Rating: 
Summary: A promising series opener
Review: Jacqueline Winspear's historical mystery Maisie Dobbs begins in 1929, just over ten years after the end of the Great War, when its eponymous protagonist takes on her first case as an independent "cerebral investigator." Maisie's client comes to her with an ostensibly straightforward domestic problem, but the case leads Maisie into a greater mystery involving a home for disfigured veterans--a path that leads Maisie also to reexamine her own war-time experiences.
In a lengthy digression from her "modern" mystery in the book's midsection, Maisie's past is fleshed out. The daughter of a costermonger, Maisie went into service in 1910, at the age of thirteen, in the home of a woman who would become her benefactress. Maisie was tutored by a friend of her employer's, a Yoda-like character who spouted Eastern wisdom and taught his protégée a sort of holistic approach to detection. Later, after a brief stint at Cambridge, Maisie served as a nurse in the blood and muck of France and was courted by a charming doctor with whom she had danced once in England prior to shipping out. When the book's narrative returns to Maisie's present what we now know of her past renders her experiences in 1929 more poignant.
Maisie Dobbs is a nicely written book and a gentle read, despite its subject matter. In large part the book is successful, though Maisie's apparent ability to understand the emotions of others by adopting their posture strains credibility. The character of Maisie's tutor too, the seemingly omniscient Maurice Blanche, does not quite come to life. More literary than genre fiction--if one is to categorize the book by those unspecific terms--Maisie Dobbs does not in fact offer a compelling mystery. Its focus is rather on the characters Winspear is introducing and on recreating the feel of the period between the wars, in showing, in particular, the effect the First World War had on those who lived through it. But with this back story established in this first book, it will be interesting to see how the Maisie Dobbs mystery series proceeds, whether our heroine's powers of detection will be tested in subsequent installments by mysteries sufficiently gripping to carry a book themselves.
Debra Hamel -- book-blog reviews
Author of Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan's Scandalous Life in Ancient Greece
Rating: 
Summary: Bright woman investigates in post-war England
Review: Maisie Dobbs has so much potential. With the intelligence for bigger and greater things, she rises from a house maid to a university student. After getting caught in the private library of her employers, the eccentric Maurice Blanche teaches Maisie his worldly philosophy. Then World War I starts and she enlists as a nurse to the injured and dying English boys in France. After the war, she becomes an investigator and her first case unearths the hidden wounds of those who have experienced loss during the war. She also must face her own demons about the war. The prose was quite choppy at times with short chapters that provided the reader with felt more like a short glimpse, rather than a developed storyline. Also the way Maisie disarms the villain is quite unrealistic, if not hokey. Finally, the ending seems a bit forced. I would bet it was added only in retrospect to allow Maisie to feel personally connected to the subject of her investigation.
Rating:
Summary: Good read, but a bit too neat around the edges...
Review: Maisie Dobbs was a pretty good vacation read for me. But, on reflection, I feel a bit let down by it.
Foremost, the central mystery is no mystery. If you've read detective fiction before, you'll spot it a mile off.
The novel tells the tale of a predictibly plucky heroine who pulls herself up by the bootstraps aided by a loving father (who is the perfect manifestation of Electra complex wish fulfillment), an intellectual mentor, and a benevolent suffragette patroness. She conquers the rigors of philosophy and qualifies for Cambridge's Girton College in her spare time as a char-woman. She becomes a war nurse and (you guessed it) has a tragic love-affair...
The book feels like it was written by a focus group of 18-49 year old female mystery readers. It fails not in giving them everything they might want in a mystery: period detail, flawless heroine, romantic complication, fantasy father, etc.
My chief complaint is all this neatness; of the characters and the conflicts. Maisie is completely laudable and seems not to have a flaw. Her relationship with her father is pat; as are the relationships between Lady Rowan and Lord Julian, Maisie and Billy, and most of the other characters. A little conflict and some ambiguity would have made the characters and their relationships more believable and more compelling. (The final plot surprise which does present some complexity seems, if anything, underwritten... a bit tacked-on.)
While perhaps not failing a focus group's directives, the novel does fail to give readers who appreciate more ambiguity and creativity (even in their crime fiction) what they might appreciate. (NB: If you're interested in the time period and want heartier fare, try Pat Barker's Regeneration Trilogy.)
All that aside, I visited Amazon today to read the reviews of the 2nd Maisie Dobbs novel Birds of a Feather. The reviewers say it's better than Maisie Dobbs, so I'll likely give it a try; but by borrowing it from the library. Ms. Winspear hasn't proven worth the investment yet.
Rating: 
Summary: The Start of a Beautiful Friendship!
Review: Never much of a mystery reader, in the last number of years I have been introduced to two wonderful female detectives of sorts. One was Fremont Jones, a private detective based in San Francisco at the turn of the century and the heroine of a series written by Dianne Day. The other was Mma Ramotswe from the Alexander McCall Smith mystery series set in Botswana, Africa. While I enjoyed the mystery angles of both series, it was the women and their personalities, the geographical areas where they lived and the historical times which intrigued me so greatly. And as much as I loved these books, I remember thinking that I most likely would never find another female character from this genre who would appeal to me in quite the same way. But then I didn't know that very shortly I would meet up with the most intriguing character of all, one Maisie Dobbs from the book with the same title by Jacqueline Winspear. And as I said in the title of this review, I just know this is the beginning of a wonderful friendship.
We first meet Maisie Dobbs in 1929 when she is moving into her first office in London. A private detective, Maisie has been tutored and apprenticed by a Dr. Maurice Blanche who is highly regarded in London's social circles.
Her first case seems rather ordinary when a man suspects his wife of cheating on him. Following the woman in question, Maisie finds a lady mourning a childhood friend killed during W.W.I. But more than that Maisie also uncovers a rather sinister plot involving a farmhouse used as a retreat for men unable to rejoin society. Called the Retreat it holds the answer to why certain war heroes met untimely deaths while living at the Retreat.
While this book is considered a misery it almost takes a back seat to the main character for as we turn the pages we learn more and more about Maisie and her circumstances. In a series of flashbacks we first meet Maisie at 13 when her mother has died and her father, a costermonger, has no money left for Maisie's education due to the medical expenses for his wife. Maisie's father then finds a job for her as a scullery maid in the home of Lady Compton, a wealthy woman and suffragette. While working in this large London home, Maisie soon finds a wonderful library which appeals to her sense of learning. When she is found there one night by her employer while poring over a book, Lady Compton arranges for Maisie to be tutored over a period of years, then paying for her to attend Girton, the women's school from Cambridge. But then war intervenes and the book takes a different turn as Maisie faces World War I working as a field nurse and learns about both the joys and sorrows of a first love.
I so enjoyed this book that I literally gulped it down. I found that Ms. Winspear offered her readers a wonderful glimpse into the world of London before, during and after W.W.I. From the drawing rooms of the wealthy homes to the life of a young nurse, I felt as though I was in London during these times, not reading in the year 2005. But more than anything I love learning about Maisie's life which was also laid out as a misery till the final pages revealed an important piece of the puzzle.
I must say that I might never have read this book had it not been for the recommendation of a dear online friend. So not only do I thank Ms, Winspear for writing this book, I also thank my friend for reading this and passing along the recommendation. And now that I've finished Maisie Dobbs I can't wait to read the second book in this series, Birds of a Feather. I only hope that the next book will be as good as the first one. Something tells me it will be. And then I will anxiously wait for the next book by this talented and gifted author.
Rating:
Summary: Awkward and Unconvincing, Yet Endearing...
Review: One wants so much to applaud Maisie Dobbs -- both the book and its eponymous heroine. There's no question that the author's heart is in the right place; it's equally clear that she's done exhaustive research. Still, innumerable details of Edwardian costume and 1920's technology are no substitute for real atmosphere, and here Maisie Dobbs, the book, badly lets down Maisie Dobbs, the plucky investigator.
Whether describing the drawing room of the novel's admirable Lady Rowan or the traumatic history that has taken a housemaid through the trenches of World War I France and on to her own, indubitably genteel, offices in London, the novel rarely moves beyond the surface, while the vague underpinnings of Maisie's investigative philosophy, provided by her mentor, the mysterious Maurice Blanche, are sadly equally inert.
One ends up idly paging through Maisie Dobbs, wishing, perhaps, that instead of leading her own novel she had turned up as a subsidiary character in some other setting, say as a visitor to the Bellamys on Eaton Place in "Upstairs, Downstairs" or a guest at Louisa Trotter's louche hotel on "The Duchess of Duke Street." The air of Masterpiece Theatre is faint but ever-present, and one feels the character would have been better served by giving in to it!
Rating:
Summary: Great book...hope it's not beginner's luck....
Review: Over the years, I've read a number of excellent 'first' novels followed by mediocre second, third, etc. novels. Hopefully, Jacqueline Winspear will be able to match her excellent first novel MAISIE DOBBS with the future series of stories she promises. Winspear has created an extremely likeable and interesting heroine and complemented her with a unique supporting cast of characters as well as an intriguing plot or two. With the exception of one relatively implausible scene and an exactitude of description that at times makes her tale somewhat formulaic and distracting (do I really care about the color of the little bows on the client's wife's shoes?), I found this book a good and interesting read. Maisie Dobbs 'exists' in the late 1920s, but the book contains a good deal of material describing life in the Belle Epoch and the period during and immediately after WWI. The horrendous loss of millions of men in WWI left women like Maisie facing an uncertain life without the prospect of a mate and children. What could one do but become a strong single woman who earned her own keep. . Winspear deftly explains though her somewhat deconstructed tale how Maisie's young life shaped her latter life-where we find her at the start and ending of the tale. Maisie came to have an understanding of psychology and the occult, and she turned to medicine as a career choice she abandoned after the war. Maisie uses forensics in the tradition of Sherlock Holmes, an understanding of human nature in the Miss Marple sense, and has a penchant for getting into tight situations ala Harriet Vane. She also drives a 'motor' Capt. Hastings would have adored. I like Maisie Dobbs and I hope to see her in print again very soon.
Rating:
Summary: A determined heroine and a fine series premise
Review: Set in 1929 and the first in a projected series featuring World War I nurse turned London private-eye Maisie Dobbs, Winspear's novel explores the lingering trauma suffered by mutilated war veterans. Initially taking on what seems to be an infidelity case, Maisie is lead to a home for convalescent veterans run by a man whose charisma seems mesmerizing. Beset by her own demons, Maisie is drawn to the place, curious about the men - most with devastating facial damage - who give up the world to live in this closed-off compound. While cult tactics are familiar to modern readers, Winspear does a good job of presenting Maisie's investigation as a tentative, but dogged foray into the unknown. Maisie is a careful, driven character with plenty of inner scarring from her own war experience. Winspear artfully presents the psychological effect the war had on its generation and the changes being wrought on society. Its flaws are a long middle section detailing Maisie's rise from lower-orders poverty, thanks to a titled benefactor and a wise mentor, and a jarring ending. But these are first-novel flaws, which won't stand in the way of a beguiling heroine and great series premise.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable blend of romance, history and mystery
Review: The book got off to a little bit of a slow start, but once I got into the characters, I could not put it down. I loved this book and was so disappointed to finish the story. I particularly enjoyed the historical aspect and learning more about life during the period covered by the book (1913-1929). This may not be the best book for mystery lovers... I think it is stronger as a historical fiction with a touch of romance. I can't stop thinking about the sweet, sad ending... I was crying my eyes out while reading the last few pages!
Rating:
Summary: Whoosa, this is a good one, says Kat from Readerville.com
Review: The eponymous character is an anomaly of the time (housemaid made good so to speak) who, with the help of the kindly bourgeoisie, transcends her humble birth to become a psychologist-detective with experience as a nurse in WWI, a tragic lost love, schooling at Cambridge/Girton (before women were able to attain degrees) and so on. There's a mystery here, too, but mostly the story is Maisie's and she's terrific. The prose is redolent of its place and time and, even though Maisie may be a revisionist, she's most refreshingly wonderful if too pure and serious. Can't wait for the next Maisie mystery.
Rating:
Summary: Period Piece will Appeal to Anglophiles
Review: The story opens in 1929 London, with thirty-two year old Maisie Dobbs hanging out her shingle as a private investigator. Winspear slowly unfurls the facts of Maisie's first cases, taking more 200 pages to build suspense. The back story of Maisie's life is more compelling. When Maisie was still a teenager, her street vendor father persuaded her to work as a servant to Lord and Lady Compton. The Comptons took notice of her sharply inquisitive mind, and arranged for bon vivant investigator Maurice Blanche to tutor her at their home. Maisie went on to study at Girton College at Cambridge but cut short her education to volunteer as a battlefield nurse in France during the Great War. Maurice Blanche taught Maisie about the elusiveness of truth and to pay
close attention to coincidences, but the parallels between herself and the cases she is investigating do not ring true at the story's end. It is unfathomable that someone as bright and caring as Maisie would take twelve years to face her demons. Winspear's debut novel is the first in a series of Maisie Dobbs mysteries. Perhaps future installments will detail the apprenticeship that led to her unusual career choice. Anglophiles will appreciate this period piece but fans of classic British mysteries will be disappointed.
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