The Comfort of Ghosts (Maisie Dobbs #18) - Book Review

 

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.

Just Weird

Out walking (around the old cemetery), from the corner of my eye, across a fence, I became aware of Something Blue that just did not fit in among the natural autumn colours...

I haven't got a clue what it's supposed to be. I uploaded my photo to Google Image Search and various images of weird art projects came up, as well as just rubbish dumped in nature. This definitely looks "made" rather than just dumped, though.

 

"I think winter wear is communal. You get some gloves and a scarf from a lost-and-found box, wash them, wear them for a while until you lose them. Then somebody else does the same thing."
- Adrian Grenier

 

 

Autumn Gold - Weekend Reflections

 “Autumn carries more gold in its pocket than all the other seasons.”

Two more photos from Thursday this week,
for Weekend Reflections

How Beautifully Leaves Grow Old

“How beautifully leaves grow old.
How full of light and color are their last days.”
– George Burns

Another sunny afternoon today, and after lunch (at home) I felt inspired to take the bus to the shopping centre "across town". Once there, however, I found that I had quite lost the inspiration for any actual shopping. After just a very quick look into a couple of shops, I just decided on a long walk back home instead.

 Passing by Jaume Plensa's House of Knowledge sculpture at the Textile Fashion Center.

Ooops... The bridge I'd normally have passed over on my way back is being re-constructed, a job that is not only currently causing major traffic chaos in that part of town, but not even allowing pedestrians to walk that way now...

 Sitting down to rest for a while on a bench, and staring at these... well, whatever they are... (Looking magically "silvery" in the backlight this time of year, anyway...)

 

Reching the city centre, I decided that my usual walk through the park, along the river, and across the old cemetery was undoubtedly still the nicest alternative (avoiding other various construction work going on here and there).

 Some trees have dropped all their leaves now.
Others have quite a few left still.

Autumn leaves floating on the surface of the river.

Wading ankle-deep in leaves in the old cemetery (not everywhere, but in some places).

 

Linking to Skywatch Friday

Leaf Blowing Season

 

View from my window this morning

Probably a bit of frost during the night, followed by a bit of wind this morning... Now the leaves are dropping fast from the trees! Leaf blowers were already hard at work on the lawns outside my buildning when I got up today.

For me today was laundry day, so spent mostly indoors. But I was able to get started an hour early, so also finished early; and had time for a sunny afternoon walk afterwards. Today I enjoyed that special autumnal feeling (and sound!) of literally wading in dry leaves practially all the way around the old cemetery...

 

Certain trees have lost practially all their leaves, while others still have plenty left.

A comment on my previous post reminded me of a report that was published back in September, to do with which of the 20 largest cities in Sweden are the "greenest" - as in having the most trees and the most green areas etc. Comparing a number of different parameters of that kind, a study showed that Borås has the greatest tree cover in relation to its surface area (52 percent), but is also at the top when it comes to the percentage of inhabited green space (58 percent). In total, we ended up as No 5 on the list. Although all the greenery is one reason that I like living here, I don't think I would have guessed!