Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear

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Publication date: 2003
Publisher: Soho Press
Pages: 292
My rating: 4 stars
Ages: 15+
Series: Maisie Dobbs Mysteries

After studying with her mentor Maurice Blanche for years, Maisie is finally taking over his investigative business. It's 1929, but England is still recovering from the Great War which had taken so many of their boys. Maisie was in France as a nurse, and the things she saw and experienced are still with her. So when she's asked to investigate a farm for wounded soldiers called The Retreat, Maisie must face her past if she's going to be able to close the case.

This wasn't a book I chose from myself, but instead got as part of a book exchange I participated in. I was immediately drawn to the premise: mystery in 1920s/30s England with a female lead. It didn't disappoint.

Maisie is one of those female characters that I really like, because she's strong and yet still feminine. She doesn't have to sacrifice her womanhood in order to do what needs to be done. In fact, there are even times when being a woman helps her.

This first book did focus a lot on the past and Maisie's part in WWI, but I think it was necessary to set up the character and what life is like even 10 years after the War had ended. And the mystery focuses on those who have been affected by the War in such a way that it will never go away.

No language and no sex.

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