There is no better setting than the interwar period to locate a saga of the most intense noir genre. Tough times where grudges were embers waiting for the most opportune current to rekindle. Jacqueline Winspear takes us with her most recognized series to the early 30s, with the dark horizon that this entails a few years away and the Great Depression hovering around half the world.
And that's where investigator Maisie Dobbs moves like a fish in water to uncover any mystery requested by her clients. Buried passions, imminent betrayals and of course debts finally collected in blood. Evocations to Agatha Christie by time and approaches. Guaranteed enjoyment
A perfect mix between the historical scenery of a singular period of calm, and the buds of the dark flowers of hatred that can break into small betrayals or great wars. The most ignominious part of the human condition always supports the most intense noir, literature in which to outline the psyches of evil characters and draw deductions together with the protagonist of the series.
Top 3 Recommended Novels by Jacqueline Winspear
Maisie Dobbs: A detective with intuition
Necessary presentation of a character that surpasses the work. Because Maisie Dobbs is not a random or irrelevant choice. A woman becoming a researcher in the 30s requires a deep knowledge of how and why. This is how this first installment becomes fundamental despite the fact that other of the following cases may be of greater substance.
Don't lose track of him. You've never met anyone like her. London, 1929. Maisie Dobbs opens an office as a brand new private investigator in central London and becomes one of the first female detectives of the time. Her first case, the investigation of the alleged infidelity of a high society man's wife, takes her to a place known as El Retiro, a World War I convalescent shelter.
Three white feathers
The doubt between a possible voluntary escape or kidnapping. The disappearance of a loved one always raises disturbing questions. Even more so when the father of the child is not just any citizen.
The problem is that the search for the daughter can endanger the status of the good man, the exemplary father, the well-intentioned businessman. A search may lead to the least desired findings first.
London, 1930. Since opening a private investigation agency in London, there have been many changes in Maisie Dobbs' life: she has her office in Fitzroy Square, Billy Beale has become her assistant, and she drives a red car. She has proven her worth as an investigator, and has even earned the respect of Scotland Yard's Inspector Stratton, quite an achievement for a woman who rose from maid to detective.
In the spring of 1930, Maisie is tasked by Joseph Waite, a wealthy self-made man, to find his daughter, Charlotte, a runaway heiress. What seems like a simple case becomes more complex when they find the lifeless body of Charlotte's friend who died under strange circumstances. Maisie will have to use her intuition again to discover the ins and outs of this case.
uncomfortable truths
Lies are always sweeter. Especially when we tell them ourselves. The truth is as uncomfortable as it is capable of transforming custom-built reality. A similar thing happens for an investigation. The most comfortable thing is to give in to first impressions to close any case. But Maisie doesn't easily give in to that comfortable appearance of verisimilitude. And that is always a necessary virtue...
London, 1931. The controversial artist Nick Bassington-Hope dies suddenly the night before the opening of an exhibition of his work at a famous Mayfair gallery. The police rule it an accident, but Nick's twin sister Georgina, a war correspondent, is not convinced. When the authorities refuse to consider her theory that Nick was the victim of a murder, she seeks the help of her fellow Girton College student, Maisie Dobbs.
In an investigation that takes her to the desolate beaches of Dungeness, Kent, and the controversial world of art, Maisie once again discovers the legacy of the Great War in a society struggling to stay on track.
Other recommended books by Jacqueline Winspear
An Imperfect Revenge: A Maisie Dobbs Investigation
Fifth installment. Maisie Dobbs has already become a character in which to inhabit adventures and misadventures in that remote, yet close, world of the 20th century. Already set in Maisie's London, which seems inherited from Sherlock Holmes himself, we face one of those cases about which almost no one wants to know the truth... for whatever reason.
A new case of Maisie Dobbs, the star detective of the international cozy historical mystery. You've never met anyone like her. What is the origin of a series of very strange events that occur in a small rural community? Maisie Dobbs must call on all her skills to find out.Heronsdene, County Kent, 1931.
With the country mired in an economic crisis, Maisie is relieved when she receives a seemingly simple assignment; A close friend requires her services to investigate certain matters related to the purchase of land. Her investigations lead her to a picturesque Kent village.
Under her calm appearance, Maisie quickly senses that something is wrong due to the mysterious fires that occur with alarming regularity, the prejudices of the villagers towards the workers who come to harvest the hops, a series of petty crimes that do not stop happening and the general silence about a wartime zeppelin raid. The young woman suspects that a mysterious secret surrounds the village.
