Rating: 
Summary: More Than A Mystery
Review: This book is really a mixture of a novel and mystery. Masie Dobbs is a bright girl born to a low station in pre-World War One London who is given the opportunity of to educate herself and eventually becomes a private investigator. The story of Masie's life takes up as much of the book as the case she is working on. Masie's love of books and learning and her determination to fulfill her dreams are captivating. Equally touching is the profound change that occurs in her priorites once the war breaks out. The book is permeated with the Great War and its aftermath, and the author writes very movingly about the staggering loss that seems to have left no family untouched. It's not a traditional suspense yarn, but a truly rewarding read.
Rating: 
Summary: Bravo and Hip-Hip!
Review: This book was nominated by the Edgar and Agatha Committees for the simple reason that it's worthy of a nomination. Very well-written and plotted, with a reminder of Anne Perry's Thomas Pitt novels where a member of London's high society is quite helpful to some in the lower classes.
As a backdrop, it furnishes the devastating effect of World War I on England, before, during, and especially after the 'Great War'. The characters, especially Maisie, are well-delineated, the surprise being that so much can be written and accomplished in but a relatively short book. And yes, there is a mystery, not in the gory bang-you're-dead manner, but in a civilized manner, one relevant to the horror of the War and its lasting effect on individuals, families, and society itself.
Rating: 
Summary: WHY IS THIS AN EDGAR & AGATHA NOMINEE????
Review: This is NOT a mystery, but more a weak period romance piece of fluff. Maisie, by the way, doesn't solve a thing. She has a sidekick do all the dirty work and he is a comic portrait of a lower-class Brit. Maisie does little but pontificate about her unrealistic and hardly credible education provided by a titled woman who would (in real life and at that time in history) not give her the time of day. And as a Brit, the author should know this. The backflashes were dropped in at odd intervals and extremely annoying and gratituous. Why this got so much play is totally beyond me.
Rating:
Summary: The World War before we had to start numbering them . . .
Review: This sensitively written first novel is being marketed as a mystery, but that's only part of it -- and the lesser part, in my opinion. It's 1929 and 33-year-old Maisie Dobbs, daughter of a London costermonger, is hanging out our shingle as what amounts to a "consulting detective" somewhat in the Holmesian style. She's certainly not a gumshoe. Though she started out as a maid-of-all-work in a big townhouse, her natural intelligence and intuitive talents, combined with her mistress's desire to do some good in the Edwardian era, result in her private education by Maurice Blanche, an old friend of Lady Rowan who becomes her mentor. Then she goes off to a women's college at Cambridge, until the Great War interferes. And that, in fact, is the center of this novel: The War. What it did to an entire generation of young English men and women and to their families, and the effects it had on English society even a dozen years later. Both Winspear's own grandfathers served and she has a strong feeling for the subject, but that may actually prove to be a problem for later books in the series of which this is the first. If you remove all the backstory about Maisie's upbringing and experiences as a nurse at the front, the actual "mystery" -- which involves skullduggery at a Kentish retreat for wounded and disfigured soldiers -- is a little thin. And Maisie is sometimes a bit *too* good, as are her friends and the love of her life, Capt. Simon Lynch of the Royal Army Medical Corps. But it's a compelling piece of work, and I'll be very interested to see if the author can keep it up.
Rating:
Summary: an engrossing read
Review: While "Maisie Dobbs" has been categorized as a novel/mystery, the book actually reads more like a novel (even though there is a mystery at hand, and our heroine is a detective) than it does a 'straight' mystery novel. But this did not stop me from enjoying the book at all.Once Maisie Dobbs was a domestic servant with little expectation of anything else aside from rising within the ranks. However, thanks to the sponsorship of her employer, Lady Rowan Compton, who quickly realised that there was something really special about the thirteen year old, Maisie was given an education. Now, Maisie is a young woman and eager to make her mark; and thanks to the tutorship of Lady Rowan's good friend, Maurice Blanche (a renowned detective himself), Maisie is ready to embark on her first case. Unfortunately, it looks as if her first case is going to be a case of marital infidelity: Mr. Davenham suspects that his much younger wife, Celia, is having an affair; and he wants Maisie to either confirm his worst fears or else refute them. Little does Mr. Davenham realise, however, that Maisie is no ordinary detective. A highly intuitive and empathic young woman, Maisie senses Mr. Davenham's anguish over his wife's alleged infidelity and is resolved to help the Davenhams repair their strained marital bond. Her investigation however leads her to a graveyard, and to a grave marked only with a simple tombstone and a name -- Vincent. A casual search turns up other graves -- all memorialized with tombstones and first names only. Something about the whole thing awakens Maisie's misgivings, and trusting her instincts she decides to widen her investigation, never dreaming just how much this investigation will affect her... "Maisie Dobbs" is divided into three sections: the first section deals with Maisie's initial investigation of Celia and what she's up to, and this section does read very much like a mystery novel; the second section deals with how Maisie came to be noticed by Lady Rowan, her education, and her war experiences -- this third of the book however reads more like a novel; the last section of the book again deals with the mystery of the mysterious tombstones, and the resolution of this mystery. While "Maisie Dobbs" proved to be a good and easy read, complete with an intriguing storyline and an intelligent and likable heroine, I must admit that the book was not that much of a suspenseful read. Because the novel does rely a little heavily on Maisie's intuitive powers, there are practically no unexpected plot twists or red herring suspects. (And truly, "Maisie Dobbs" was more about how, even almost an entire decade after the war, people were still coming to terms with the horror and grief that war entails). So that while I'm not exactly sure just how successful this plot device of having an empathic detecting heroine will be, I will admit that "Maisie Dobbs" proved to be a very enjoyable read.
Rating:
Summary: Gosford Park Meets the English Patient
Review: While Maisie Dobbs is certainly less "literary" than "The English Patient," in the course of an entertaining, mystery-driven read, it gives us new perspectives on the impact of the Great War and the suffering it caused. Who knew that when maimed young men returned from the front, they were made uncomfortable by "normal" society and sought refuge in camps where they could be among their own? The book also introduces a character like no other. Maisie is a woman of her time in that she is riding the crest of change (the work women performed during the war changed things for her gender). But as a sleuth, she relies on her highly trained powers of intuition much like Sherlock Holmes relies on his ability to observe and deduce. Oh yeah, if you liked Gosford Park and Upstairs Downstairs, you'll eat up the back story in this book, which tells of Maisie's early life below stairs and occupies a large portion of the story in flashback. In all, Maisie Dobbs is a charmer and a page turner that leaves one wishing it was a hundred pages longer.
Rating: 
Summary: Too Soon To Judge
Review: While reading "Maisie Dobbs," I was impressed by the author's careful research of her story's milieu. The environment and attitudes of the characters seemed to fit their time period rather than ours, with no jarring instances of late twentieth century stereotypes, as is all too often the case in period stories. However, I still found myself dissatisfied by the book. There were some instances of clunky prose that could have been taken care of by a bit of judicious editing, but they weren't the problem. The real problem was that the author told us what was happening to Maisie, but couldn't seem to find a way to do so with any kind of dramatic tension. The operative word was "soothing." Even the descriptions of the soldiers' injuries during the war were written in such a way that they lost any dramatic impact they might have added to the story. Plus all the characters seemed too good to be true, and I never felt that there was any possibility of failure on the heroine's part. Perhaps the author was trying to give us too much background information in her first story. "Maisie Dobbs" reminds me of Anne Perry's new book, "No Graves As Yet," because it is the start of a new series and the author's main purpose seems to be setting the stage for future stories. If that is the case, I will withhold my final judgment on Maisie until her next adventure.
Rating:
Summary: A good read but not a great mystery
Review: Winspear's Maisie Dobbs is a rather predictable and perhaps a bit juvenile. But it is well written and if the reader does not come to the book with great expectations, they will likely find themselves pleasantly entertained. Maisie faces great odds but overcomes them, owning up that she gets very tired sometimes and even once or twice, a bit cranky. A bit too Horatio Alger with a dash of Dudley Do-Right, but still entertaining particularly for the distaff audience.
An excellent but less charitable earlier review mentioned that the construction of the plot involves a large section of exposition that is simply background and does not advance the mystery in any way. While this is quite true, I have come to like the author's audacity in using a non-forumalic construction. While it might not pass muster at a writers workshop, the author constructs the story as she sees fit, and does so in a way that keeps you reading. It is not perfect, but it is perfectly readable. The price of this is the pacing of the mystery portion of the story. But it is not so great a mystery after all.
The procedural aspects are pleasant, with a very feminine viewpoint, and some eye for the little details. While I may not purchase another of the Dobbs series novels, I think many people will.
|
