Given the number of mysteries I own, buy or borrow, you would think they are the only types of stories I read. On more than one occasion I have said I could subsist on a steady diet of mystery novels, but like everything else in life--all things in moderation. I am, however, looking forward to spending most of my reading time this month with some good mystery/crime stories. How fitting then, to have recently read Jacqueline Winspear's Leaving Everything Most Loved and being able to kick things off with one of my favorite fictional sleuths.
Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs novels are one of the few mystery series I have read from first book to last and eagerly look forward to each new instalment and read it right when it is released. They are easy, gentle sorts of reads but well done and becoming increasingly more complex over time. It's probably a little strange-sounding, but I feel like over the course of (now) ten novels I have gotten to know Maisie and her family and friends, a cast of characters that with each book becomes more fully developed. I recognize her corner of the world each time I crack open a new book. Winspear is a dependably good author, but I see she is going to shake things up a bit. I am not giving anything away by noting that Leaving Everything Most Loved is a game changer. The book blurb itself tells the reader that this is a pivotal book in the series.
If you've been following the story, you'll know that on the far horizon are glimmers of what is to come in Europe in not too many more years. Maisie has grown and matured from her days as a servant, her time in France as a nurse during WWI, and the years after as she comes to terms with what she experienced and lost. A psychologist and inquiry agent, she's not your typical detective, rather she concentrates on the wholeness of her clients and the situations they find themselves in. She's quite a unique character really. Intelligent and independent, empathetic, caring yet also somewhat cool and reserved. Her intentions are always good, but she perhaps takes too much on herself. She always wants what's best for those around her and offers a guiding hand whenever she can though sometimes to the detriment of her good intentions. She can be quite formidable and correct, but I like her immensely.
Over the course of the last few books Maisie has slowly been moving away from her investigative work, or more accurate to say that she has taken on new roles in association with Scotland Yard as well as more secretive government work. It's hardly surprising that she's following this path since she was long a student and then a colleague of Maurice Blanche who was himself tied to the government in the last war and involved in clandestine activities. It's Maisie's vehement hope that the rumblings occurring in Germany are not going to lead to war, but she's savvy enough to know how to read the signs.
It's thanks in large part to Maurice that Maisie has become the woman she is. He aided her in her education, mentored and influenced her. At his passing several books previously he gave her the gift of independence by willing his estate to her. So far from her humble beginnings as a servant, she is now a wealthy woman with her own business. Now she finds herself at a crossroads. I found myself wondering as I was reading if this could possibly be the last Maisie Dobbs mystery, or at least I wonder what form the next book will take.
It's 1933. Hitler has become chancellor of Germany, but it's problems much closer to home that will occupy Maisie's time and thoughts. Although this is a return to a more straightforward mystery investigation, there are different rumblings going on in Maisie's life--not just of the political sort. Maisie has been asked to investigate the murder of Usha Pramal an immigrant from India. Usha had come to England as a governess many years earlier but had left her situation, perhaps under a dark cloud. Not having the money to return to India she ended up in what's known as an Ayah's Hotel. Women in the same situation as Usha can live in the safe environment of the hotel, giving most of their wages to the owners for board and safekeeping until they have earned enough to travel back to India.
Usha was a singular woman. Also independently minded, educated and a healer, it was her profound wish to save enough money to not just return home but return with enough money saved to open a school for girls. Instead she was found floating in a canal with a bullet in her head and no leads as to who could possibly have committed such a crime. Scotland Yard had been investigating, but with no witnesses, a victim not of British origin and a family far away in India, there was no pressure on them to get fast results. By the time Maisie is asked to take over the case has gone cold. And then a second woman is murdered, a friend of Usha who might have shed light on Usha's circumstances and what led up to her death. Things become increasingly tangled for Maisie.
Usha, only known to Maisie through her death, touches her just as she did so many other people when she was alive. Although it is once again Maurice who is gently pushing Maisie on to the next stage of her life, her involvement with Usha influences her as well. I don't want to give any more of the plot away for fear of spoiling the story, but this is one with an elegiac tone to it.
Although I do wonder where Maisie's own journey will take her in the next book, I do think there will be a next one. I'm curious to hear what others who have read this think? The series in order consists of: Maisie Dobbs, Birds of a Feather, Pardonable Lies, Messenger of Truth, An Incomplete Revenge, Among the Mad, The Mapping of Love and Death, A Lesson in Secrets, Elegy for Eddie and Leaving Everything Most Loved. I've linked the titles to my own reviews (I was wondering how many I wrote about). Now the long wait for a new Maisie Dobbs novel begins.