Well. This was a waste of time. I don't think there was an aspect of this book I did not hate. Starting from the holier-than-thou main character, to the non-existent mystery, to the amazing (not) resolution of the non-mystery, to the abrupt hundred pages worth of tedious flashback in the middle of the mystery; everything bothered me. So. Maisie Dobbs is a private eye. She was a housemaid once, but it turned out that she was one of nature's rare prodigies, reading Latin by candlelight. Her masters then decide that she ought to be tutored, along with all her work as parlormaid. Enter Master Yoda from stage left, I mean, Maurice Blanche. He fills her mind with such gems as "Rush into conclusions not... In the stillness, wait awhile...", which pop into her mind opportunely in present day when she's talking to clients. Anyhow. On to the mystery! A ladies infidelity is suspected by her husband, the lady is blameless, and Maisie spends some time giving him shit for suspecting his wife. However it leads Maisie onto a suitably creepy post-war hidey hole for army men affected by the war called The Retreat. Nothing happens. Then, there's someone else talking about the Retreat too, and Maisie decides to investigate. Cut. Flashback into Maisie's early life. Some tedious accounts of class differences. Maisie in college. Maisie as a nurse in WW I France. Maisie with Simon, a brilliant and talented young doctor who worships the ground she walks on. Cut Back. Where were we? There's hardly a set up for a mystery in this book. The half hearted attempt is cut abruptly so we have pages of Maisie backstory, for no discernable reason. By the time the story comes back to the current time, I lost any inclination of knowing what would happen. I had to finish it though. Maisie herself I thought had a border-line God complex. She instructs her first client to make her a commitment, and to his marriage. She calls herself responsible for the safety of all parties, but she makes friends with and invites confidences (even after the husband has been sent away happy) from her emotionally susceptible mark, by lying about who she is. But let's not call this unprofessional. She has dodgy methods of problem solving. She may regurgitate the Maurice Blanche homilies to herself, but she the chill down her spine makes her jump into conclusions pretty much from the start. She is never wrong though, so I suppose that doesn't matter either. As for her personal life, she behaves despicably. (view spoiler)[Simon's alive, but unaware of his surroundings because of his war wounds (I think). It's been twelve years since this happened, and heroine has not bothered to visit him. Her explanation - how scared she was about not remembering them as they were! She's a flake, true enough, but what's bad about this situation is a) how happy Simon's mother is that madam finally condescended to visit the man she supposedly loved, b) how Maisie has been so superior all through the book, with trite sayings such as "I know about wounds, I know about disfigurement" when she's done jack squat, and c) zero insight into any thoughts Maisie might have had about Simon because the author thought that this needed to be a secret so there would be a big reveal (shock! dramatic music!) at the end (hide spoiler)]
It took me a few tries to start this book. Probably the only reason I finally read it was because I'm trying to read the books I already have, instead of adding to my ever growing pile of books to read.Maisie Dobbs is a new private eye in post WWI London, setting up shop and trying to earn a good client base in a world still getting used to the working woman outside of service. With a cunning mind, great determination, and a bit of luck and help along the way (from a supportive father and a liberal and open minded employer) Maisie has been able to go from a young girl in service to studying at a University to making her own way in the world. With the outbreak of WWI, and the sudden death of a friend, she is moved to put her dreams on hold to join up as a field nurse to help the boys at war. The first book in the Maisie Dobbs series; it sheds some light on what happened to Maisie in the passed during the war, while also following along as she uses everything her mentor Maurice Blanch taught her to solve the mysteries brought to her by clients or ones she discovers along the way.I found this book a bit hard to get into. A number of parts felt like filler, constantly having the character going back over what had just occurred. That is not a bad tool to use, but I felt it was used far too often. Many of the characters I felt were more of a caricature, few of them felt real, or had any real depth to them. The book starts off in 1929 as Maisie is just setting up her detective agency after her mentor retires. It shows her close relationship with her once employer Lady Rowan, and her admiration for her mentor Maurice. She is portrayed as very careful with her finances and meticulous with her work. She gets her first clients with help from Lady Rowan, and along the way of investigating she uncovered a much bigger mystery. The book then jumps back to 1910, just after Maisie has lost her mother, it follows Maisie through having to go into service to help her now savings-less father, to University and to the outbreak of WWI. It speeds through time from when she decides to leave school to help the cause as a nurse to the time she ends up on the battlefields in France.I found this portion of the book, where Maisie's background is revealed, to be very dry. It hols all of the major events in Maisie's life but didn't feel like a huge impact. Maisie felt like a robot during this time period. Except for when she herself decides use the great library without permission, she goes along doing as she is told with little emotion. Nose to the grindstone yes, but since it offered little colour to Maisie's character I lack feeling towards her. It wasn't until things really start rolling and being revealed towards the later half of the book, after it jumps back to 1929, that I actually am finally really turning pages. I found the the conclusion very interesting and did enjoy how it was all finally revealed and the path taken to get to it. It took a sleepless night to finally finish this book, and I'm not sure when or if I will be starting the second book in the Maisie Dobbs story.
What do You think about Maisie Dobbs (2004)?
I had no idea what this bookclub selection was about before I began. Although I am only giving it 3 stars, I must say that I enjoyed the book very much. It is well written and you are hooked right away. I liked it enough that I would be willing to read more of the series or more of this author. My problems with it are that in this first novel of Maisie Dobbs I didn't like how Winspear split the book up with the story of a case she was solving, mixed with the background of Maisie's early life later in the book. She does tie the two together but Maisie's story was the only part that I felt was a little sluggish and boring. I also thought the way the mystery was pulled together was a little too easy and not that suspenseful. For those reviewers who give this less than 3 stars, I must agree that they make some valid points. Yet this is still a fun read and engaging in a lighthearted sort of way. What I did love the was the perspective given to Maisie from her mentor Maurice - there is a lot of intuitive and psychological points of view expressed that I thought gave this book a fresh feel and something altogether different from other mystery series. I think the tips that Maurice gives Maisie are something that everyone could employ and find their relationships improve in understanding others.
—Sarah
I got about 2/3 of the way through this audiobook and just couldn't take it anymore. Maisie is the flattest character I have read in a long time, and in fact I can't even think of a flatter character. She is a one-dimensional, and oh too good to be true, character doing all the "right" things, I just couldn't listen to it anymore. Some of the book's critics have compared her to Nancy Drew; well I read all of the Nancy Drew books and Maisie Dobbs is no Nancy Drew, she could only hope to have 1/2 of Nancy Drew's spunk.
—Trish
I picked up Maisie Dobbs from the library upon the rec. of my GR friend Carol, and have to say that this initial entry marks what may prove to be one of the cleverest mystery series since Dorothy Gilman brought the retired and intrepid Mrs. Pollifax to life back in the 1960s. (For more on Mrs. Pollifax, see The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax)Don't go into reading Maisie Dobbs with any preconceived ideas about what you'll find there. Yes, it's a mystery -- somewhat. Yes, it's a historical novel -- somewhat. Yes, it's a exploration of psychological healing -- somewhat. In fact, Maisie Dobbs is one of those books that can't really be pegged and shelved in it's own confined area. The book starts in 1929, when Maisie sets up her detective practice and receives her first solo case: A man wants Maisie to find out if his wife is having an affair. After solving that, the book abruptly switches gears and goes back 19 years, to 1910, when young Maisie is just a lower class girl living with her widower, costermonger father. While Maisie is decidedly low class in the ridged class structure of pre-War Britian, she is anything but low class in her intellect. Her bankrupt father sends her into service at the home of a wealthy and sympathetic upper crust family. From here, we learn Maisie's backstory - essentially, how she came to "be" Maisie Dobbs, Detective. This portion takes up quite a bit of this 290+ page book, so that by the time it's over, we're back to 1929 and Maisie's intuition leads her on an offshoot of her initial case, and the resolution of some feelings Maisie has been carrying around for quite a long time.The writing is spare and somewhat simple in places, which initially put me off. However, once I got into its rhythm, I was hooked. I loved the setting (pre-and-post WWI England), and enjoyed Maisie's backstory with all it's information about being "in service". The ending was probably my favorite of all, but I won't tell...I eagerly await my next installment of Maisie Dobbs: to see if Winspear can keep up the novelty of her first book in the series.And oh yeah, the covers on the Penguin editions ROCK. I want them as posters, they are so evocative of the era. Excellent!
—Hannah
