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April 03, 2006
"Maisie Dobbs" by Jacqueline Winspear
I just read the beginning of a mystery series by Jacqueline Winspear. The book is entitled Maisie Dobbs. Although this is a mystery, I think it would be enjoyed by non-mystery readers, since it fits comfortably in the regular fiction category as well. The story takes place in 1929 and also in a long flashback of 1910-1917. Maisie is the relatively poor daughter of a costermonger (vegetable vendor) who becomes a house maid to a wealthy woman, Lady Rowan, who wants to “do good.” Maisie is educated and mentored, sent to college (at a time when women were not granted degrees at Cambridge, even after completing their coursework), becomes a nurse in The Great War, and opens her own detective agency after an internship with her mentor, with the financial support of Lady Rowan. Although there is a mystery to be solved , the bigger story deals with the changing social structure in Britain during the early part of the last century, the horrors and aftermath of the first world war, and coming to terms with loss.
ISBN: 0-14-200433-2 (pbk); 1-56947-330-7 (hc)
Pam M., reserves
Posted by jnardine at April 3, 2006 09:17 AM