A LESSON IN SECRETS: A Maisie Dobbs Novel By Jacqueline Winspear

A LESSON 
IN SECRETS


A Maisie Dobbs Novel


By Jacqueline Winspear

 Intelligent, Resourceful, Courageous & Organized

By 

Reading It All "Reading It All"
   

A Maisie Dobbs novel is always an easy read, mainly because the author has developed a character that is intelligent, resourceful, courageous and organized...it's like sitting down with an old friend.

In this latest work, Maisie is enlisted by the British Secret Service to go to Cambridge as a junior professor to find out if post-war unrest is being fomented by communist interests in the university world of teachers and students.

In her usual descriptive way, Winspear draws you in to the college atmosphere of Cambridge with its unique architecture, student hangouts, hideouts, and activities.

Maisie is employed at the College of St. Francis, where students from Europe and England are studying ways to better understand each other and find a way to make peace work. She discovers that it is not only communism that is trying to make inroads into the English way of life. More importantly, she feels that the threat of the National Socialism Party of Adolph Hitler is a more serious problem.

In the middle of all this, there is a murder that revolves around a children's book!

Maisie's careful untangling of this complex story takes the reader along with her to an exciting finish.


Description from Amazon:

Maisie Dobbs' first assignment for the British Secret Service takes her undercover to Cambridge as a professor—and leads to the investigation of a web of activities being conducted by the emerging Nazi Party.
In the summer of 1932, Maisie Dobbs' career takes an exciting new turn when she accepts an undercover assignment directed by Scotland Yard's Special Branch and the Secret Service. Posing as a junior lecturer, she is sent to a private college in Cambridge to monitor any activities "not in the inter-ests of His Majesty's government."
When the college's controversial pacifist founder and principal, Greville Liddicote, is murdered, Maisie is directed to stand back as Detective Chief Superintendent Robert MacFarlane and Detective Chief Inspector Richard Stratton spearhead the investigation. She soon discovers, however, that the circumstances of Liddicote's death appear inextricably linked to the suspicious comings and goings of faculty and students under her surveillance.
To unravel this web, Maisie must overcome a reluctant Secret Service, discover shameful hidden truths about Britain's conduct during the Great War, and face off against the rising powers of theNationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei—the Nazi Party—in Britain.
As the storm clouds of World War II gather on the horizon, this pivotal chapter in the life of Maisie Dobbs foreshadows new challenges and powerful enemies facing the psychologist and investigator—and will engage new readers and loyal fans of this "outstanding" series (Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review).

The Mapping of Love and Death: A Maisie Dobbs Novel

The Mapping of Love and Death: A Maisie Dobbs Novel

By Jacqueline Winspear

Winspear Does It Again...

Once again Maisie Dobbs, Private Investigator in London, finds herself working on a complex case involving a death during The Great War. Of course this death doesn't come to light until 16 years later. The dead man was an American cartographer on the front lines during the war until he was reported missing in 1916, enduring all of the hardships and dangers of that time. As a young nurse working in field hospitals, Maisie learned first hand that war is hell, leaving men injured, maimed and dead on the muddy bomb-shelled fields of France.

The young man's remains are found in 1932 in an abandoned dugout, and Maisie discovers that he was murdered. Following a trail of letters written to a nurse he met when on leave in France, strange orders and harassment from his superiors, and family complications, Maisie must work her way to a solution that works for his American family, the English girl with whom he corresponded, and her own satisfaction that she has found the best solution for all concerned.

With The Mapping of Love and Death: A Maisie Dobbs Novel, as in the stream of Maisie Dobbs books, Winspear draws you in and takes you side by side with her through every facet of the story...she never disappoints!

Product Review from Amazon:

August 1914: California's Santa Ynez Valley. Michael Clifton, a 23-year-old Bostonian, is entranced by the beauty of the land he has purchased and is confident that oil lies beneath its surface. But Michael is the youngest son of an Englishman, and when war is declared in Europe, he feels the pull of the old country and sails for England to enlist as a cartographer. By 1917, Michael is listed among the missing.

April 1932: London Psychologist and Investigator Maisie Dobbs is retained by Edward and Martha Clifton, who have recently sailed from America upon receiving news that Michael's remains have been discovered in France. They want Maisie to find the unnamed nurse whose love letters were discovered among Michael's belongings. So begins a quest that takes Maisie back to her own bittersweet, wartime love.

Maisie's inquiries, and the discovery that Michael Clifton was murdered in his trench, unleash a web of intrigue and violence that threatens to engulf Michael's family, surviving comrades, and Maisie. While investigating both the love affair and the murder, Maisie must cope with the approaching loss of her mentor, Maurice Blanche, and her growing awareness that she, herself, is falling in love.