Maisie Dobbs

I love all of Jacqueline Winspear’s books about Maisie Dobbs and am sorry to see that the author is retiring this character. I liked Maisie from the first, maybe because the 1920s are an era of fascination for me.

Not only was the mystery a good read, but it led me to do further research on the after-effects of World War I and the toll it took on the young soldiers, most of them barely out of their teens. Winspear is a great storyteller with a compelling heroine.

This book is about a private investigator in London in the early 1900s. It is the first of a long series about Maisie’s cases and the people who are dear to her.

This first book gives us an introduction to Maisie and her working-class background, the people who influenced her, and the way she uses her own version of second sight to understand both clients and criminals. Her description of Maisie mimicking someone’s body movements to figure out their motives actually made me try it out.

I also got a strong sense of London during the difficult years of wars… show more.

From the first page, I loved Maisie. She’s a psychologist and investigator just starting her own agency in 1929 London. I spent a semester in college studying in London, so that city holds a particularly special place in my heart.

Getting to tag along with Maisie as she grapples with her horrific experiences as a nurse in WWI and begins her new career is a privilege; she’s thoughtful, determined, smart, and kind. I even named my cat after her! The rest of the series is excellent, too, and I really enjoy the audiobook versions.

It was a great day for me when I found this series. What could be better than the historical fiction of a World War One nurse turned private detective?

Jacqueline Winspear has written eighteen novels about the magnificent Maisie Dobbs. Coming from humble beginnings, she is supported by wealthy benefactors and is admitted to a prestigious college. However, the Great War intervenes, and Maisie is at the front as a nurse in France.

After her service, although haunted by what she has seen, she becomes a private investigator and, happily for her legion of readers, her true career begins. I… show more.

In this the first book in the series, Maisie Dobbs is an investigator in 1929 England, trained by a retiring detective who recognized her intuitive gifts. We meet her family, the aristocrats who took her in, and various London police detectives. I find it fascinating how Maisie manages to uncover clues and suspects without the benefit of modern techniques and equipment. The story involves a case related to World War I, in which Maisie was a nurse. In the series, most of the cases she investigates relate to one of the world wars in one way or another. Her romances,… show more.

In Maisie Dobbs, the setting is one of time and class in addition to geography.

Set in London, England, in the first quarter of the 20th century, Maisie Dobbs transported me back to an era that Jacqueline Winspear described with vivid detail. 

I was able to feel the fear and isolation of Maisie as she set about to learn her duties as a chambermaid in an upper class household, then exult with her when her love of learning led her to become the protégé of a family friend.

Maisie Dobbs is a celebration of the ability of an… show more.

Maisie Dobbs was first published in 2003, but I did not find her until a number of years later. I now eagerly look forward to each new book in the series. Maisie inhabits a narrative set during the First World War. Additionally, Maisie is motivated by her connections with others and her unwavering dedication to the truth as she solves mysteries. These elements rang true to me in my own writing. Maisie fits the category of strong woman as she defies the odds, becoming a nurse in the trenches, becoming a psychologist and investigator, and changing the lives of all… show more.

The 17 Maisie Dobbs books are set mostly in England during the 1930s but they do begin in the late 1920s, so I include them in this list. A girl from a poor family, Maisie begins her working life at thirteen as a housemaid, then works her way from servant to scholar to nurse to psychologist and investigator. The psychological trauma of the Great War (1914-1918), which was supposed to end all wars, pervades these books. The period detail will pull you into the mystery every time.