This is book 4 in the Maisie Dobbs series. I really enjoyed this story. We are in London 1931. Maisie is hired to investigate the death of an artist and determine if it was truly an accident or was it murder?

Maisie's personal life takes a next step and she helps Billy through his own personal tragedy. Meanwhile she's getting involved in the London underworld and smuggling rings while investigating her case.

The author does a fabulous job of creating the time period. I can feel the scenery and I love that!

At the end I was very satisfied. I enjoyed this one more than book 4. Can't wait to read the next one!

Not my favorite, lots of redundancy

Maisie and I need to have some time away from each other. She's so cold and conceited these days. Her ever-increasing super powers are grating.

3 stars

Although I cannot say that this is my favorite all time series, I thought that this book was maybe the best of the 4 I have read. Maisie did not get spread too thin with multiple crimes to solve in this book, she concentrated on one issue - whether or not an artist fell to his death or was pushed. What I felt made this book so much better was the side story involving her assistant Billy.

On to the 5th installment...

Maisie Dobbs, book 4. I’m so used to reading e-books now that I ended up reading a Kindle edition from the library even though I had a hardcover edition available to me by midway through. Book 5 I have a friend’s autographed hardcover and it will be fun to read a “real” book again, and sans plastic library cover. I’m reading this series out loud to a friend.

This one has the usual wit & humor, and the psychological insight, and suspense at times too.

One incredibly sad happening  the death of Billy’s daughter Lizzy due to diphtheria partly due to hesitating to seek out medical care because of financial worries

The Great Depression is being dealt with now, as WWI was and is. My friend and I were disappointed that in earlier books the 1918 flu pandemic was barely mentioned. Given our current pandemic we’d been looking forward to seeing how these characters handled it.

This book was interesting. I liked the art world aspect of it.

These books so far have all been 4-1/2 stars for me. Rounding up or down is not an easy decision. I know I’m enjoying them more than I would were I reading them on my own. My friend and I tend to have the same sense of humor and similar sensibilities, and know what kind of personal meaning certain plot points and relationship issues have for ourselves and each other. Great fun! I would enjoy this series no matter what. Maisie is a great character as are all the regular more minor characters & guest characters and as are the locations described. The author is a fabulous storyteller.

ETA: One of my favorite things about these books is the absence of black and white and the presence of shades of gray.

Very unusual and successful English period mystery that focuses on the skills and practices of a painter and WW 1 veteran. Recommended for that many aspects of the painter’s practice that it explores, as seen through Maisie’s novice eyes.

The fourth installment in the Maisie Dobbs series finds Maisie investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of a well-known artist after being hired by the artist's twin sister. Her investigation leads her to discover both bonds and strife within the given family, while also putting her onto the scent of a possible smuggling ring.

Overall the story was enjoyable, but it was also my least favorite in the series so far. I have read numerous reviews now with people saying they don't think Maisie is a very likeable character, and for the first time a part of me agrees with her. I was not happy with how she handled her relationship with Andrew Dene, nor how it ended so abruptly, especially when he was nothing but caring and concerned for so long. It seemed like she strung him along unnecessarily because he was a good distraction, and I didn't like that.

I also found issue with the fact that, being a former nurse, she did not immediately go to Billy's house and offer help to the sickly Lizzie Beale. I understand she didn't want to injure Billy's pride by pushing, but if she had gone over sooner the poor girl might have survived. It seemed wrong that after the little girl's death she goes on and on about the plight of the poor and how others should be doing more to help, and yet she did nothing more but make a passing comment offering her assistance. Her actions made her feel like a bit of a hypocrite.

I also found the main mystery here to be slightly less engaging. I am a big fan of art in general, but writing about art can be very difficult, since it must be appreciated visually. Winspear's lengthy descriptions, although well-written, still cannot compete with seeing a piece of art with your own eyes. Given that art plays such a major role in the story, I found my mind wandering during the descriptions, often wishing there were pictures to go along with it.

Overall I still enjoy Winspear's writing, and will continue with the series, but I am hoping that future installments will be a bit more engaging than this one.

WARNING: You are about to enter a twisted, angry review where every innocent question hides a deadly and maleficent SPOILER!!!!

****

What kind of mystery novel spends two hundred pages trying to tell you nothing but how goofed up the murder victim's relatives are?

What kind of detective spends all her time holding hands with twits like the dead man's sister, then nabs the "killer" without even trying on the last page?

What kind of idiot gets into a shoving match with his father while standing high atop a rickety scaffold?

What kind of dad lives fifty five years without ever striking any of his kids, then "suddenly" shoves his son off a high scaffold "by accident?" Because he's "shocked" by a war painting?

What kind of "war painting" shocks people enough to commit murder, when all it shows is a German soldier and an English soldier having a "group hug" in the middle of no man's land?

All the problems in this novel come down to one thing. Dear, sweet Maisie Dobbs just can't fathom evil as a factor in human behavior. Unlike Sam Spade, who's favorite toast is "success to crime" Maisie has no ability to find the criminal impulse in her own emotions. There are no criminals in these novels, just bewildered lost souls who need Maisie's mystical brand of healing. It's all fearfully sweet and fearfully dull. And it only gets sillier as the time period advances and we hear more and more about real evil on the march -- Hitler in Germany, Moseley in England.

Jacqueline Winspear is a gifted author in my opinion. Each of her stories have multiple facets. Maisie's personal growth which includes her ability to really look at herself as honestly as she can, the stories concerning her characters where she sees them factually and as non-judgemental as possible, and an in-depth look into the world as it once was that you can't get from a history book. Her writing draws you in so that it is hard to put the book away.

This is the 4th book in the Maisie Dobbs series. Maisie has been asked by Georgina, a journalist, to investigate the death of her twin brother, Nicholas. While his death has been ruled as an accidental fall from scaffolding while work on his art installation at a gallery alone and at night, Georgina feels that something doesn’t seem right about it.

Rating Clarification: 2.5 stars

This series seems to be getting weaker and weaker, or more likely I'm getting more and more fed up with Maisie Dobbs: "New Age Geru Detective Extraordinaire".

#4 in the series finds Maisie on the hunt to determine whether her client's artist brother fell from some scaffolding, or was pushed to his death on the eve of his big art exhibition.

Along the way, Maisie discovers an appreciation for "ART", and Winspear tries to breath some color and emotion into her character as a result, but I don't buy it for a New York minute. Maisie has, unfortunately, the aesthetic sensibility of a rock.

Regardless, I will still continue with the series, which does have it's appeal (main character notwithstanding). However, I'm learning the hard truth that for me, Maisie is best taken in smaller doses.

I loved the first in this series when I read it several years ago, but I'm finding I'm not enjoying the subsequent ones as much... I'm not sure whether to keep going with this series - I probably will for another couple of books, at least, because I do like the era it is set in. I just found this book quite slow going - and easily put-downable.

I'm a Maisie Dobbs fan. Her character is developing over the series. In this book, she tests her independence on several fronts: professionally, by not calling on her mentor, Maurice Blanche, domestically, by living alone, and romantically, by separating from her suitor. She is investigating the death of an artist, meanwhile observing much about the society around her (1931, London), including veterans, the brutality of war, the rise of fascism, class differences, poverty, family relationships, and access to health care, as well as a criminal operation. Maisie is smart, but does not move easily in the world, owing to her own intimate losses and need for individual expression, which she accomplishes through her work. There are just a few dull passages; they are necessary for the plot, but they reference police procedures rather than the rich psychological techniques that Maisie relies upon.