There's something very comforting finding and being able to return to a character that you like and can sympathize with or relate to. Of course it helps that the period Jacqueline Winspear so knowledgeably writes about has been of great interest to me of late, which is the interwar period. Winspear's Maisie Dobbs is easily my favorite fictional sleuth. If you've yet to be introduced to Maisie, she's an intricate character who has changed and developed over six successive novels, the most recent is the forthcoming Among the Mad (due out February 17).
The daughter of a costermonger, Maisie managed to pull herself up in a society where a woman, particularly one of the servant class (which is where Maisie humbly began), had few choices. While WWI was horrific in every way, it did give women unprecedented chances for independence. Maisie served as a nurse in France during the War and would later go on to finish her studies at Girton College. She's intelligent and resolute in what she knows she needs to do to achieve success or a favorable outcome for the client in her business in the mysteries she undertakes to solve. Maisie is a psychologist and investigator, so these novels are not your usual police procedurals. It's not just a matter of discovering a culprit, but for Maisie, it's also about healing those that are wounded psychologically. If I've made it sound a bit wishy-washy, trust me it's not. Cerebral Maisie may be, but ultimately she's also compassionate, which is what will get her mixed up in murder in Among the Mad.
Although Winspear's novels are essentially mysteries, what draws me to them is not just the puzzle that needs to be solved, but to see how Maisie grows and reacts to the milieu of the times. Britain between the wars was a fascinating place, and Among the Mad was particularly interesting as dark shadows of what's to come are appearing on the horizon. The book opens on Christmas Eve 1931 as Maisie and her assistant, Billy Beale, are off to see a client. Always attuned to the sufferings of those scarred in the Great War Maisie approaches a disabled man just as he sets off a bomb. The blast knocks Maisie to the ground, but she walks away essentially unscathed. Unknown to her, the encounter is witnessed by someone unbalanced and disenfranchised. In some ways the book mirrors our own times. Men who served their country are out of work, there is a general Depression and much unhappiness as the poor seem to get poorer with no sign of relief.
When Maisie is specifically named in a letter sent to the Prime Minister demanding help for the unemployed, in particular for those who served their country in wartime, she's pulled into Scotland Yard's Special Branch to help in their investigation. Unless the demands are met or the detectives can find the letter-writer first, large-scale murder is promised, so it's a race against time. Although the War has been over for many years, its repercussions are still felt, both economically and by the men who served and suffered from shell shock and poison gas, all of which will come into play in this story.
If there was one small thing that niggled at me this time around, it was that Detective Chief Superintendent Robert McFarlane kept dragging Maisie back to Scotland Yard or would turn up at her doorstep with concerns over the case. Of course there may have been more at play there than just detective work and I wonder if we'll see more of him in later installments of the series. One character I wouldn't mind popping up again is Detective Inspector Strattan who has butted heads with Maisie in the past and was a bit of a rival to McFarlane this time around (though this is Maisie we're talking about so any interplayof this sort is very low key). Still, despite that small annoyance, this was my favorite Maisie Dobbs novel so far. It was not only a satisfying mystery that was nicely unraveled, but Maisie is at last dealing with and overcoming some of her own ghosts from the War. She's finally able to move on from past relationships and opening up more to those around her. Billy Beale's family as well as Maisie's friend Priscilla make appearances with their own problems that tie in well to the story. Needless to say I'm already looking forward to the next Maisie Dobbs novel! While I wait I may just have to go back and start from the beginning again.