Maisie Dobbs

Life has gotten in the way of my blog!  I haven't stopped reading, I'm just behind in the blogging.  I will try to rectify that situation starting now.

Jacqueline Winspear has just published the 8th book in her fantastic Maisie Dobbs series.  I love and admire Maisie, as much as it is possible for one to love and admire a fictional character.  Maisie is a private detective/psychologist living in London in the early 30's.  She was a student at Cambridge when she left to serve as a nurse in WWI.  She is brilliant and independent and is surrounded by fascinating characters.  And Jacqueline describes depression-era London so well it's as if she had lived it!  In fact, the author grew up in a small English village that hadn't really entered the 20th Century, not to mention the 21st, and then she came to California where she has lived for many years.  I went to see her at Warwick's Books in La Jolla when her 7th book came out, and she explained that her background in an old-fashioned village and her life in Ojai  has really helped her write about Maisie's England, because she never really lived in modern England.  (If you have a chance, go to one of her book signings.  She is very interesting and very easy to talk to!)  Anyway, if you haven't read these books, start NOW!  And read them in order, because each builds upon the last.  Here is the list:

Maisie Dobbs
Birds of a Feather
Pardonable Lies
Messenger of Truth
An Incomplete Revenge
Among the Mad
The Mapping of Love and Death

And the new one is just read:
A Lesson in Secrets

The mystery and the history make a great combo!

Mary Kay