This period mystery (set in Post WW1 Britain)really engaged me as a reader. The non-traditional sleuth, Maisie Dobbs, was a battlefield nurse during the war and the crimes she addresses in the series are rooted in the emotional damage that resulted from the war.

Maisie is smart and compassionate but not without her own post-war issues. Her struggle to begin again after the war (and her setbacks)give her insight into the investigations she takes on as a professional. The focus of the novels is on the tremendous sacrifice that WW1 demanded on families as well as the war's influence on changing the class structure of Britain.

I've read many period novels set in the 20's and 30's but Jacqueline Winspear's books have done more to give me an understanding and appreciation of the toll of war than anything else I've encountered.