Product Description
Hailed by NPR’s Fresh Air as part Testament of Youth, part Dorothy Sayers, and part Upstairs, Downstairs, this astonishing debut has already won fans from coast to coast and is poised to add Maisie Dobbs to the ranks of literature’s favorite sleuths. 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 ordin… More >>
If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
The book is boring and should be billed as a romance novel rather than mystery. If people who bought Elizabeth George novels as well as this they must have been sorely disappointed. I won’t make the mistake of selecting a book on this basis again.
Rating: 1 / 5
I got this book after hearing a reasonably good review of it on NPR. Not many pages into it I wondered how in the world it found its way into print. The dust jacket mentions the author’s long career in publishing so I suppose it was through her connections that this garbage got published.
Rarely will you read such wooden, amateurish, mono-dimensional prose. Want a sample? Midway through p.18: (Here Maisie is apparently staking out a house): “….a man emerged from a neighboring house and walked in her direction. She quickly feigned interest in a window box filled with crocus buds peeking through moist soil. Their purple shoots seem to test the air to see if it was conducive to a full-fledged flowering. The man passed. Maisie still had ….”
Is that hysterical?!
Another embarassingly funny piece of dialogue: (on p. 34, where Maisie is answering a question from the building handyman about one of Maisie’s clients): “Billy, yes, Mrs. Scott is a client. But you know better than to expect a comment from me, don’t you?” (Keep in mind, Billy is a grown man, not a 6 year old.) Next in this conversation Maisie asks Billy if he knows anything about a certain person, and then tells him he must keep it confidential (which is itself an odd statement for Maisie to make since she’s the one asking for information). Winspear’s response from Billy is: “‘Nod’s as good as a wink.’ Billy tapped the side of his nose to emphasize the integrity of any information he might receive – he could keep a secret.”
Good grief, this book is pathetic.
This whole story stinks, period. I’m not sure what audience Winspear is targeting (Barbara Cartland-style detective stories???), but let’s hope this “series” goes no further.
Rating: 1 / 5
IT SHOWS WHAT WOMEN WENT THROUGH DURING THE FIRST WW AND IT IS AMAZING THAT THEY STILL WERE DIGNIFIED BUT IT ALSO SHOWED WHERE WOMEN COULD ATTEND COLLEGE AND BECOME SOMETHING MORE, AND I MEAN MUCH MORE. THEY WERE ALLOWED TO USE THEIR MIND.
Rating: 5 / 5
I loved the beginning of the book but soon realized that, of course I would, since I am all about blue bloods and private libraries..
I started to get bored by the time Maisie was being tutored and by the end of the book I was yawning.
This plot has been done over and over and over with the same protagonist I am sure.
A very cliched book and I am not eager to learn one new thing about Maisie.
Rating: 2 / 5
Hokey, cliched, loaded with predictable plot twists (see Enid’s fate and the final chapter), and a lot of stomach churning psycho babble from Maisie’s teacher Maurice Blanche. There is even an utterly pointless character named, of all things, Khan. He’s a blind Ceylonese mystic (OH BROTHER!) He’s supposed to be a mysterious guru, but his main purpose seems to be to teach Maisie how to breathe properly. The final scene where Maisie solves the mystery is absolutely ridiculous.
Still I wouldn’t go so far as to say that it is “unreadable.” A “nice” book, but not compelling enough to recommend it.
Rating: 3 / 5