Maisie Dobbs still garners great respect among her readers for her integrity and strength of character. She is not willing to do anything unlawful to make money and that gives her an edge over other similar characters. People have enjoyed the series so much that it will soon be made into a BBC television series. These facts give her a new dimension as she consistently connects her present with her past and tries to find out how a nation would recover from trauma of such magnitude.
Maisie Dobbs
It happened because government wanted more men fighting on the battlefield than working in factories and hence women took over various unconventional careers including construction and law enforcement. To see Dobbs becoming a detective in those times is thus not too far from truth or reality because it was indeed happening in those desperate times. Maisie Dobbs is a believable character with her shortcomings and strengths. She may appear too good to a modern reader but if viewed in the context of times in which she took birth, her character seems very plausible.
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Every 2 weeks we send out an e-mail with Book Recommendations. So there you go: View all 29 comments. Apr 12, Hannah rated it it was amazing Recommended to Hannah by: I picked up Maisie Dobbs from the library upon the rec.
Pollifax to life back in the s. For more on Mrs. Pollifax, see The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax Don't go into reading Maisie Dobbs with any preconceived ideas about what you'll find there. Yes, it's a mystery -- somewhat. Yes, it's a historical novel -- some I picked up Maisie Dobbs from the library upon the rec. Yes, it's a historical novel -- somewhat.
Yes, it's a exploration of psychological healing -- somewhat.
Maisie Dobbs - Book Series In Order
In fact, Maisie Dobbs is one of those books that can't really be pegged and shelved in it's own confined area. The book starts in , when Maisie sets up her detective practice and receives her first solo case: A man wants Maisie to find out if his wife is having an affair. After solving that, the book abruptly switches gears and goes back 19 years, to , when young Maisie is just a lower class girl living with her widower, costermonger father.
While Maisie is decidedly low class in the ridged class structure of pre-War Britian, she is anything but low class in her intellect. Her bankrupt father sends her into service at the home of a wealthy and sympathetic upper crust family.
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From here, we learn Maisie's backstory - essentially, how she came to "be" Maisie Dobbs, Detective. The writing is spare and somewhat simple in places, which initially put me off. However, once I got into its rhythm, I was hooked. I loved the setting pre-and-post WWI England , and enjoyed Maisie's backstory with all it's information about being "in service". The ending was probably my favorite of all, but I won't tell I eagerly await my next installment of Maisie Dobbs: I want them as posters, they are so evocative of the era.
View all 9 comments. Mar 12, Leanna rated it liked it. Naturally, I had high expectations. Maisie Dobbs is almost too good to be true: The book is well written, but the split-nature of its format backfires. And Winspear does not fully develop the mystery, so its climax borders on the ridiculous. Winspear has written several more books in the Maisie Dobbs series. I will have to invest in the second novel before dismissing the series completely. View all 4 comments. This was a waste of time. I don't think there was an aspect of this book I did not hate.
Starting from the holier-than-thou main character, to the non-existent mystery, to the amazing not resolution of the non-mystery, to the abrupt hundred pages worth of tedious flashback in the middle of the mystery; everything bothered me. Maisie Dobbs is a private eye. She was a housemaid once, but it turned out that she was one of nature's rare prodigies, reading Latin by candlelight.
Her masters then decide that she ought to be tutored, along with all her work as parlormaid. He fills her mind with such gems as "Rush into conclusions not In the stillness, wait awhile On to the mystery! A ladies infidelity is suspected by her husband, the lady is blameless, and Maisie spends some time giving him shit for suspecting his wife.
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However it leads Maisie onto a suitably creepy post-war hidey hole for army men affected by the war called The Retreat. Then, there's someone else talking about the Retreat too, and Maisie decides to investigate. Flashback into Maisie's early life. Some tedious accounts of class differences. Maisie as a nurse in WW I France. Maisie with Simon, a brilliant and talented young doctor who worships the ground she walks on.
There's hardly a set up for a mystery in this book.
The half hearted attempt is cut abruptly so we have pages of Maisie backstory, for no discernable reason. By the time the story comes back to the current time, I lost any inclination of knowing what would happen. I had to finish it though. Maisie herself I thought had a border-line God complex. She instructs her first client to make her a commitment, and to his marriage. She calls herself responsible for the safety of all parties, but she makes friends with and invites confidences even after the husband has been sent away happy from her emotionally susceptible mark, by lying about who she is.
But let's not call this unprofessional. She has dodgy methods of problem solving. She may regurgitate the Maurice Blanche homilies to herself, but she the chill down her spine makes her jump into conclusions pretty much from the start. She is never wrong though, so I suppose that doesn't matter either. As for her personal life, she behaves despicably. It's been twelve years since this happened, and heroine has not bothered to visit him.
Her explanation - how scared she was about not remembering them as they were! She's a flake, true enough, but what's bad about this situation is a how happy Simon's mother is that madam finally condescended to visit the man she supposedly loved, b how Maisie has been so superior all through the book, with trite sayings such as "I know about wounds, I know about disfigurement" when she's done jack squat, and c zero insight into any thoughts Maisie might have had about Simon because the author thought that this needed to be a secret so there would be a big reveal shock!
The two paragraphs of lame explanations for her actions were the final nail in the coffin of this series for me. I'll re-read Agatha Christie for the nth time instead. View all 7 comments. Nov 29, Diane rated it liked it Shelves: This is a story about a cute, clever, and plucky young woman named Maisie Dobbs.
Maisie is setting up her own private investigation practice in London. The year is , and everyone we meet is still coping with the effects of the world war, including Maisie. Maisie has a cute and charming way of talking with people and getting them to share their stories. Her first client is a man who thinks his wife is cheating on him. Maisie follows the woman, befriends her and learns her sad tale about a love This is a story about a cute, clever, and plucky young woman named Maisie Dobbs.
Maisie follows the woman, befriends her and learns her sad tale about a loved one who was wounded in the war. Later, the man died of suspicious circumstances, so Maisie investigates a farm called The Retreat, using her charm and wits to get an inside look. The middle section of the book is a flashback to how Maisie got to be so plucky and sweet and charming. Her mother died at a young age, and Maisie had to go into service to help her father pay the bills.
Luckily, Maisie's master was a kind woman who observed the girl's cleverness, and encouraged her to study and take lessons from a tutor. Eventually, Maisie earned the chance to go to college, although the war intervened. Did I mention that Maisie is cute and charming and sweet and plucky and charming? A few friends recommended this book to me, knowing how much I enjoy charming British novels. But an odd thing happened — I thought this novel was TOO charming and precious. Maisie was TOO cute and plucky. The story was TOO predictable and bittersweet.
I felt like the author was hitting me over the head with a pile of those big books that Maisie liked to study in order to emphasize how cute and plucky she was.
Publication Order of Maisie Dobbs Books
This book is the first in a series about Maisie, and I'm not sure if I will read any more. I'm glad I finally checked out this one to see what the fuss was about, but my curiosity has been satisfied. View all 14 comments. I love this book. I listened to the audiobook. I am going right into book 2.
More books by Jacqueline Winspear
I'm already attached to the characters. View all 8 comments. Jan 24, Joanne rated it really liked it Shelves: A beautifully written story of a young girl's rise from household servant to wartime field nurse to her own successful career as a private investigator during WWI-era England. This novel is so much more than just an historical mystery with a clever female sleuth. Winspear creates Maisie's story of her first professional case in such a way that with flashbacks we understand the physical and psychological scars of those who served during wartime She has empathy for those who suffer or are in need, and this first installment of Maisie Dobbs will reveal the path that has brought her from servant to beginning her own professional business.
A great beginning to a series that I can't wait to continue. View all 6 comments. Oct 05, Alaina rated it it was ok. It took me a few tries to start this book. Probably the only reason I finally read it was because I'm trying to read the books I already have, instead of adding to my ever growing pile of books to read. Maisie Dobbs is a new private eye in post WWI London, setting up shop and trying to earn a good client base in a world still getting used to the working woman outside of service.
With a cunning mind, great determination, and a bit of luck and help along the way from a supportive father and a libe It took me a few tries to start this book. With a cunning mind, great determination, and a bit of luck and help along the way from a supportive father and a liberal and open minded employer Maisie has been able to go from a young girl in service to studying at a University to making her own way in the world.
With the outbreak of WWI, and the sudden death of a friend, she is moved to put her dreams on hold to join up as a field nurse to help the boys at war. The first book in the Maisie Dobbs series; it sheds some light on what happened to Maisie in the passed during the war, while also following along as she uses everything her mentor Maurice Blanch taught her to solve the mysteries brought to her by clients or ones she discovers along the way.
I found this book a bit hard to get into. A number of parts felt like filler, constantly having the character going back over what had just occurred. That is not a bad tool to use, but I felt it was used far too often. Many of the characters I felt were more of a caricature, few of them felt real, or had any real depth to them.
The book starts off in as Maisie is just setting up her detective agency after her mentor retires. It shows her close relationship with her once employer Lady Rowan, and her admiration for her mentor Maurice. She is portrayed as very careful with her finances and meticulous with her work. She gets her first clients with help from Lady Rowan, and along the way of investigating she uncovered a much bigger mystery.
The book then jumps back to , just after Maisie has lost her mother, it follows Maisie through having to go into service to help her now savings-less father, to University and to the outbreak of WWI. It speeds through time from when she decides to leave school to help the cause as a nurse to the time she ends up on the battlefields in France.
I found this portion of the book, where Maisie's background is revealed, to be very dry. It hols all of the major events in Maisie's life but didn't feel like a huge impact. World War I intensifies, and the pressures of war can be felt in Maisie's England. Deciding that the war efforts are extremely important to her and her country, Maisie volunteers as a nurse at the front, where she meets a young man, with whom she falls in love.
Part of the mystery surrounding Maisie is what happens to the young man. After the war, Maisie apprentices with Blanche in his investigative work. In , after Blanche has retired, Maisie opens her own investigation business. Her first seemingly open-and-shut case involves her in a mystery surrounding something known as The Retreat, a suspicious home for veterans of the war.
Maisie must act fast when she learns that Lady Compton's own son has signed over his fortune to The Retreat and has taken asylum there. With the help of Billy Beale, a caretaker at her office and veteran of the Great War himself, she is able to infiltrate The Retreat. As Maisie uncovers the mystery of The Retreat she is also confronted with her own ghosts from the war after ten years of holding the memories at bay.
Jacqueline Winspear became deeply interested in World War I and its after effects because of her grandfather, who was severely wounded and shell-shocked after serving at The Battle of Somme in Maisie Dobbs was mostly well received by critics. Woodcock characterized Maisie as a strong protagonist.