Once more Maisie Dobbs arrives at her conclusions through her uncanny ability to sense things from people, objects and places, as she again takes on a case having to do with the repercussions of WW I. This one involves the death of an artist and the controversial work he created. The insight Winspear shows about the sensitivity of artists and the interactions of an artistic family made this book especially interesting. The artistic décor of the dead artist’s cottage and the home of his parents (also artists) is rich with creativity and imagination. Maisie is assigned a guest room one night during a snow storm with an insect theme—a variety of insects are painted on the walls, carved in the furniture and even stitched into the needlepoint cushions.

The conflict between her personal life and career are also addressed as Maisie is forced to choose between love, and the work that she loves, a hard thing for a man to compete with, especially in the 1920s. Interestingly, her themes of war and economic depression with people out of work, are very timely today. Winspear throws enough red herrings into this story to keep the reader guessing until the end who the murderer is, or if indeed there was a murder.