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Jan 03, 2021wcbind421 rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
This first Maisie Dobbs novel opens in 1929 London as Maisie sets up her first office as a "psychologist and investigator. " An early case involves an apparently unfaithful wife but Maisie discovers that instead of afternoon assignations, the woman visits the grave of a lost love, a badly injured World War I soldier who survived the war but not the return to civilian life. This opens the floodgates to events in Maisie's own past. Part 2 of the book is a flashback beginning in 1910 with young Maisie's life with her recently widowed father Frankie, an impoverished costermonger. Soon, she takes employment as a housemaid in a grand London household. This part is similar to "Upstairs, Downstairs" except Maisie is a brilliant child, thirsty for knowledge, a fact which her employers learn and encourage. She becomes her employer's protegee and is given an education with a tutor, Dr. Maurice Blanche. We follow Maisie's progress and her admission to Cambridge University. World War I interrupts Maisie's education as she volunteers as a Red Cross nurse and is sent to serve in a field hospital in France. She has a wartime romance with a military surgeon. Winspear writes movingly about the dreadful conditions of trench warfare and in the medical tents. Part 3 returns us abruptly to 1929 London where Maisie's former employer asks her to find out whether The Retreat, a private home for disabled former soldiers, is on the up-and-up. This second investigation into the lives of disabled WWI veterans forces Maisie to confront the loss of her own lover who survived the war but with a catastrophic brain injury. "Maisie Dobbs" is the template for future Maisie Dobbs novels in which supporting characters recur and the reader experiences major world events through Maisie's life and investigations.