You may have noticed that April is indeed over, and that I haven’t yet done a review of one of the most popular recommended mystery series put forward by site readers. Well, there’s an answer to that… I was just finishing up a review of the first entry of Darci Hanna’s Beacon Bakeshop Mystery Series when I realized that I had already written about it! And not even all that long time ago – 2022! It feels like these sort of ‘little errors’ are becoming more and more common… a sign of my age I suppose.
So, I had to pick something else to read. Fortunately, I always have plenty of great suggestions to follow, so it doesn’t take much time to pick out a new recommendation – this time, the first entry in Jacqueline Winspear‘s Maisie Dobbs Mystery Series, eponymously titled Maisie Dobbs.
As the book opens, Maisie Dobbs is opening up shop for herself as a private investigator after a life already filled with experience. It’s London, 1929, and Maisie has been a maid in service with a wealthy suffragette (now her patron) and served as a nurse during the Great War. Now, she’s starting a new chapter of her life, one where she is more the mistress of her own fate.
At the same time, part of her is still very much stuck in the past, as is often the case for anyone who goes through a traumatic experience such as war. Maisie’s first case, which at first seems a relatively unsurprising investigation into spousal infidelity, surprisingly opens up some of those old wounds – and when several cases seem to be leading to a working farm for ex-soldiers, Maisie is forced to revisit her own personal loss as well.
As with any good period piece, Maisie Dobbs does a great job of really highlighting the setting, discussing issues of the time and immersing the reader in the atmosphere of late 1920s London. Admittedly, considering the details included regarding the war and its grisly consequences, this isn’t as cheerful an outing as many historical pieces, but for those with an interest in the period, it’s definitely worth checking out for that alone.
If you’re interested in a mystery that includes a good deal of introspection and grief processing, I can certainly recommend Maisie Dobbs. It’s a bit heavier than most Cozies – but that’s certainly fine by me. Not every book needs to be about talking cats and quaint seaside bookshops – Maisie Dobbs does a good job of presenting a serious, melancholy mystery that reflects on themes of grief, war, and the difficulties of coming to terms with loss.
As always, if you want to read more of these brief discussions of some of the more popular Cozy Mystery Series that I’ve written in the past, you can find them at the Most Recommended Cozy Mystery Series page.
