Maisie Dobbs, book 3. I’m reading this series out loud to/with a friend.

This one seemed to have less humor than the first two books in the series, but it did have some, and it seemed to have a lot more intrigue, and intricate and fun multiple mysteries. I love the shades of gray in these books, with the characters and with their circumstances. There isn’t a lot of black and white, nor are there definite heroes and villains. I really appreciate that.

I’m thoroughly enjoying this series but now associate it with reading out loud to/with this one particular friend. We are reading them really, really slowly. I have book 5 as a loaner from another friend which will be great because so far they’ve been Kindle e-books from the library and not renewable and there has been a wait to get each book back each time. Now waiting for book 4 for the first of likely multiple check outs.

At the end of the book proper this edition has the Acknowledgements section and a short author bio, and also an interview with the author and discussion questions. These books are great discussion books.

I’m glad that I’m finally reading this series. I really like it.

4-1/2 stars

2024 Review
I've had much to grieve in the five years since I first read this book, and this book remains cathartic for me--comforting without being easy.

2019 Review
A deeper installment into the Maisie Dobbs series. One thing I appreciate about Winspear is her grasp of the legacy of war on individuals, communities, and societies. This volume has more catharsis than the first two, and yet provides a solid foundation for future stories.

YOUTUBE / INSTAGRAM 

Esta tercera parte de Maisie Dobbs sigue en la línea de los anteriores:

-Una protagonista detective muy poco convencional con unos métodos de investigación de lo más peculiares. No obstante, creo que esta investigación sí se guía un poco menos por ese instinto, por ese pálpito medio místico que la caracteriza y distingue. Y creo que eso a mí me ha gustado más, que sea un poco menos mística y más racional (aunque siga siendo teniendo esa esencia, claro).

Por otro lado, a veces me da la sensación de que la autora retiene demasiada información, con lo cual el lector lo tiene más difícil que en otros libros. De repente te presenta la solución a una parte de la trama y en muchas ocasiones esa solución viene propiciada por una corazonada de Maisie más que por una pista a disposición del lector.

-Las consecuencias de la Primera Guerra Mundial siguen siendo muy relevantes, como en los libros anteriores y, estoy segura, en los siguientes. Siempre vemos, desde un ángulo u otro, los daños colaterales que persisten aún tras el final del conflicto y lo mucho que sigue alterando y condicionando la vida de las personas. Me gusta ver cómo el enfoque cambia en cada libro para ofrecerte diferentes perspectivas de los afectados, además de la de la propia Maisie, que fue enfermera en Francia durante la guerra. En esta ocasión, el caso es doblemente personal para Maisie porque regresa a Francia y por cierta persona implicada en una de los dos investigaciones paralelas que lleva a cabo nuestra detective.

Y confieso que esta temática de la guerra me hace replantearme si seguir con la saga, al menos, por el momento. No me malinterpretéis, es un tema importantísimo y relevante, pero es un tema tan serio y trascendental que no sé si me conviene en este momento, en el que uso la lectura principalmente como vía de escape y que necesito que sea sobre todo fuente de felicidad. Estos libros son cozy mystery, pero no dejan esa sensación de corazón calentito o ligereza que me gusta a mí. Ya digo, por el tema que tratan. Está genial tener variedad y entiendo por qué a otras personas les están fascinando, pero creo que quizás no sean tan ideales para mí.

I'm torn with this one. I enjoy Maisie but found her a little childish in this novel - or maybe her reactions to things didn't measure up with the way events were presented. Also too many plots - the main one and then all the secondary ones just made this more contrived than it needed to be.

Plot one - 13 year old girl is charged with murdering her "uncle" who is also her pimp.

From that, Maisie is then hired to confirm the death of a WWI pilot, as well as discover the truth behind the death of her best friends brother (also during the war) AND someone out there is trying to murder her.

Seriously?!

I feel like it would have been a better rounded book if it had simply been about the lost soldiers - the story would have been well rounded and there would have been an aura of mystery to it. Adding in the other components simply extended a story that didn't need it.

I'll read the next in the series, but this was a little tedious and did not require the attempted murder to keep a reader entertained. Also when you have so many plot lines you also have numerous characters - when we got to the end (aka discovering who wanted to harm Maisie) I almost forgot who that person was.

I really like the idea of a young woman setting up an investigative agency in the 1930s and Maisie Dobbs is becoming more independent and confident as she sets about her cases. She is asked by the police to help them interview a young girl accused of murder and sets out to investigate her guilt or innocence. At the same time she is approached by an eminent KC who promised his wife on her death bed that he would confirm that their son, a pilot, was killed in the war. His wife had never accepted that their son had died and had her beliefs supported by several psychics. Maisie must return to France and face her own past as a nurse in the war, as she investigates the fate of the young pilot.

I enjoyed this much more than the previous book in this historical mystery series, but I'm not sure if I will read any more. I enjoy the historical detail, but I'm not feeling totally invested in the characters and don't yet have a real sense (after three books) of Maisie's character. Although the novels touch on a wide range of topics, the plots are fairly superficial without any real depth. 3.5★

3.5 stars

I’m reading the Maisie Dobbs novels out of order, but it really doesn’t matter because it’s the characters and the period settings that I’m so drawn to. This one takes place in 1930 and finds Maisie looking for clues about three separate cases (two of which ended up being connected.) No sooner does she get involved in proving the innocence of a young girl who had been accused of stabbing her pimp than she was hired by a wealthy barrister whose wife was convinced their son had not been killed in the war even though they had been told he had died when his plane when down. And then her friend Priscilla (a character who shows up in all the books) confides that she is still troubled by the death of her brother who also died in the war under mysterious circumstances.

While the mysteries and the way Maisie solves them are interesting, my main reason for reading these books is Maisie herself. She’s a very believable and endearing character – someone with a great deal of empathy, compassion and psychological insight. But she’s also got her demons to wrestle with and she has the good sense to confront them rather than pretend they’re not there.

The other reason I’m a fan of this series is because of the way Jacqueline Winspear brings the period between the two wars vividly to life. Her books are filled with glimpses into what people in Great Britain were facing during those years as well as fascinating details about their homes, their automobiles, and even clothes they wore.

So far I’ve read six of the Maisie Dobbs books and it’s good to know there are lots more waiting to be read.

This is book 3 in the Maisie Dobbs series. Maisie is a unique, young detective in 1930s England. She promotes herself as a psychologist and investigator and used to be a maid in a country estate as well as a nurse in WW 1. So, she's got all kinds of experience!

I enjoy the setting, the time period and the characters. If you like historical detectives or murder mysteries, I think you could like Maisie Dobbs.

My enthusiasm has waned. Something strikes me odd. Didn't like where the storyline went. I know there are many other mystery writers to read that leave me satisfied at the end of the story. Peace out.

3.5⭐️ This is my favourite in the series thus far. Looking forward to the next in the series.

Added 5/11/11
This was a good cozy mystery. There were parts that dragged a bit, but, all in all, the story was a good one. I find that some of author Winspear's sentences are too wordy. For example: "Tavistock opened the gate into a no-man's-land dividing two houses, and then to the back where, between the two gardens, a Cross of Sacrifice rose toward the dark clouds, ever watchful over a small walled cemetery." Winspear also gives a good deal of attention to the clothes which the characters are wearing. I find that type of description uninteresting.

I wouldn't call this a compulsive read, but a comfortable one. The book contains some good dialogue which helps to keep the story alive. Her amiable investigative assistant, Billy, speaks with an engaging folksy dialect. The story is told in the third-person, mostly from Maisie's point of view. It follows Maisie wherever she goes, in a linear fashion.

The characters are likable and well-drawn for the most part, but at times there are too many names of minor characters to keep track of. Perhaps that's because I took so long to read the book and I kept forgetting which character fit in where. A character mentioned at one part of the book wouldn't be mentioned again for a while. However, Winspear does her best (through her main character Maisie Dobbs) to review what has gone on before.

In this mystery, Maisie is trying to find out what actually had happened to two World War One soldiers who were reported dead. She is also trying to prove that a young girl is not guilty of murder. During her investigations, she herself is the target of someone who wants her dead. So the mystery keeps one reading and wondering how the intrepid, but vulnerable, Maisie Dobbs will make out.

A sample of this book can be read online via your computer as a Google eBook at:
http://books.google.com/ebooks/reader...

EXCERPT: The young policewoman stood in the corner of the room. Plain whitewashed walls, a heavy wooden door, a wooden table with two chairs, and one small window with frosted glass rendered the room soulless. It was a cold afternoon and she had been in the corner since coming on duty two hours ago, her only company the rumpled and bent girl sitting in the chair that faced the wall. Others had come into the room to sit in the second chair: first Detective Inspector Richard Stratton with Detective Sargeant Caldwell standing behind him; then Stratton standing while a doctor from the Maudsley Hospital sat before the girl, trying to get her to speak. The girl - no one knew her age or where she had come from because she hadn't spoken a word since she had been brought in this morning, her blood-stained dress, hands and face showing a month's worth of dirt - was now waiting for another person who had been summoned to question her: a Miss Maisie Dobbs. The policewoman had heard of Maisie Dobbs, but from what she had seen today, she wasn't sure anyone could get this young scrubber to talk.

THE BLURB: In the third novel of this bestselling series, London investigator Maisie Dobbs faces grave danger as she returns to the site of her most painful WWI memories to resolve the mystery of a pilot's death

Agatha Christie's Miss Marple. Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone. Alexander McCall Smith's Precious Ramotswe. Every once in a while, a detective bursts on the scene who captures readers' hearts -- and imaginations -- and doesn't let go. And so it was with Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs, who made her debut just two years ago in the eponymously titled first book of the series, and is already on her way to becoming a household name.

A deathbed plea from his wife leads Sir Cecil Lawton to seek the aid of Maisie Dobbs, psychologist and investigator. As Maisie soon learns, Agnes Lawton never accepted that her aviator son was killed in the Great War, a torment that led her not only to the edge of madness but to the doors of those who practice the dark arts and commune with the spirit world.

In accepting the assignment, Maisie finds her spiritual strength tested, as well as her regard for her mentor, Maurice Blanche. The mission also brings her together once again with her college friend Priscilla Evernden, who served in France and who lost three brothers to the war -- one of whom, it turns out, had an intriguing connection to the missing Ralph Lawton.

Following on the heels of the triumphant Birds of a Feather, Pardonable Lies is the most compelling installment yet in the chronicles of Maisie Dobbs, "a heroine to cherish (Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review).

MY THOUGHTS: Pardonable Lies is my first encounter with Maisie Dobbs, a very pleasurable encounter. This novel covers a lot of different topics, including homophobia and mysticism.

Set in 1930, Maisie is a seemingly strong willed woman who has carved out a career for herself as a Psychologist/Investigator. But during the course of her investigations, Maisie is forced to confront some of her own demons, and some of her past actions may be placing her in danger.

Jacqueline Winspear has created a wonderful cast of characters and a deliciously compelling plot. Maisie Dobbs has a new fan in me.

I listened to the audiobook of Pardonable Lies by Jacqueline Winspear, narrated by Orlagh Cassidy via OverDrive. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

Please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the 'about' page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com for an explanation of my rating system. This review and others are also published on my blog sandysbookaday.wordpress.com page https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...