Maisie Dobbs

Rita Barrington's narration creates a vivid sense of time, place, and character in MAISIE DOBBS. When Lady Rowan discovers her servant-girl, Maisie, studying in the library, she arranges for tutoring. WWI intrudes, and education is put on hold when Maisie goes to the battlefields of France as a nurse. After the war, she becomes a private investigator. Her first case seems to be a straightforward case of infidelity but soon has her dealing with her own experiences in the war. Barrington's voices help the listener keep straight the many characters as the story's threads weave events from pre-war to wartime to post-war England, making a tapestry of war's devastation. N.E.M. (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine

Starred review from June 16, 2003
In Winspear's inspired debut novel, a delightful mix of mystery, war story and romance set in WWI–era England, humble housemaid Maisie Dobbs climbs convincingly up Britain's social ladder, becoming in turn a university student, a wartime nurse and ultimately a private investigator. Both naïve and savvy, Maisie remains loyal to her working-class father and many friends who help her along the way. Her first sleuthing case, which begins as a simple marital infidelity investigation, leads to a trail of war-wounded soldiers lured to a remote convalescent home in Kent from which no one seems to emerge alive. The Retreat, specializing in treating badly deformed battlefield casualties, is run by an apparently innocuous former officer who requires his patients to sign over their assets to his tightly run institution. At different points in her remarkable career, Maisie crosses paths with a military surgeon to whom she's attracted despite his disfigurement from a bomb blast at the front. A refreshing heroine, appealing secondary characters and an absorbing plot, marred only by a somewhat bizarre conclusion, make Winspear a new writer to watch. Agent, Amy Rennert. (July 9)Forecast:Blurbs from Elizabeth George and Charles Todd will alert their readers to the quality of this book, which ought to draw mainstream and romance readers as well.