The Comfort of Ghosts
(Maisie Dobbs, Book 18)
by Jacqueline Winspear (2024)
Narrated by: Orlagh Cassidy
Audio book, 10 hrs and 6 mins
Jacqueline Winspear was born in 1955 and raised in Cranbrook, in Kent, England. She emigrated to the United States in 1990. She has stated that her childhood awareness of her grandfather's suffering in World War I led to an interest in that period - and to writing the Maise Dobbs series.
Her character Maisie Dobbs was born a working class girl in England, but received an unusual education thanks to the patronage of her aristocratic employer, who took her on as a housemaid from when she was just in her early teens. During WWI Maisie worked as a nurse, and after that set up her own business as a private investigator. She grows older throughout the series of novels; and the stories and cases that Maise gets involved in reflect the times, from WWI through WW2.
This 18th novel in the series is set just after the end of WWII, and I suspect it may be intended to be the last. Anyway it sums up quite a lot from the whole time period, and the ups and downs of Maisie's own life.
London, 1945: Four adolescent orphans with a dark wartime history are squatting in a vacant Belgravia mansion—the owners having fled London under heavy Luftwaffe bombing. Psychologist and Investigator Maisie Dobbs visits the mansion on behalf of the owners and discovers that a demobilized soldier, gravely ill and reeling from his experiences overseas, has taken shelter with the group.
Maisie’s quest to bring comfort to the youngsters and the ailing soldier brings to light a decades-old mystery concerning Maisie’s first husband, James Compton, who was killed while piloting an experimental fighter aircraft. As Maisie unravels the threads of her dead husband’s life, she is forced to examine her own painful past and question beliefs she has always accepted as true.
As I have read all of the earlier books (some borrowed, some in paperback, some on Kindle, and some as audio books) over a period of 20 years, it's hard for me to guess how this last novel might come across to a new reader who has not read any of the previous ones. There is quite a bit of repetition of details in this one though, so perhaps it might actually work as an "independent" read as well.
For my own part, I'm thinking of going back and maybe get additional audio book editions of some that I don't already have in that format. I think they have all been recorded by Orlagh Cassidy now; and I like her narration.
8 comments:
I have not heard of her, but I do like books set in England.
I've read as many as our library has of her series...always enjoyed the books.
I probably say that every time you post a review of a Maisie Dobbs book - they sound like a series I would enjoy, but I am not sure how I'd feel about the war-related bits; I usually find the topic makes for hard reading.
The author's name is vaguely familiar, but I haven't read any of her books. They sound interesting, but I'd prefer to start at the beginning and work my way through the series. I have quite a long list on unread books on my Kindle, so it may be quite a while before I get to the first one.
Ginny, I have reviewed some of the earlier books in the series before. Hard enough to remember books and authors one has actually read though... ;-)
Barbara, I know I borrowed the first one at the library - and I think probably in Swedish. Checking up on it now, it seems like only the first three were translated to Swedish, though. The rest I've read in English, and most of them either on Kindle or as audio books from Audible.
Meike, war experiences are a huge part of the background of these books, and in that respect they can indeed feel like heavy reading sometimes. They don't really fit into the category of "cosy" crime.
Carol, it can also feel rather daunting to start read a series that one knows to already have 18 books in it. I read the first one back in 2006, with no idea that it was to become a series to go on and on...
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