10th Anniversary Edition with a special Afterword by the author
Maisie Dobbs got her start as a maid in an aristocratic London household when she was 13. Her employer, suffragette Lady Rowan Compton, soon became her patron, taking the remarkably bright youngster under her wing. Lady Rowan’s friend, Maurice Blanche, often retained as an investigator by the European elite, recognized Maisie’s … elite, recognized Maisie’s intuitive gifts and helped her earn admission to the prestigious Girton College in Cambridge, where Maisie planned to complete her education.
The outbreak of war changed everything. Maisie trained as a nurse, then left for France to serve at the Front, where she found — and lost — an important part of herself. Ten years after the Armistice, in the spring of 1929, Maisie sets out on her own as a private investigator, one who has learned that coincidences are meaningful, and truth elusive. Her very first case involves suspected infidelity but reveals something very different.
In the aftermath of the Great War, a former officer has founded a working farm known as The Retreat, which acts as a convalescent refuge for ex-soldiers too shattered to resume normal life. When Fate brings Maisie a second case involving The Retreat, she must finally confront the ghost that has haunted her for over a decade.
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Great character. Good mystery.
Part of a great series by an excellent author–still continuing.
All Maizie Dobbs books are great reading and open up my eyes to the European front in WWI and also WWII, sensitizing me to what the general population experienced. These are wonderful!
Improbable main character who is ALWAYS right. Very grating in her personality and she gets worse as the years pile up.
Engaging from the get-go. Great characters, very realistic dialog and situations.. Although I own six books in the series, I plan on buying all that remain, and those to come.
Fantastic series, starting pre WW I and now up to WW II. Follows Maisie’s rise from a teen from the poor east end of London, to becoming a brilliant educated woman with many unexpected international adventures/experiences. This series is definitely not light hearted. The various characters can be quite complex. The plotting is excellent, as is the …
an historical series following this Brit woman from pre-WWI into WWII along with her friends, family & colleagues. really interesting.
The historical content surrounding the plot. A truly independent woman.
I loved the book.
I read a sample on the recommendation of my mom. I want to read the series.
Excellent book written by British author. Am hooked on the series and wait for more. Takes place in pre-WW II England, great visualizatons of the time period as well as the class system as it existed then.
Love the Maisie Dobbs! I love the time period in which these books take place..post WW1 through early pre WWII
Great slice of life mystery taking place during a dark period of world history. This period is fraught with conflict, rising levels of hatred on the world stage and people living under the dark cloud of the Nazis. The author writes a very strong story in this difficult background and you are cheering for her characters to come out unscathed. …
Love this series and have gotten attached to the characters. Enjoy the historical aspects of the story and that the lead is a strong, resilient and clever woman.
I first met Maggie Dobbs in a book later in the series. When I went back to book 1, I understood in greater depth information presented in the later book. It’s possible to read the books out of order but still understand Maggie’s character. She solves mysteries by learning first hand about the people who interacted with the murder victim. She …
This author writes incredible historical fiction. This story gives readers a different view of pre world war 1 England and how poor a good deal of the population was. The story also showed that some of the wealthy were willing to help commoners make something of themselves.
Wonderful first book in interesting well-researched series of another time and place. Good characters with deep compassion for war injured.
I love this series. Masie is an extraordinarily intelligent woman in a world where such a woman isn’t usually encouraged to use her gifts in a public way. I admire the character, and I enjoy learning the history each book provides about the years in which the particular story takes place.
A terrific writer
The first in the Maisie Dobbs series. Nice mystery in a quiet kind of way.