Maisie Dobbs travels to Kent to investigate, among other things, a series of fires, a family of Dutch bakers who were killed during WWI in a zeppel...
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Feb 22, 2009
Celia
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Maisie leaves London and heads to Kent in the middle of hopping season to undertake some investigations into a brickworks and the surrounding village.
While I enjoy the Maisie Dobbs series (if you're completely unfamiliar, think post-WW1 solo female detective, a former nurse with painful history), there are several elements to the series that don't click with me - Maisie's psychic abilities are up there (I like fantasy, I just don't like psychics in historical fiction), as is her ov More...
While I enjoy the Maisie Dobbs series (if you're completely unfamiliar, think post-WW1 solo female detective, a former nurse with painful history), there are several elements to the series that don't click with me - Maisie's psychic abilities are up there (I like fantasy, I just don't like psychics in historical fiction), as is her ov More...
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Aug 29, 2011
Hannah
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By far my favorite Maisie Dobbs installment since the very first book.
I was beginning to wonder how much longer I could stomach Maisie with her psychic abilities, her coldness and her all around off-putting-ness. It's very rare that I will continue with a series in which the main character annoys me so very much, but in the case of this series, I'm willing to put up with her because I do like the style of Winspear's writing, the time period, the slow plotting, and the issues that th More...
I was beginning to wonder how much longer I could stomach Maisie with her psychic abilities, her coldness and her all around off-putting-ness. It's very rare that I will continue with a series in which the main character annoys me so very much, but in the case of this series, I'm willing to put up with her because I do like the style of Winspear's writing, the time period, the slow plotting, and the issues that th More...
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Jan 29, 2009
Deenbat
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These aren't bad... after all, I keep reading them! But there are several things about them that I find annoying.
I am uncomfortable with the mixture of "sixth sense" and pretentious academic psychology that Maisie supposedly combines to solve her cases. The review at the end, when she returns to the sites she visited during the case, seems to me a contrived device that is essentially pointless. Perhaps I also prefer my mysteries less cerebral.
In this particula More...
I am uncomfortable with the mixture of "sixth sense" and pretentious academic psychology that Maisie supposedly combines to solve her cases. The review at the end, when she returns to the sites she visited during the case, seems to me a contrived device that is essentially pointless. Perhaps I also prefer my mysteries less cerebral.
In this particula More...
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May 04, 2008
Barbara
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This is the 5th of the Maise Dobbs books and I think it may be the best of the series since the first one. Winspear manages to weave multiple themes, but with so much grace that they never feel forced or crowded. I was particularly impressed with the material about gypsies and the subplot about the effect of war on our humanity. The narrator, Orlagh Cassidy, does a wonderful job. In an interview on one of these audiobooks, Winspear says that she was a nonfiction writer prior to doing the fir
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Mar 10, 2009
Julia
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My favorite Maisie Dobbs novel yet.
I have a notion that Jacqueline Winspear creates her plots the same way Maisie Dobbs solves her mysteries - by sketching out a map containing each clue onto a large canvas until she can see how all the pieces fit together. What I find wonderful about a Winspear mystery is that her canvas doesn't just include who did it, with what, where and when. I suspect it is painted in colors to reflect the season and the clothes Maisie wears, and I'd guess tha More...
I have a notion that Jacqueline Winspear creates her plots the same way Maisie Dobbs solves her mysteries - by sketching out a map containing each clue onto a large canvas until she can see how all the pieces fit together. What I find wonderful about a Winspear mystery is that her canvas doesn't just include who did it, with what, where and when. I suspect it is painted in colors to reflect the season and the clothes Maisie wears, and I'd guess tha More...
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Jan 01, 2009
Kate
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Maisie Dobbs is a reliable gal for a turn around the park. I know she won't run off into some obscure literary lane to act coy; topics of conversation/investigation are always delightful and not too grisly; and she's deep: The War, man, The Great War. Her experience as a nurse in France colors every choice she has made since, including her choice to pursue her studies under the tutelage of her mentor, French psychiatrist and detective, Maurice. He plucked her from her life "below stairs" in an E
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Jul 18, 2011
Ariel
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I had to take a break after reading the last book in this series. Maisie seemed to have turned heartless but she seems back to her old self in this book. The mystery begins when old acquaintance James Compton asks her to investigate a series a petty crimes in a village that his company is thinking of purchasing. The secret in that the villagers keep is a doozie. Through in some racial, ethnic, and class tensions between the villagers, the traveling gypsies and the Londoners who come down during
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Jul 02, 2011
Nancy
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This is my fifth Maisie Dobbs novel and I emerged from it a bit conflicted about the series. I know I'll continue reading them, but in the case of Winspear's heroine/sleuth, less just might be more.
Prior to this book I was a rabid Maisie Dobbs fan:
. . . I loved the exposition of post WW1 London;
. . . It was interesting to read about the rapid changes in Europe's social structure in the post war era;
. . . And, I enjoyed following Maisie-- a bright young thing escap More...
Prior to this book I was a rabid Maisie Dobbs fan:
. . . I loved the exposition of post WW1 London;
. . . It was interesting to read about the rapid changes in Europe's social structure in the post war era;
. . . And, I enjoyed following Maisie-- a bright young thing escap More...
Mar 24, 2011
Pam
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http://iwriteinbooks.wordpress.com/2011/...
Maisie was never very close to the Comptons’ son, James, though she has always stood a long family friend to the whole crew. When she bumps into James in the city, it is with some trepidation that she takes on a “simple” land case for his company.
It looks to be a fairly straightforward gathering of information, at first, but, then again, this is Maisie, we’re talking about. No sooner has Maisie found herself in the middle o More...
Mar 17, 2011
Martha
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I know I've said this about the other Maisie Dobbs books but this really is my favorite so far. The mystery was very complex and interesting. We got to know more about Maisie family history. Maisie was able to release some of the pain of her past and embrace her future. And Pris was back.
I always knew there was something in Maisie's past that gave her her gift and sure enough she does. Her gypsy grandmother must have passed on more than just Maisie's jet black hair. It was nice to see More...
I always knew there was something in Maisie's past that gave her her gift and sure enough she does. Her gypsy grandmother must have passed on more than just Maisie's jet black hair. It was nice to see More...
Mar 02, 2011
LJ
rated it: 
First Sentence: The old woman rested on the steps of her home, a caravan set apart from those of the rest of her family, her tribe.
An old friend hires investigator Maisie Dobbs to investigate matters relating to a potential land purchase. Petty thefts have been blamed on London boys there to help pick hops, but the residents also distrust the Gypsies who are there. Maisie has discovered small fires which have occurred each year but no one reported them to the fire departments or po More...
An old friend hires investigator Maisie Dobbs to investigate matters relating to a potential land purchase. Petty thefts have been blamed on London boys there to help pick hops, but the residents also distrust the Gypsies who are there. Maisie has discovered small fires which have occurred each year but no one reported them to the fire departments or po More...
Feb 16, 2011
Donna
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Lovers of Maisy Dobbs will find all the elements here that make the series so endearing: characters that breathe and feel like old friends, fascinating historical detail about life in England between the great wars, and that tantalizing aura of the preternatural that is somehow never too much to be believed.
In An Incomplete Revenge, as in other books of the series, there are themes as profound and thought provoking as any in literature (one reason I categorize these books as “litera More...
In An Incomplete Revenge, as in other books of the series, there are themes as profound and thought provoking as any in literature (one reason I categorize these books as “litera More...
Sep 08, 2010
Phillip
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This has been my favorite in the "Maisie Dobbs" series by far, but I can't see my enjoying it so much without having had the foundation lain by the previous four. Jacqueline Winspear demonstrates a bold integrity as a writer in allowing her characters room to develop and to progress. This is essential in a series whose main character is "a wounded healer." Just as Maisie goes about healing others, she herself is allowed the opportunities to heal as well, and not necessaril
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Jul 09, 2009
Carol
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In the series of murder-mystery books featuring sleuth Maisie Dobbs, her personal life progresses from one book to the next, so reading in order is a good idea. This, the fourth book, is the best so far. Winspear focuses on the between-World Wars era in England, the plight of the huge number of bereaved, many multiply-bereaved, and the inadequacy of any government response even before the era of financial collapse. Maisie is a quasi-widow: her fiance came back severely injured, unable to communi
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Apr 23, 2009
Susan
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With apologies, I won't be reading any more books in this series, for despite their convincing post-World-War-1 details, if this is a good example, the Maisie Dobbs mysteries are too predictable, tidy and moralistic for my taste. When I grow up, if ever I do, I probably won't be able to hold myself to Maisie's humane yet perfectionistic standards.
With her life blighted by the Great War this thirty-ish psychologist whose work habits must mirror the successful author's own finds satisf More...
With her life blighted by the Great War this thirty-ish psychologist whose work habits must mirror the successful author's own finds satisf More...
Aug 17, 2011
Jessica
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Winspear's a standing favorite of mine, and her latest doesn't disappoint. She captures the emotional resonance of the interwar period so perfectly, and Maisie is one of the most fully realized characters in mystery today. There's a thread of sensitivity and grace threaded through this series that makes it one to return to time and again - more than a mystery, it's an exploration into the mental challenges of grief, loss, and finding your way again in "the afterwards."
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Jul 23, 2011
Mary
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Maisie Dobbs is hired by James Compton to find out about the village of Heronsdene, where his company proposes to buy the brickworks from Alfred Sandemere, and where no one will discuss (nor report to officials) the frequent fires or acts of theft, and where tensions are high between the villagers, the families from London who stay each summer for the hop picking, and the gypsies who have come for the same purpose. I enjoy these post WWI British mysteries, and think Maisie is an interesting char
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Feb 23, 2009
Roberta
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This is the fifth in a mystery series by Jacqueline Winspear, a Maisie Dobbs novel. I now want to go back and read the first four because I learned so much about England between the Wars. Maisie finds herself in Kent during the harvesting of the hops, amid Londoners who want to earn some extra money and the Romy people in their caravans. She is hired to find out about arson fires in the village of Heronsdene and petty thefts. Part gypsy herself, she is able to glide between the world of the
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Jun 11, 2011
Jenn
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This was a return to form for the Winspear mysteries -- a form that felt almost Agatha Christie-like. Maisie Dobbs gets a call from the son of her benefactor (Lady Rowan Compton). James Compton is coming close to taking over the family business, and he'd like Maisie to investigate the strange vandalism problems around a property they are considering purchasing. This sends her out to the hop-picking fields with her assistant and his family. There, she discovers not only is there more to the crime
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Mar 17, 2009
Betty
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I was very taken with this book I loved the many textures and the fullness of characters, the setting of the late 1930s interspersed with a background story from WWI. I had never read a Maisie Dobbs story before but am fast becoming a new fan! Quite aside from the many mysterious happenings, I enjoyed learning of hop-picking, and the rich fullness of gypsies and gypsy lore.
Jacqueline Winspear has a very fluid voice in telling the story, understands the nuances in people, fear, hope More...
Jacqueline Winspear has a very fluid voice in telling the story, understands the nuances in people, fear, hope More...
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Mar 13, 2011
Nancy
rated it:
***1/2
This is the 5th book in Winspear’s series about Maisie Dobbs, an investigator/psychologist who practices in post WW I England. I started out thinking this was going to be my favorite of the series, but it petered out toward the end. I was most interested in Maisie’s involvement with gypsies and the revelation that she inherited gypsy blood from her grandmother, explaining Maisie’s uncanny, almost supernatural powers. Winspear divulges lots of information about the gypsy culture More...
This is the 5th book in Winspear’s series about Maisie Dobbs, an investigator/psychologist who practices in post WW I England. I started out thinking this was going to be my favorite of the series, but it petered out toward the end. I was most interested in Maisie’s involvement with gypsies and the revelation that she inherited gypsy blood from her grandmother, explaining Maisie’s uncanny, almost supernatural powers. Winspear divulges lots of information about the gypsy culture More...
Mar 05, 2009
Maren
rated it:
I discovered the Maisie Dobbs series of mysteries sometime back and have enjoyed them as a casual read for their mix of mystery and history and a strong heroine.
However, in An Incomplete Revenge I think Winspear has reached new level of assurance and skill in her writing. The historical details are well integrated into the story and there is more personal character development for Maisie.
For those who are not familiar with the series, Maisie has risen from the lower ord More...
However, in An Incomplete Revenge I think Winspear has reached new level of assurance and skill in her writing. The historical details are well integrated into the story and there is more personal character development for Maisie.
For those who are not familiar with the series, Maisie has risen from the lower ord More...
Nov 02, 2010
Diane
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I listened to the audio version of this novel while commuting and enjoyed it very much. If I find myself sitting in the car once I reach my destination or looking foward to driving somewhere that's usually a sign of a good book. This is the fifth in the Maisie Dobbs series and it has certainly motivated me to start at the beginning and read or listen to them all. Maisie is a real world Agatha Christie. The books are set in a heart-broken England following the first world war. So many young
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Dec 07, 2011
Patiencethomas
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Maisie Dobbs continues to please the palate of my reading with her fifth book in the series of post World War 1 historical mysteries. The author artfully weaves the plot which involves the interaction among locals, migrant Londoners and gypsies as they pick hops in the fields. Billy, who is usually Maisie's assistant is in the fields with his family. As such he is able to give inside information to Maisie. The prejudice among the different factions is quite apparent. The ongoing history of
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Feb 13, 2011
Julie
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This is the 5th book in the "Maisie Dobbs" series and like all the others I really enjoyed it. Jacqueline Winspear is so good at creating the 1930's time period. I love her descriptions of the English countryside, the clothing they wore, the food they ate, the struggles they had because of the Great Depression that covered the world. This time she deals with class struggles, especially the treatment of Gypsies. And as always, World War I and its aftermath haunts the lives of those
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Feb 21, 2010
Barbara
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I'm not sure why I'm still reading these books, except that they're here. It's sort of like reading Hardy Boys books. Actually I thought this was a little better in some ways than the previous four. Not as many sore-thumb allusions to this or that (like Mosley in the last one).
But dang it, can't the editor take out the zillion "she checked her watch" reiterations? And make Masie a little more likeable? And improve the dialogue? And move the action along a little? We More...
But dang it, can't the editor take out the zillion "she checked her watch" reiterations? And make Masie a little more likeable? And improve the dialogue? And move the action along a little? We More...
Sep 28, 2010
Leslie
rated it:
Really, I should quit reading books for awhile. I've lost my ability to suspend my disbelief. This book likely deserves another star, but I just couldn't go there. This time out, we didn't hear every thread that each character wore, which I appreciated. Maisie is asked to go out to the hop-picking area of England to see about a property that her client wants to buy. It's a brick-making factory, which I would have liked to know more about. Billie and his family are picking hops while she's
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May 12, 2009
Rachel
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I was surprised to see that I only got this book 8 days ago, and I already finished it this afternoon. I really enjoyed it! I believe this is the 4th or 5th book about the same main character, and I read the one previous to this one just a couple weeks ago. I don't know if I enjoyed this one more on its own, or if it's the fact that I care more about the main character by now. Either way, I am looking forward to reading more Maisie Dobbs books!
One thing both the books I've read b More...
One thing both the books I've read b More...
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Apr 18, 2010
Joan
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This is another in the crime mystery series with Maisie Dobbs, Psychologist and Investigator. The story is set in 1931 and continues the story of England in the post WWI era when the society is having the deal with the loss of a large number of young men, the increased participation of women and working class in public life and public policy. Maisie is asked to investigate a village prior to the sale of a brick yard and estate. She uncovers past crimes and bad will between the townspeople, mi
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Feb 21, 2009
Laura
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Maisie Dobbs was sent to investigate a potential land purchase. She travels to a village called Kent during the hop picking season. She finds a sinister dark force at work thru the town which divides it. Everybody is a suspect and the novel keeps you guessing. There are mysterious fires that erupt thru the town; each reference in the book has a deeper meaning. The novel also focuses on forms of prejudice and added to the small town microcosm. Almost, the townspeople could not think on their own,
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