Loved it. Strong female main character. Historical. Well written.

I love this series - made me do more research on WWI, battlegrounds in Belgium. Jacqueline's personal history and research adds so much depth to the stories.

I enjoy the blend of an acute observer of human behavior and learning so much more about
World War I.

Listened to - pretty good mystery , I thought I knew who done it but I was wrong

After World WR ! Maisie is looking for the daughter of a grocery store magnate

My review is for the first Maise Dobbs novel only. I haven't read the second.

I would have liked this book better if the story had been told chronologically. The first section is the middle, where Maise is setting up a detective agency on her own, now that she’s graduated from being a protégé. A fairly interesting case is looked into and concluded, but throughout this telling, the names of interesting characters and events that took place in the past are alluded to, and they sound far more interesting than the current drama.

In the middle section, the story of how Maise became a professional woman is told. A very bright little girl doing so well in school is pulled out to enter domestic service at the age of 12. Her father loves her very much but he must work even harder now to pay the bills that are due from Maisie’s mother’s fatal illness. Maise wants to stay and take care of him but he knows she would fare better in a great house where there is good food, heat, and good people. He knows this house as he provides vegetables to the cook. Her father is a proud, hard-working, honest man with a brave little horse that pulls his cart around London. The relationship of father and daughter is the best part of the story.

During her years in service there, Maisie couldn’t resist reading in the estate’s library in the early hours, and is finally found out. Instead of sacking her, the forward-thinking matron decides to have her tutored by a great mind, a friend of hers. Maisie continues working in service, of course. World War I arrives and Maise is at a woman’s college in Cambridge. She volunteers for the nurse corp, but before she leaves, she meets the man of her dreams, a handsome young doctor. They meet again in France and continue the courtship.

The last part of the book continues with a case related to the first, only a much more serious one. We find how that concludes, and we discover how the romance with the doctor stands.

Perhaps I’ve read a few too many books about plucky young English girls who are brighter than the rest, beset by circumstances too challenging for most, yet who rise to great heights. It was good, but I was not as interested in it as I hoped to be.

This is the first book in the series and I reading it first. The book has two sections The first starts as Maisie is asked to find out what his wife is doing by a client. After she has the answer she is still bother by the case.
The next section we learn about her life. At the age of 13 she is apprenticed as a kitchen maid. Maisie discovers the library and decides to get up an hour early in order to read them. This is a good description of the life of the middle-class.
The last section Maisie patron asked her to investigate the Retreat that her son is planning on joining. The twists that story takes will hold your attention.

This is was a library book and had only Maisie Dobbs.I can't find it listed on Goodreads

Book 2 of great series. Can't wait to get on to books 3 and 4!

Great heroine. Been reading books about women during WWII & WWIi recently.

The protagonist is a female detective in 1930s London. Light, entertaining reading with intriguing, plot and characters. Plus a bit of history which I always enjoy.

I was rather disappointed by this book as it had been recommended to me by a reputable source. Although the story was interesting, I found the writing quite forced. Also, maybe it was the edition that I was reading, but there were numerous type-o's so bad that sometimes entire sentences were repeated. Nothing bothers me more than poor grammar and poor editing!

My first Jacqueline Winspear novel-I thoroughly enjoyed this book and am looking forward to reading more of this excellent author.

Maisie Dobbs and Birds of a Feather by Jacqueline Winspear are the first two novels in a Maisie Dobbs series.
Maisie Dobbs gives the background of Maisie; it starts out with Maisie setting up her office as a private investigator, starting work on what appears to be a routine fidelity investigation. But as Maisie watches the woman to see where she goes, she discovers that she visits a cemetery, not a living man.
This makes her remember her own history, and the second part of the novel tells us about her early life: daughter of a costermonger, Frankie Dobbs, whose wife had died, and who wanted to help Maisie, and did so by getting her placed as a tweeny in Lady Rowan's home. It worked out better that he expected; she was noticed by not only Lady Rowan but by her friend, Maurice Blanche, who took her under their wings and worked on her education so that she was able to pass the exams to get into Girton, the women's branch of Cambridge. However WWI intervened, and Maisie joined the army and learned to be a battle field nurse where she fell in love with a battlefield doctor, Simon Lynch. However, the battle came too close to the hospital tent and an explosion which only left Maisie with a scar under her hairline, took the mind of Simon, who now lives in a home for soldiers. He is alive but only sees something in the distance when Maisie holds his hands.
The story then reverts to the present where the woman she is watching is in love with her own soldier who was horribly scared and went to a Retreat to hide from the stares of others. He died and the woman visits his grave. Maisie was not only able to reconcile the woman and her husband, but discovered the Retreat was really almost a jail or cult, and able to help the many young men who were living there.
The second novel, Birds of a Feather, also deals with WWI. Maisie is asked to find the daughter of a wealthy grocery owner who has run away. But as she searches, she discovers that the girl is tied to three other young women who were recently killed. She frantically searches to save Charlotte Waite from the same fate, she learns all four were members of the Order of the White Feather, women who lured men into joining the service by giving them a white feather to indicate cowardice for not joining the fighting. They are blamed for the deaths of the fathers and sons who were killed in battle. Maisie finds the killer and Charlotte and her father are reunited.
Since Simon is in fact out of the picture as Maisie's mate, she finds two potential replacements: Dr. Andrew Dene, who is helping Frankie Dobbs recover from an accident and Billy Beale, her assistant, (who Simon and Maisie were saving just before the explosion occurred) recover from pain caused by shrapnel received on the battle field. The second is detective inspector Stratton who clashed with Maisie when he wanted to arrest the wrong man for the murders. Future novels will undoubtedly have more of their relationships.
The stories are interesting and beautifully told. The details of life during and after WWI are carefully used to set the scenes realistically. (Although cocaine is not a substitute for morphine; they are in fact opposites--not all details are accurate.) Maisie is nice (although I'd rather see Simon helped back to consciousness than see her decide between two other men); she has worked hard for all she has gained, but her psychic intuitions with the auras of dead or troubled people wears a little thin. She's bright; let her solve the crimes with her mind. The two books will, I suspect, set one up to enjoy the many other novels in this series.