Elegy for Eddie is the ninth installment in the Maisie Dobbs series. The year is 1933 and Maisie is once more in London. She is approached by several old friends of her father’s who want to hire her. Eddie Pettit, a young man from Maisie’s old neighborhood, has died in an industrial accident. But the costermongers and Eddie’s mother aren’t satisfied with that explanation. All of the factory workers have been forbidden to discuss the incident on pain of losing their jobs. Maisie remembers Eddie fondly as a kind, gentle young man with an almost magical way with horses. The idea that someone might deliberately have harmed him is repellant to her. However, the case quickly proves much more dangerous than Maisie suspected. Maisie’s assistant Billy is severely injured while asking questions about the accident. Maisie herself is warned away by her paramour when her investigation leads toward prominent men and state secrets.

I was very happy that this book was a return to Maisie in London dealing with a very personal problem. I enjoyed A Lesson in Secrets, with it’s flavor of espionage, but I wouldn’t want the series as a whole to trend in that direction. I like Maisie to be herself, to walk around and talk to people openly. I also like that Maisie is having to take stock of herself in this book. She can see very clearly when it comes to other people, but her own life is in quite a muddle. She begins to sort some of that out in Elegy for Eddie.