacts which she has as a result.

As one prior reviewer noted, the dialogue and characters do owe much to Barbara Cartland. However, let's remember that Barbara Cartland made millions on her predictable stories and is now a Dame of the British Empire.

I think your opinion of this story will depend on your ability/willingness to suspend credulity and believe in the numerous coincidences which are the backbone of the plot. Personally, I thought the charcters were cliched, albeit well-researched.

Is it worth reading? Sure, borrow it from the library and take it to the beach. Then you can decide for yourself if you should plunk down money to buy it, and even more importantly, give it precious shelf space. (I wouldn't.)

Brash statement, huh?

I am an inveterate reader of mysteries (wrote a few myself) and I am greatly disappointed in most writers, except Colin Dexter (not writing any more) Reginald Hill (still the Master) and Dennis Lehane (too changeable, suddenly but with the sharpest typewriter among American Mystery authors).

It is great to pick up a book and from the first sentence get an a prickly feeling, this is it!

Yes, it is fantasy (no, not SF)with a very short list of characters-the entire book is half what the usual overwriters produce today- with great punch and depth. One does not have to write pages to convey what a character feels. Maisie is 14 when her mother dies and her father, another fairy tale character, takes loving care of her. And Lady Rowan, and Maurice Blanche. The midnight reading of the great books in the library, and still get up early morning to do the chores, the feeling of inevitable success are all conveyed in short incidents.

There are three parts to the story: a short beginning with a whimsical mystery about a suspicious husband, and Maisie establishes her pro-feminine character in no uncertain way (shades of Cordelia Gray). The second and the most moving part, exqusitely written, is an Upstairs Downstairs story that culminates in the Great War, and unlike Bulldog Drummond, portrays an honest and perhaps the best short poignant description of the sufferings put between covers. The third part is another investigation, this time directly the result of the war.

You finish the book with a great sigh of satisfaction. Writing like this has not been in print since Ms. Dorothy L Sayers.

Good luck, Ms. Winspear! I am holding on to the next book for a nice Indian Summer weekend, to enjoy.

MAISIE DOBBS is written in three parts. In the first part, Maisie is setting up shop as a private investigator. A man hires Maisie Dobbs to follow his wife, who he thinks is cheating on him. She follows this woman to a graveyard where she stands over the grave of a man named Victor, just Victor. Maisie finds out from the caretaker that this man was a war veteran whose face had been hideously defiled. There are other graves in the graveyard without a surname and Maisie is suspicious.
The second part is flashback. We see Maisie rise from a maid, to a student at Cambridge, then a WWI nurse. We see her getting up at three in the morning to read the books in her employer's library. When she is discovered, rather than fire her, her employer takes her under her wing to assure her an education.
In the third section we return to Maisie's investigation of a suspicious farm called The Refuge which had been formed as a haven for WWI veterans who had been deformed in battle.
Although sometimes over-earnest with a plot line that's a bit too convenient, Maisie Dobbs is a worthwhile read. The likeable lead, the setting, and the theme of soldiers with little to live for kept me turning the pages with relish. Jacqueline Winspear is also smart enough to keep you guessing about what happened to Maisie's doctor lover right up until the end. The book is also peppered with enjoyable minor characters that help round out the personality of our Maisie.

This sensitively written first novel is being marketed as a mystery, but that's only part of it -- and the lesser part, in my opinion. It's 1929 and 33-year-old Maisie Dobbs, daughter of a London costermonger, is hanging out our shingle as what amounts to a "consulting detective" somewhat in the Holmesian style. She's certainly not a gumshoe. Though she started out as a maid-of-all-work in a big townhouse, her natural intelligence and intuitive talents, combined with her mistress's desire to do some good in the Edwardian era, result in her private education by Maurice Blanche, an old friend of Lady Rowan who becomes her mentor. Then she goes off to a women's college at Cambridge, until the Great War interferes. And that, in fact, is the center of this novel: The War. What it did to an entire generation of young English men and women and to their families, and the effects it had on English society even a dozen years later. Both Winspear's own grandfathers served and she has a strong feeling for the subject, but that may actually prove to be a problem for later books in the series of which this is the first. If you remove all the backstory about Maisie's upbringing and experiences as a nurse at the front, the actual "mystery" -- which involves skullduggery at a Kentish retreat for wounded and disfigured soldiers -- is a little thin. And Maisie is sometimes a bit *too* good, as are her friends and the love of her life, Capt. Simon Lynch of the Royal Army Medical Corps. But it's a compelling piece of work, and I'll be very interested to see if the author can keep it up.

This first Maisie Dobbs book was obviously just a warm up. You should skip it and go right on to the second book in the series, BIRDS OF A FEATHER. It has a much better mystery.

This book contains barely any mystery at all. Once Maisie goes after the sinister man running the Retreat, the pieces come together with laughable ease. And you will not believe the big musical "finale" where the power of song converts the villain into a big, blubbering baby. I mean, really! Charlie Manson was a big Beatles fan, but if his victims had burst into a chorus of "Yellow Submarine" he probably just would have rolled his eyes and kept right on stabbing away.

What saves Winspear as a writer is just that her characters are so wonderful and kind. I wanted to hear so much more about Priscilla, Maisie's sexy and fun-loving girl friend from Oxford. She should have a novel of her own, or at least be reunited with Maisie for a big mystery! And I think it was a mistake to keep mentioning Lady Rowan's son James, and all his "problems" and never allow the man to speak for himself. Bring him back too!

BIRDS OF A FEATHER tells you everything you need to know about Maisie Dobbs. Begin there!

While Maisie Dobbs is certainly less "literary" than "The English Patient," in the course of an entertaining, mystery-driven read, it gives us new perspectives on the impact of the Great War and the suffering it caused. Who knew that when maimed young men returned from the front, they were made uncomfortable by "normal" society and sought refuge in camps where they could be among their own? The book also introduces a character like no other. Maisie is a woman of her time in that she is riding the crest of change (the work women performed during the war changed things for her gender). But as a sleuth, she relies on her highly trained powers of intuition much like Sherlock Holmes relies on his ability to observe and deduce. Oh yeah, if you liked Gosford Park and Upstairs Downstairs, you'll eat up the back story in this book, which tells of Maisie's early life below stairs and occupies a large portion of the story in flashback. In all, Maisie Dobbs is a charmer and a page turner that leaves one wishing it was a hundred pages longer.