Satisfying sigh. I've just finished reading Jacqueline Winspear's soon to be released The Mapping of Love and Death. Last year at about this time I read Among the Mad and considered it my favorite book thus far in the series, but that's now been replaced by her newest Maisie Dobbs novel, which I thought was a marvelous read. I've always felt these books were quality cozy mysteries, though they could almost just be considered novels with a mystery incorporated into the story. Winspear continues to develop not only the character of Maisie but those around her. I find that when I start each new book it isn't so much the crime I'm interested in reading about and discovering the solution or culprit, but I want to read about Maisie and Billy Beale and their families and the people who circle and cross their orbits. All the old faces are here and even a couple new ones.
I suspect many of you might already be acquainted with Maisie and know she is a psychologist and investigator whose assistant is Billy Beale. Maisie is a former nurse and Billy served as a sapper in WWI. Part of what draws me to these books, aside from my interest in the interwar period, is Maisie herself. Maisie is appealing to me because in many ways I'm so unlike her. She's rational and analytical. She's not overly emotional, which isn't to say she doesn't feel things deeply, but she never wears her heart on her sleeve. Although she might seem in some ways almost too dispassionate it's no wonder considering what she went through during WWI, wounded not only in body but in soul. And she lost the love of her life, if not physically then mentally when he was injured in an artillery bombardment. Over the course of the books, however, particularly this one and the last, Maisie has really opened up and that hard shell that she had built around her is starting to come down. Post-WWI was a period of opportunity for many women as almost a whole generation of men were lost. Maisie is smart and independent and trying to find her way in this new society.
It's now 1932, but the novel begins in California back in 1914 just as war is breaking out on the Continent. Michael Clifton, a young American, prepares to return to his family in Boston after surveying land he's bought in the Santa Ynez Valley, an impressive property visually as well as lucrative for what it hides beneath its surface. When he reads about England's declaration of war he decides to offer his services as a cartographer to the British forces. His father emigrated to America as a young man, so he can trace his lineage back to England, though it's almost assured his skills will be needed as accurate maps will be necessary to fight the war.
Nearly two decades later a farmer plowing land in the Somme valley discovers the bodies of several British soldiers in what was once a trench. Amongst them is the body of Michael Clifton. It would have simply been a sad footnote to the war, but bones don't lie. Michael wasn't killed by enemy fire, rather his death was caused by a gash on the back of the head. When the trench caved in the crime would almost surely go unnoticed. A diary and packet of letters from a woman were found on Michael's body. The Cliftons are referred to Maisie Dobbs in London by an American doctor that worked with her during the war. So Maisie is hired to look into his death and try to find the nurse that sent Michael the love letters. Letters that were signed only, The English Nurse.
I don't want to say any more about the plot. I'll leave all the good stuff for you to discover if you plan on picking this one up. I will mention that as always Jacqueline Winspear has done her homework and the historical details seem very authentic. This time around she writes about the cinema and a new art form known as the documentary, which will come into play as Maisie investigates Michael's murder. The reader also gets a taste of car racing at Brooklands.
The Mapping of Love and Death seems a pivotal novel in the series and will be life altering for some of the characters. I had already thought Among the Mad broke new ground a bit with Maisie and burgeoning relationships, and Winspear explores this avenue more in this book. I can also see many new possibilities for Maisie, which are quite exciting, that now make me anxious for another book. And on the far horizon lies another possible conflict as there are the very beginnings of rumblings once again from the Continent. The Mapping of Love and Death is due to be published March 23. I think it's Jacqueline Winspear's best yet. Many thanks to HarperCollins for sending me a copy to read in advance (which I admit I very shamelessly requested). And do check out Jacqueline's new website.