A really enjoyable start to a series. It was more than a mystery with lots of great period details and wonderful character building. It read more like a hist fic with a little mystery thrown in but I thought it was great. I started this up a couple of years ago but couldn't get into so put it down. This year it came up as a group series read in Retro Chapter Chicks so I decided to give it another try. Glad I did and I'm going to be moving on to book 2.

I really was enjoying the first third of the book, but all the back history in the middle was very boring and brought me out of the read. It really spoiled the pace of the story somehow. I have hopes that the rest of the series could be much better. I liked the psychological aspect to Maisie’s work and the concept of transference of physical sensations which I know to be accurate from studies in counselling. I think the series shows promise.

“Необикновеното се крие зад камуфлажа на обикновеното.”

“Паметта е златна верига, която ни свързва, докато се срещнем отново.”

“Няма нищо, от което човек да се страхува толкова, колкото от това да разбере колко много е способен да направи и да постигне.”

“Когато протегнем ръка, за да я сложим върху болно коляно или гръб, на практика посягаме към първичните си способности да изцеляваме. Разумното използване на енергията на докосването може да трансформира, защото силата на нашата аура успокоява нараненото място.”

“Самичка роза сред Ничията земя расте,
да я зърнеш там в нищото прекрасно е,
макар да я полива не друго, а сълзи.
Образът и ярък ще грее през годините,
озарил на моите спомени градината…

На таз самичка роза аленочервена,
от ръката на Твореца посадена
съдбата на войника там е поверена.
Насред проклятието черно на войната
се възправя от Червения кръст сестрата.
Розата е тя, израсла от Ничията земя…”

The only thing I didn't care for with this book is that Winspear started with the mystery, then gave Maisie's back story for the second third of the book, then went back to the mystery. I loved the setting (England and France during and just after World War I) and the odd little insightful observations on the psychology of the mind. The character of Maisie Dobbs completely won me over. An intelligent woman from the lower class making her mark on the world. Winspear didn't allow Maisie to be a martyr, either. I loved that other female characters would call Maisie out when she was wearing her difficult life as a badge of honor. The subject matter was pretty intense, but the writing was somehow light. Maybe just light compared to the last book I read? Either way, very enjoyable.

Solid British mystery, set between the wars, and now I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.

OK, but not my cup of tea. The book is not really a cozy or a romance or a thriller or a historical novel or whatever. It's neither fish nor fowl, except that Maisie is sort of a cold fish. Annoyingly, there is a lot of build-up at the beginning about Maisie's amazing mind but then there's no real follow-through: she follows people in the street. That's pretty pedestrian.
The narration on the Audible version also took something away because, for example, the old men had high squeaky voices.

I absolutely loved this book! It set up the beginning of a series quite nicely while still giving enough of a story to stand on its own. Maisie is an endearing character, but my favorite is probably Maurice. He's just so wise! I really enjoyed all the characters actually. Even the side characters had enough depth to them that I cared about them while reading. I'm very interested in continuing this series.

So, full disclosure: I did not finish this one. I tried, I really did - I checked this out from the library twice, and I got about 3/4 of the way through it on the final try. But the second due date is rapidly approaching, and I officially give up.

Even though most mystery series are specifically written so that a reader can pick up any installment and jump right in without needing a ton of backstory, I always like to start a new detective series with Book One, because it's nice to get the lay of the land and see how the author introduces the recurring characters.

And Maisie Dobbs starts out very nicely, introducing our detective as she's in the early days of establishing herself as a private investigator in post-WWI London (Winspear fills the opening chapters with lots of nice little details, like how Maisie has to walk everywhere because sometimes Tube fare isn't in her budget for that day). The investigation kicks off when a man comes to Maisie's office with a simple assignment: he thinks his wife is having an affair, and he wants to hire Maisie to follow her and find out for sure.

Maisie accepts the job, giving the standard private-eye warning that her client may not like what she finds, and then she gets to work following the wife - and quickly learns that, rather than visiting a lover, the wife is visiting a gravestone once a week. Maisie starts investigating the identity of the buried person, and then Winspear takes a break from the action to bring the reader back to Maisie's childhood, and fill us in on her backstory.

This is the point where the plot comes to a screeching halt, and what might as well be a completely new novel starts. Maisie got a job in service for a rich lady, who happened to be friends with a private investigator, and the rich lady and the investigator encouraged young Maisie's interests in reading and studying, and then Maisie got a scholarship to Oxford but then WWI breaks out and Maisie decides to drop out of college and become a nurse, and...sorry, weren't we supposed to be solving a mystery?

This digression, in which we learn basically Maisie's entire life story, takes up twelve chapters. It's not a flashback, it's half the book! Yes, I fully admit I didn't finish the book, but I refuse to believe that all this information becomes relevant to the eventual solution to the mystery! Around the fifth time Maisie sits down for a cozy tea and chat with her father, I was so bored I'd forgotten what present-day Maisie was supposed to be investigating. The backstory chapters don't even really show Maisie learning how to be a detective - it just amounts to the same boring WWI romance you've read a thousand times: Maisie drops out of college to become a nurse because she feels it's her civic duty, and promptly has a doomed and chaste romance with a hot doctor. SNORE.

By the time Winspear takes us back into the present-day investigation, I no longer cared. This isn't a detective story, this is a boring wartime romance.

The only good news is that I think I'll still try another Maisie Dobbs mystery in the future - since Jacqueline Winspear spent the majority of this book telling us Maisie's entire backstory, that means that she'll have to spend the sequels actually, you know, writing a mystery novel. Can't wait.

I was surprised by this book: I picked it up for light mystery, but got an exploration of World War I trauma and its lasting effects on the soldiers, doctors and nurses, but also on the women who had to take up the slack and were left single, mourning lost sweethearts.

I enjoyed it and found it well written, with great compassion towards the suffering and also towards people in general. We get a solid story of Maisie’s growing up and her experiences as a frontline nurse, and her romance with Simon, whom she never stopped mourning.

I saw that the top review really hated how much of a cliché Mary Sue character Maisie was, with her golden-hearted benefactor Lady Rowan, equally golden-hearted father, mentor, and Billy, the injured soldier who becomes her assistant. Yes, they are kinda cliché - but you know, after you have read a bunch of books, it is hard to find one that is not cliché, especially in the mystery genre. It all depends on what the author does with those clichés. And I liked where she went with it. Maisie solved her case with compassion towards everyone. Winspear clearly threw in a (very unlikely for the time) mindfulnes and compassion training for Maisie, enabling her to get deeper into the psyche of people around her. I especially found it insightful the recurring reminder to listen to people, without interrupting, and staying silent to give them space. Those are true insights.

Yes, there are clichés in here, but also much advice on how to be compassionate, which many of us could really use. I would rather be reading a series centered on being nice and kind, than on the also cliché evil grisly monster serial-killer or jaded lonely detective. As long as it is well written, with good character development and important themes. Which this one definitely is.

26/2023 Este libro lo hemos leído para el club pensando que era una novela negra y, mira, no. Es verdad que hay una detective, pero más de la mitad de la novela se pasa en que nos cuente su vida. Que está fenomenal y me ha gustado bastante, pero no lo llames negra cuando es prácticamente ""tacitas""

El misterio se resuelve bien, todo acaba felizmente y sienta las bases para la continuación de la saga. Yo los voy a seguir leyendo.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. In fact, I was a bit surprised at how much of the story was pure delight.

Superb characters! Very good PCM! Most of all, an excellent story!

I highly recommend in every way!

The legacy of WWI forms the background of Maisie's first case as she sets up shop as a psychologist and investigator. Part psychic, part detective, part counselor, Maisie is a former WWI field nurse who carries her own scars into the late 1920s and 1930s. A former groceryman's daughter with wealthy patrons, she has gone from servant to independent woman. In this case she is confronted with the mysterious deaths of WWI veterans whose gravestones bear only their first names. Their last place of residence: The Retreat, where they could hide hideous facial scars and other injuries, as well as psychic scars, from an uncaring world that just wants to "button up and get on with it." There's just one question: why have so many died at The Retreat?