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Maisie Dobbs #1-2

Maisie Dobbs / Birds of a Feather

jacqueline winspear

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In this exclusive QBP 2-in-1 edition are two of best-selling author Jacqueline Winspear's critically acclaimed World War I-era novels, featuring the female sleuth Maisie Dobbs.

Maisie Dobbs got her start as a maid in an aristocratic London household when she was thirteen. Her employer, suffragette Lady Rowan Compton, soon became her patron, taking the remarkably bright youngster under her wing. Lady Rowan's friend, Maurice Blanche, often retained as an investigator by the European elite, recognized Maisie’s intuitive gifts and helped her earn admission to the prestigious Girton College in Cambridge, where Maisie planned to complete her education.

The outbreak of war changed everything. Maisie trained as a nurse, then left for France to serve at the Front, where she found—and lost—an important part of herself. Ten years after the Armistice, in the spring of 1929, Maisie sets out on her own as a private investigator, one who has learned that coincidences are meaningful, and truth elusive. Her very first case involves suspected infidelity but reveals something very different.

In the aftermath of the Great War, a former officer has founded a working farm known as The Retreat, that acts as a convalescent refuge for ex-soldiers too shattered to resume normal life. When Fate brings Maisie a second case involving The Retreat, she must finally confront the ghost that has haunted her for over a decade.

623 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,2004
Series
Maisie Dobbs

This edition

Format
623 pages, Paperback
Published
January 1, 2004 by Quality Paperback Book Club
ISBN
9781582881584
ASIN
1582881588
Language
English
Characters More characters
  • Maisie Dobbs

    Maisie Dobbs

    Maisie Dobbs is a fictional character created by author Jacqueline Winspear. Maisie is a "psychologist and investigator" in post World War I London. A nurse during the war, Maisie returned to London to work with her mentor, accomplished detective Dr. Maur...

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About the author

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jacqueline winspear

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Jacqueline Winspear was born and raised in the county of Kent, England. Following higher education at the University of London's Institute of Education, Jacqueline worked in academic publishing, in higher education and in marketing communications in the UK.

She emigrated to the United States in 1990, and while working in business and as a personal / professional coach, Jacqueline embarked upon a life-long dream to be a writer.

A regular contributor to journals covering international education, Jacqueline has published articles in women's magazines and has also recorded her essays for KQED radio in San Francisco. She currently divides her time between Ojai and the San Francisco Bay Area and is a regular visitor to the United Kingdom and Europe.

Jacqueline is the author of the New York Times bestsellers A Lesson in Secrets, The Mapping of Love and Death, Among the Mad, and An Incomplete Revenge, and other nationally bestselling Maisie Dobbs novels. She has won numerous awards for her work, including the Agatha, Alex,
and Macavity awards for the first book in the series, Maisie Dobbs, which was also nominated for the Edgar Award for best novel and was a New York Times
Notable Book.

Series:
* Maisie Dobbs

http://us.macmillan.com/author/jacque...

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Community Reviews

Rating(4 / 5.0, 87 votes)
5 stars
29(33%)
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31(36%)
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87 reviews All reviews
Profile Image for Kimberly .
oyakume
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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An easy to read 2 in 1 mystery!

More about WW1 than who dun it murder at some points which I found fascinating.

Wonderful characters and I love the time period
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jade-v27
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Masie Dobbs. the first book of a wonderful series of mysteries, establishes the historical and psychological basis for Masie’s behavior. The reader is introduced to an intellectual, motivated to succeed adolescent who by demonstrating her intellect and by accepting the help of her patrons becomes a compassionate detective in post World War I England. The damage that WWI did to its soldiers is a major component of these first two books.
A striking feature of the first book is the quoting of Masie’s mentor, Maurice. While these quotes may indicate good dectective work, they are also a model for behavior.
“Truth walks toward us on the path of our questions.” (pg 32)
“Never follow a story with a question, Maisie. not immediately. And remember to acknowledge the storyteller …(pg 47),
"Sitting in a chair gives too much opportunity to retreat into the self, Blache had said. Keep the person moving, in the way an artist keeps the oil moving when he is painting. Don't give them a chance to dry up; don't allow the client to shut you out. (pg 51)
"Stay with the question. The more it troubles you, the more it has to teach you. In time, Maise, you will find that the larger questions in life share such behavior. (pg 104)
" Pay attention to the reactions of your body. It is the wisdom of self speaking to you." (pg 228)
"Remember, Maise, while there is always a victor and a vanquished , on both sides are innocents. Few are truly evil, and they do not need a war to work among us, although war provides them with a timely mask. (when giving her a copy of All Quiet on the Western Front.) (pg 223 )
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kathrine_peirce
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Although other reviews are lukewarm about this series, I enjoy it very much. It requires something from the reader to "read between the lines" when the story line moves back and forward. I do like the psychological aspect as characters must face their own fears and grief. I believe it is fairly historically accurate; post-WWI England. I've read the first 3 in the series and intend to keep going!
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HassySoda
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Excellent series - this is the second book. Highly recommend if you like mysteries where it is hard to guess "who done it."
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Vaggelis_
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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this book is so bad that i have to take breaks. it is kind of great, too. post wwi, plucky young heroine detective, hijinks of the serious sort, etc. it is small and is perfect for ferry boats. and bath tubs.
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dakotasapphire
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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I enjoyed this series of books about a strong young woman who works hard to make herself a success in the period between WW1 and WW2. Not only is she a nurse, she also develops a successful career as a criminal investigator which adds lots of interesting twists and turns to the stories. I am anxiously awaiting the next book in this series, which is due out next month.
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GaijinJaggajak
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Disappointing. I review these together because they came together in an omnibus edition and I read them together. Seems like everybody in my online book group loves Winspear and thinks these stories are terrific. (I know that is just how it looks and everybody who didn’t think so much of them just didn’t say so once the positive reviews got rolling.) Anyhow, I found them not terrible but not very good either. I quite disliked the rather pompous and entirely improbable angle that makes her not just a private investigator but a psychologist/p.i. and how she insists on counselling clients – and they put up with it. Pft. Both stories were also too long and dragged along, much tiresome repetition and tedious speculation. Zzzz. Oh well, a fat book off my shelves.
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