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.
Comment
Maisie Dobbs