In another of Jacqueline Winspear’s excellent studies of post-World War I British society, Maisie Dobbs is seconded to Scotland Yard’s Special Branch to investigate threats to attack London with poison gas. As the New Year’s Eve deadline approaches, Maisie must search among former soldiers suffering from war neurosis (the 1930s version of PTSD) to find the man capable of such an attack. Winspear takes the reader inside the mind of a man driven mad by war and provides a horrifying description of the effects of poison gas on the human body. Balancing this “public” madness is a domestic case. Doreen, the wife of Maisie’s assistant Billy Beale, has never recovered from the death of their little daughter Lizzie from diphtheria and must be hospitalized for treatment. A vivid depiction of mental illness and a government’s indifference to the suffering of its veterans. I continued the series because I had requested these book along the preceding one (An Incomplete Revenge). After the fiasco of the last one, I am happy to report, that in my opinion, the author redeemed herself. The writing in this one was better, the story line more engaging. I am curious to see how Maise develops and how she finds healing and to find out , if she ever finds happiness. So I might pick up the next book in the series.
What do You think about Among The Mad (2009)?
I was about to give up on this series but then it gave me this interesting race against the clock.
—Shravi
WWI and PTSD in England. An interesting glimpse at how much we haven't progressed.
—addixion
