Maisie Dobbs (Maisie Dobbs, #1) By Jacqueline Winspear
2.5 stars, rounded down
I went into this thinking it was a story about a female PI. It is and it isn’t. It’s really about how Maisie became a PI. Taking place in the early 20th century, we follow Maisie from maid to college freshman to nurse during WWI to 1929 when she’s attempting to set up her PI agency.
This moved much too slowly for my taste and bordered on being boring. And I never engaged with Maisie. In the old days, I guess she would have been called plucky. But she just never seemed real to me. In fact, the characters as a whole came off as two dimensional. I won’t be going further with this series.
I didn’t really care for Rita Barrington, the narrator. I found several of her voices grating.
311 A beautifully written story of a young girl's rise from household servant to her own successful career as a private investigator during WWI-era England. This novel is so much more than just an historical mystery with a clever female sleuth. Winspear creates Maisie's story of her first professional case in such a way that with flashbacks we understand the physical and psychological scars of those who served during wartime...the sacrifices of the body, mind and heart....which has made Maisie develop a sense of purpose in life that goes beyond just solving mysteries. She has empathy for those who suffer or are in need, and this first installment of Maisie Dobbs will reveal the path that has brought her from servant to beginning her own professional business. A great beginning to a series that I can't wait to continue.
4.5 stars 311 This is a story about a cute, clever, and plucky young woman named Maisie Dobbs. Maisie is setting up her own private investigation practice in London. The year is 1929, and everyone we meet is still coping with the effects of the world war, including Maisie.
Maisie has a cute and charming way of talking with people and getting them to share their stories. Her first client is a man who thinks his wife is cheating on him. Maisie follows the woman, befriends her and learns her sad tale about a loved one who was wounded in the war. Later, the man died of suspicious circumstances, so Maisie investigates a farm called The Retreat, using her charm and wits to get an inside look.
The middle section of the book is a flashback to how Maisie got to be so plucky and sweet and charming. Her mother died at a young age, and Maisie had to go into service to help her father pay the bills. Luckily, Maisie's master was a kind woman who observed the girl's cleverness, and encouraged her to study and take lessons from a tutor. Eventually, Maisie earned the chance to go to college, although the war intervened. in the end, Maisie shares her own sad story of what happened to her during the war.
Did I mention that Maisie is cute and charming and sweet and plucky and charming?
A few friends recommended this book to me, knowing how much I enjoy charming British novels. But an odd thing happened — I thought this novel was TOO charming and precious. Maisie was TOO cute and plucky. The story was TOO predictable and bittersweet.
I felt like the author was hitting me over the head with a pile of those big books that Maisie liked to study in order to emphasize how cute and plucky she was.
This book is the first in a series about Maisie, and I'm not sure if I will read any more. I'm glad I finally checked out this one to see what the fuss was about, but my curiosity has been satisfied.
311 This is a wonderful book. I’m happy that it’s the first book in a series because I’m eager to continue and read the rest of the books.
Wonderful characters! Maisie and many other characters seem so much like real people. The story was great. There is a lot of absolutely brilliant humor! This book is not even close to being a comedy but it was so funny so many times. Lots of laughing and smiling at many amusing lines!!! There is also psychological sophistication when looking at people and at human nature and at psychological & physical challenges. I like that Maisie and her mentor(s) have so much understanding of the human condition and intuition when it comes to analyzing what’s going on with people.
My friend and I were disappointed that even though the story’s events took place from 1910-1929 that while WWI was covered the 1918-1920 influenza pandemic was not even mentioned. We both wanted to see how these characters and the places where they were coped with that pandemic, especially given our current situation.
I read this over a long period, reading out loud to a close long time (since age seven) friend who has cancer. We’d intended for me to read to her during her chemo treatments but the COVID-19 pandemic changed our plans when they’d no longer allow me to be present, so we read when we could, over a four month long period. It was a fun book to read aloud, though there were a few pages at one point where it was difficult because I was crying too hard. We both loved the book and started book two immediately upon finishing book one. From paperback to an Overdrive e-book edition from the public library given that e-materials are the only ones available to borrow right now. We will try to read book two much more quickly than we did book one.
This series is a great find. I’d had a couple of friends highly recommend it to me over the years so this first book had been on my to read shelf for a while. I’m glad that it is no longer languishing there!
4-1/2 stars 311 A university scholar, a nurse, a psychologist, a private investigator, a survivor, a romantic, but even so a very classy feminist
Jacqueline Winspear’s historical mystery series MAISIE DOBBS opens with a whimsical search for the wording and location of the sign that Ms Dobbs will use to advertise her new business to potential clients. The winning entrant proves to be a brass plate with the words “M Dobbs. Trade and Personal Investigations” situated at eye level to the right of the door. The reader is then treated to Ms Dobb’s inquiry into what ultimately proves to be a fraudulent scam perpetrated against veterans from WW I, seriously wounded and suffering from what we now call PTSD. This succulent literary treat reaches right back to Maisie Dobb’s childhood and traces her personal history from service below stairs to a wealthy but exceptionally open-minded and generous family to a university education, military service, romance, and the opening of her investigation business.
Like television’s long-running popular series UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAIRS and DOWNTON ABBEY, Winspears treats her readers to a brilliant and completely compelling portrayal of class distinctions and daily life in post-Victorian life in England and Europe during and immediately following WW I. MAISIE DOBBS, in effect, is two stories for the price of one. The first is the story of Maisie’s childhood and growth to a business woman and professional private investigator. The second, of course, is her puzzling out of the solution to her first case and the novel, considered in its entirety, is thoroughly enjoyable from first page to last.
The second in the series, BIRDS OF A FEATHER, awaits my attention and I must say I’m looking forward to it.
Paul Weiss 311
review Maisie Dobbs (Maisie Dobbs, #1)
Maisie Dobbs isn't just any young housemaid. Through her own natural intelligence and the patronage of her benevolent employers, she works her way into college at Cambridge. When World War I breaks out, Maisie goes to the front as a nurse. It is there that she learns that coincidences are meaningful and the truth elusive. After the War, Maisie sets up on her own as a private investigator. But her very first assignment, seemingly an ordinary infidelity case, soon reveals a much deeper, darker web of secrets, which will force Maisie to revisit the horrors of the Great War and the love she left behind. Maisie Dobbs (Maisie Dobbs, #1)
Well. This was a waste of time. I don't think there was an aspect of this book I did not hate. Starting from the holier-than-thou main character, to the non-existent mystery, to the amazing (not) resolution of the non-mystery, to the abrupt hundred pages worth of tedious flashback in the middle of the mystery; everything bothered me.
So. Maisie Dobbs is a private eye. She was a housemaid once, but it turned out that she was one of nature's rare prodigies, reading Latin by candlelight. Her masters then decide that she ought to be tutored, along with all her work as parlormaid. Enter Master Yoda from stage left, I mean, Maurice Blanche. He fills her mind with such gems as Rush into conclusions not... In the stillness, wait awhile..., which pop into her mind opportunely in present day when she's talking to clients.
Anyhow. On to the mystery! A ladies infidelity is suspected by her husband, the lady is blameless, and Maisie spends some time giving him shit for suspecting his wife. However it leads Maisie onto a suitably creepy post-war hidey hole for army men affected by the war called The Retreat. Nothing happens. Then, there's someone else talking about the Retreat too, and Maisie decides to investigate. Cut. Flashback into Maisie's early life. Some tedious accounts of class differences. Maisie in college. Maisie as a nurse in WW I France. Maisie with Simon, a brilliant and talented young doctor who worships the ground she walks on. Cut Back. Where were we?
There's hardly a set up for a mystery in this book. The half hearted attempt is cut abruptly so we have pages of Maisie backstory, for no discernable reason. By the time the story comes back to the current time, I lost any inclination of knowing what would happen. I had to finish it though. Maisie herself I thought had a border-line God complex. She instructs her first client to make her a commitment, and to his marriage. She calls herself responsible for the safety of all parties, but she makes friends with and invites confidences (even after the husband has been sent away happy) from her emotionally susceptible mark, by lying about who she is. But let's not call this unprofessional.
She has dodgy methods of problem solving. She may regurgitate the Maurice Blanche homilies to herself, but she the chill down her spine makes her jump into conclusions pretty much from the start. She is never wrong though, so I suppose that doesn't matter either. As for her personal life, she behaves despicably. . The two paragraphs of lame explanations for her actions were the final nail in the coffin of this series for me. I'll re-read Agatha Christie for the nth time instead. 311 This book was like a weighted blanket for my brain 311 I picked up Maisie Dobbs from the library upon the rec. of my GR friend Carol, and have to say that this initial entry marks what may prove to be one of the cleverest mystery series since Dorothy Gilman brought the retired and intrepid Mrs. Pollifax to life back in the 1960s. (For more on Mrs. Pollifax, see The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax)
Don't go into reading Maisie Dobbs with any preconceived ideas about what you'll find there. Yes, it's a mystery -- somewhat. Yes, it's a historical novel -- somewhat. Yes, it's a exploration of psychological healing -- somewhat. In fact, Maisie Dobbs is one of those books that can't really be pegged and shelved in it's own confined area.
The book starts in 1929, when Maisie sets up her detective practice and receives her first solo case: A man wants Maisie to find out if his wife is having an affair. After solving that, the book abruptly switches gears and goes back 19 years, to 1910, when young Maisie is just a lower class girl living with her widower, costermonger father. While Maisie is decidedly low class in the ridged class structure of pre-War Britian, she is anything but low class in her intellect. Her bankrupt father sends her into service at the home of a wealthy and sympathetic upper crust family. From here, we learn Maisie's backstory - essentially, how she came to be Maisie Dobbs, Detective. This portion takes up quite a bit of this 290+ page book, so that by the time it's over, we're back to 1929 and Maisie's intuition leads her on an offshoot of her initial case, and the resolution of some feelings Maisie has been carrying around for quite a long time.
The writing is spare and somewhat simple in places, which initially put me off. However, once I got into its rhythm, I was hooked. I loved the setting (pre-and-post WWI England), and enjoyed Maisie's backstory with all it's information about being in service. The ending was probably my favorite of all, but I won't tell...
I eagerly await my next installment of Maisie Dobbs:
to see if Winspear can keep up the novelty of her first book in the series.
And oh yeah, the covers on the Penguin editions ROCK. I want them as posters, they are so evocative of the era. Excellent! 311 In general I prefer to confine the term 'Mary Sue' to fan fiction, where it belongs. But when I tell you that Maisie has purple eyes, rippling black hair, outstanding intelligence, a near-psychic empathy with her clients, and is practically perfect in every possible way & I think I may be allowed an exception. On top of all this, the author researched the First World War background for this very, very thoroughly and, oh, how it shows! Throw in a faithful Cockernee sidekick (wiv an 'eart of gold), a salt-of-the-earth costermonger father (also wiv an 'eart of gold), an eccentric Suffragist and her household (ALL with hearts of gold) and & I can hardly bear to say it, but a denouement that involves our heroine thwarting the bad guy by bursting into song & I'm afraid it's simply dreadful. 311 Is there anything more controversial at Goodreads than star rating? I think not (and yes, I think it's more controversial than porn or V-blogs). People have opinions on whether or not one should star books that weren't finished, whether one can star unread books by authors they don't like--or even do like--and then there are those that will actually argue a reviewer's rating based on the reviewer's interpretation, the infamous 'you read it wrong' offense.
Here I am, deciding to stretch my reading boundaries a little by giving Miss Maisie Dobbs a try: I enjoy mysteries, I love a good female lead and--hey--I'm a nurse, so why not? Well, because I am generally bored by historical fiction. But you know--stretch, right? I discovered Maisie Dobbs was both better and worse than I expected. Better, because I generally enjoyed it until the 'worse' part--a deep immersion into Maisie's past from ages thirteen to twenty-ish.
Remember how I mentioned recently that there is a shortage of niceness? Not in Maisie's world. Maisie is Little Women, Nancy Drew and the intuition of Claire DeWitt wrapped up into one self-assured bottle of plucky, industrious kindness. Maisie has a benefactor who has encouraged her to set up a little detective shop, and so she rents a room and makes friends with Billy, veteran and odd-jobsman. A man makes an appointment to ask M. Dobbs to discover if his wife is cheating on him, and much like Claire DeWitt, Maisie tells him that she may not like the answers she finds--and so he must trust her to do what's right. Maise gets close to the wife, discovers the mystery of her visiting the grave of a recently deceased veteran, and uses her skills to 'accidentally' encounter the wife and forge a connection. She discovers the mystery of the veterans' home for the disfigured, coincidentally the same place her benefactor's son is planning to retreat to. Before too much more progress is made, we journey back to Maisie's youth when she first encountered her benefactor.
So here's the deal: I actually liked the absolutely tropey Maisie--intelligent, book-smart, industrious, honest, and attractive--who, much like Nancy Drew, is practically perfect as well as the apple of her daddy's eye. I was vaguely interested in the obvious non-mystery, a home for disfigured veterans where men are mysteriously dying. The writing is decent, with solid character-building. But the transition to the past was awkward and continued for far, far too long to maintain any sense of suspense (perhaps helping the reader forget the solution?) and basically had little to do with anything except to build character background and show Maisie's own role in the war. I almost quit; I loaned the book to my mom in the meantime, until self-flagellation led me to finishing. It remained rather boring, in an insipid, historically romantic kind of way, using one of my absolute, very least favorite excuses for a criminal behavior and laughable denouement (and not in a good way). There was a bonus character twist that really made little to no sense.
On my personal scale of enjoyment, it was a solid 'meh'--I'm just not interested in historical fiction as a rule, so you have to be an ah-maz-ing writer for me to enjoy it (hello, Connie Willis!). In my world, it's about two stars for enjoyment, veering uncomfortably close to a Did Not Finish. Yet the writing skill--if not plotting--is actually much higher. On the niceness scale, it's a solid five, and on the Mom's Scale, it was good enough to warrant checking out the next book from the library. I might even skim the next one, to see if Winspear learned some plotting. So there you go: unrated because of niceness. 311