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Maisie Dobbs #1-2
Maisie Dobbs / Birds of a Feather
In this exclusive QBP 2-in-1 edition are two of best-selling author Jacqueline Winspear's critically acclaimed World War I-era novels, featuring the female sleuth Maisie Dobbs.
Maisie Dobbs got her start as a maid in an aristocratic London household when she was thirteen. Her employer, suffragette Lady Rowan Compton, soon became her patron, taking the remarkably bright youngster under her wing. Lady Rowan's friend, Maurice Blanche, often retained as an investigator by the European elite, recognized Maisie’s intuitive gifts and helped her earn admission to the prestigious Girton College in Cambridge, where Maisie planned to complete her education.
The outbreak of war changed everything. Maisie trained as a nurse, then left for France to serve at the Front, where she found—and lost—an important part of herself. Ten years after the Armistice, in the spring of 1929, Maisie sets out on her own as a private investigator, one who has learned that coincidences are meaningful, and truth elusive. Her very first case involves suspected infidelity but reveals something very different.
In the aftermath of the Great War, a former officer has founded a working farm known as The Retreat, that acts as a convalescent refuge for ex-soldiers too shattered to resume normal life. When Fate brings Maisie a second case involving The Retreat, she must finally confront the ghost that has haunted her for over a decade.
Maisie Dobbs got her start as a maid in an aristocratic London household when she was thirteen. Her employer, suffragette Lady Rowan Compton, soon became her patron, taking the remarkably bright youngster under her wing. Lady Rowan's friend, Maurice Blanche, often retained as an investigator by the European elite, recognized Maisie’s intuitive gifts and helped her earn admission to the prestigious Girton College in Cambridge, where Maisie planned to complete her education.
The outbreak of war changed everything. Maisie trained as a nurse, then left for France to serve at the Front, where she found—and lost—an important part of herself. Ten years after the Armistice, in the spring of 1929, Maisie sets out on her own as a private investigator, one who has learned that coincidences are meaningful, and truth elusive. Her very first case involves suspected infidelity but reveals something very different.
In the aftermath of the Great War, a former officer has founded a working farm known as The Retreat, that acts as a convalescent refuge for ex-soldiers too shattered to resume normal life. When Fate brings Maisie a second case involving The Retreat, she must finally confront the ghost that has haunted her for over a decade.
623 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
12 people are currently reading
819 people want to read
About the author
Jacqueline Winspear
61 books8,331 followersJacqueline Winspear was born and raised in the county of Kent, England. Following higher education at the University of London’s Institute of Education, Jacqueline worked in academic publishing, in higher education and in marketing communications in the UK.
She emigrated to the United States in 1990, and while working in business and as a personal / professional coach, Jacqueline embarked upon a life-long dream to be a writer.
A regular contributor to journals covering international education, Jacqueline has published articles in women's magazines and has also recorded her essays for KQED radio in San Francisco. She currently divides her time between Ojai and the San Francisco Bay Area and is a regular visitor to the United Kingdom and Europe.
Jacqueline is the author of the New York Times bestsellers A Lesson in Secrets, The Mapping of Love and Death, Among the Mad, and An Incomplete Revenge, and other nationally bestselling Maisie Dobbs novels. She has won numerous awards for her work, including the Agatha, Alex,
and Macavity awards for the first book in the series, Maisie Dobbs, which was also nominated for the Edgar Award for best novel and was a New York Times
Notable Book.
Series:
* Maisie Dobbs
http://us.macmillan.com/author/jacque...
She emigrated to the United States in 1990, and while working in business and as a personal / professional coach, Jacqueline embarked upon a life-long dream to be a writer.
A regular contributor to journals covering international education, Jacqueline has published articles in women's magazines and has also recorded her essays for KQED radio in San Francisco. She currently divides her time between Ojai and the San Francisco Bay Area and is a regular visitor to the United Kingdom and Europe.
Jacqueline is the author of the New York Times bestsellers A Lesson in Secrets, The Mapping of Love and Death, Among the Mad, and An Incomplete Revenge, and other nationally bestselling Maisie Dobbs novels. She has won numerous awards for her work, including the Agatha, Alex,
and Macavity awards for the first book in the series, Maisie Dobbs, which was also nominated for the Edgar Award for best novel and was a New York Times
Notable Book.
Series:
* Maisie Dobbs
http://us.macmillan.com/author/jacque...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 88 reviews
September 4, 2024
(This review is for Maisie Dobbs #2- Birds of a Feather)
I have read 2 other books from this charming British mystery series- #1 and #15. After jumping way ahead in the series, I decided I had better go back and read these in order. Going back to book 2 gave me more of an idea of Maisie's origin and the building of her investigation business. She is a skilled detective, but comes up against resistance to her abilities due to being a woman and outside of "official" channels. She is brilliant, intuitive, curious, and able to look at both the big picture and the little details of a case. In this novel she is hired to find a missing young woman for her domineering father. In the course of solving this missing person case she also solves three murders- she is just that good. I loved being immersed in her world of 1930s London and will be reading more of her stories in the future.
I have read 2 other books from this charming British mystery series- #1 and #15. After jumping way ahead in the series, I decided I had better go back and read these in order. Going back to book 2 gave me more of an idea of Maisie's origin and the building of her investigation business. She is a skilled detective, but comes up against resistance to her abilities due to being a woman and outside of "official" channels. She is brilliant, intuitive, curious, and able to look at both the big picture and the little details of a case. In this novel she is hired to find a missing young woman for her domineering father. In the course of solving this missing person case she also solves three murders- she is just that good. I loved being immersed in her world of 1930s London and will be reading more of her stories in the future.
June 21, 2009
Disappointing. I review these together because they came together in an omnibus edition and I read them together. Seems like everybody in my online book group loves Winspear and thinks these stories are terrific. (I know that is just how it looks and everybody who didn’t think so much of them just didn’t say so once the positive reviews got rolling.) Anyhow, I found them not terrible but not very good either. I quite disliked the rather pompous and entirely improbable angle that makes her not just a private investigator but a psychologist/p.i. and how she insists on counselling clients – and they put up with it. Pft. Both stories were also too long and dragged along, much tiresome repetition and tedious speculation. Zzzz. Oh well, a fat book off my shelves.
November 23, 2014
This is the first book in the series and I reading it first. The book has two sections The first starts as Maisie is asked to find out what his wife is doing by a client. After she has the answer she is still bother by the case.
The next section we learn about her life. At the age of 13 she is apprenticed as a kitchen maid. Maisie discovers the library and decides to get up an hour early in order to read them. This is a good description of the life of the middle-class.
The last section Maisie patron asked her to investigate the Retreat that her son is planning on joining. The twists that story takes will hold your attention.
This is was a library book and had only Maisie Dobbs.I can't find it listed on Goodreads
The next section we learn about her life. At the age of 13 she is apprenticed as a kitchen maid. Maisie discovers the library and decides to get up an hour early in order to read them. This is a good description of the life of the middle-class.
The last section Maisie patron asked her to investigate the Retreat that her son is planning on joining. The twists that story takes will hold your attention.
This is was a library book and had only Maisie Dobbs.I can't find it listed on Goodreads
June 16, 2013
This volume has the first two Maisie Dobbs books. Winspear does a wonderful job creating the atmosphere of a post-war England. The stories are complex but very accessible, with positve, believabl endings. Take a slow soothing walk in Maisie's shoes and come away hopeful.
April 15, 2019
Maisie Dobbs and Birds of a Feather by Jacqueline Winspear are the first two novels in a Maisie Dobbs series.
Maisie Dobbs gives the background of Maisie; it starts out with Maisie setting up her office as a private investigator, starting work on what appears to be a routine fidelity investigation. But as Maisie watches the woman to see where she goes, she discovers that she visits a cemetery, not a living man.
This makes her remember her own history, and the second part of the novel tells us about her early life: daughter of a costermonger, Frankie Dobbs, whose wife had died, and who wanted to help Maisie, and did so by getting her placed as a tweeny in Lady Rowan's home. It worked out better that he expected; she was noticed by not only Lady Rowan but by her friend, Maurice Blanche, who took her under their wings and worked on her education so that she was able to pass the exams to get into Girton, the women's branch of Cambridge. However WWI intervened, and Maisie joined the army and learned to be a battle field nurse where she fell in love with a battlefield doctor, Simon Lynch. However, the battle came too close to the hospital tent and an explosion which only left Maisie with a scar under her hairline, took the mind of Simon, who now lives in a home for soldiers. He is alive but only sees something in the distance when Maisie holds his hands.
The story then reverts to the present where the woman she is watching is in love with her own soldier who was horribly scared and went to a Retreat to hide from the stares of others. He died and the woman visits his grave. Maisie was not only able to reconcile the woman and her husband, but discovered the Retreat was really almost a jail or cult, and able to help the many young men who were living there.
The second novel, Birds of a Feather, also deals with WWI. Maisie is asked to find the daughter of a wealthy grocery owner who has run away. But as she searches, she discovers that the girl is tied to three other young women who were recently killed. She frantically searches to save Charlotte Waite from the same fate, she learns all four were members of the Order of the White Feather, women who lured men into joining the service by giving them a white feather to indicate cowardice for not joining the fighting. They are blamed for the deaths of the fathers and sons who were killed in battle. Maisie finds the killer and Charlotte and her father are reunited.
Since Simon is in fact out of the picture as Maisie's mate, she finds two potential replacements: Dr. Andrew Dene, who is helping Frankie Dobbs recover from an accident and Billy Beale, her assistant, (who Simon and Maisie were saving just before the explosion occurred) recover from pain caused by shrapnel received on the battle field. The second is detective inspector Stratton who clashed with Maisie when he wanted to arrest the wrong man for the murders. Future novels will undoubtedly have more of their relationships.
The stories are interesting and beautifully told. The details of life during and after WWI are carefully used to set the scenes realistically. (Although cocaine is not a substitute for morphine; they are in fact opposites--not all details are accurate.) Maisie is nice (although I'd rather see Simon helped back to consciousness than see her decide between two other men); she has worked hard for all she has gained, but her psychic intuitions with the auras of dead or troubled people wears a little thin. She's bright; let her solve the crimes with her mind. The two books will, I suspect, set one up to enjoy the many other novels in this series.
Maisie Dobbs gives the background of Maisie; it starts out with Maisie setting up her office as a private investigator, starting work on what appears to be a routine fidelity investigation. But as Maisie watches the woman to see where she goes, she discovers that she visits a cemetery, not a living man.
This makes her remember her own history, and the second part of the novel tells us about her early life: daughter of a costermonger, Frankie Dobbs, whose wife had died, and who wanted to help Maisie, and did so by getting her placed as a tweeny in Lady Rowan's home. It worked out better that he expected; she was noticed by not only Lady Rowan but by her friend, Maurice Blanche, who took her under their wings and worked on her education so that she was able to pass the exams to get into Girton, the women's branch of Cambridge. However WWI intervened, and Maisie joined the army and learned to be a battle field nurse where she fell in love with a battlefield doctor, Simon Lynch. However, the battle came too close to the hospital tent and an explosion which only left Maisie with a scar under her hairline, took the mind of Simon, who now lives in a home for soldiers. He is alive but only sees something in the distance when Maisie holds his hands.
The story then reverts to the present where the woman she is watching is in love with her own soldier who was horribly scared and went to a Retreat to hide from the stares of others. He died and the woman visits his grave. Maisie was not only able to reconcile the woman and her husband, but discovered the Retreat was really almost a jail or cult, and able to help the many young men who were living there.
The second novel, Birds of a Feather, also deals with WWI. Maisie is asked to find the daughter of a wealthy grocery owner who has run away. But as she searches, she discovers that the girl is tied to three other young women who were recently killed. She frantically searches to save Charlotte Waite from the same fate, she learns all four were members of the Order of the White Feather, women who lured men into joining the service by giving them a white feather to indicate cowardice for not joining the fighting. They are blamed for the deaths of the fathers and sons who were killed in battle. Maisie finds the killer and Charlotte and her father are reunited.
Since Simon is in fact out of the picture as Maisie's mate, she finds two potential replacements: Dr. Andrew Dene, who is helping Frankie Dobbs recover from an accident and Billy Beale, her assistant, (who Simon and Maisie were saving just before the explosion occurred) recover from pain caused by shrapnel received on the battle field. The second is detective inspector Stratton who clashed with Maisie when he wanted to arrest the wrong man for the murders. Future novels will undoubtedly have more of their relationships.
The stories are interesting and beautifully told. The details of life during and after WWI are carefully used to set the scenes realistically. (Although cocaine is not a substitute for morphine; they are in fact opposites--not all details are accurate.) Maisie is nice (although I'd rather see Simon helped back to consciousness than see her decide between two other men); she has worked hard for all she has gained, but her psychic intuitions with the auras of dead or troubled people wears a little thin. She's bright; let her solve the crimes with her mind. The two books will, I suspect, set one up to enjoy the many other novels in this series.
August 24, 2025
BIRDS OF A FEATHER is the second novel in Jacqueline Windspear's lengthy mystery series about spunky British private investigator Maisie Dobbs, who operates in London about ten years following the end of World War I. I chose the audiobook version to help occupy me during a lengthy car trip. And I was delighted! Generously awarded four stars, though I wouldn't know how to rate the series if I were reading it - because listening to this narrator (Orlagh Cassidy) adds so much!
Since this is my second Dobbs novel and second audiobook, I must say I'm finding the audio version of these stories to be ideal for car travel. You don't have to pay too close attention, the stories are intellectually puzzling and you certainly want to know the solution - but there's very little suspense and you never feel scared. Just perfect for my sensibilities. It's much like watching programs like Grantchester or Miss Scarlet and the Duke on PBS; enjoyable story with lots of warm and fuzzy side stories about the regular characters. Maisie too has a group of supporting players.
BIRDS OF A FEATHER begins innocuously enough. Maisie is hired by a wealthy, self-made businessman to find his runaway adult daughter Charlotte. In the course of trying to find her, Maisie discovers that three recent deaths of young women near London have links to Charlotte. Naturally, Maisie must investigate all of them, because the connection to Charlotte may be putting her in danger.
During her investigation, suspicion is placed on a number of people. Charlotte, her father, a money-hungry husband - just to point a few fingers. But, of course, you won't get the full solution until the end of the book.
Since this is my second Dobbs novel and second audiobook, I must say I'm finding the audio version of these stories to be ideal for car travel. You don't have to pay too close attention, the stories are intellectually puzzling and you certainly want to know the solution - but there's very little suspense and you never feel scared. Just perfect for my sensibilities. It's much like watching programs like Grantchester or Miss Scarlet and the Duke on PBS; enjoyable story with lots of warm and fuzzy side stories about the regular characters. Maisie too has a group of supporting players.
BIRDS OF A FEATHER begins innocuously enough. Maisie is hired by a wealthy, self-made businessman to find his runaway adult daughter Charlotte. In the course of trying to find her, Maisie discovers that three recent deaths of young women near London have links to Charlotte. Naturally, Maisie must investigate all of them, because the connection to Charlotte may be putting her in danger.
During her investigation, suspicion is placed on a number of people. Charlotte, her father, a money-hungry husband - just to point a few fingers. But, of course, you won't get the full solution until the end of the book.
September 8, 2017
I am sold on the Maisie Dobbs series! A book club started me on this, the first in the series, and I've been propelled into the subsequent books ( as of 9/7/2017 I am starting book # 7!). This first book sets the stage and makes the subsequent books more understandable. Maisie, the daughter of a London produce vendor pre WW I, takes a position as an undermaid in an upper class residence. Caught reading in the library after hours, she is taken under the wing of the lady of the house who sets her on a course of education and socialization which leads to her schooling at a prestigious college. But war gets in the way. Maisie trains as a nurse and finds herself on the edge of the battle lines in France, working with Simon, the young doctor she has fallen in love with. The rest of the books tell of her subsequent adventures as a Psychologist and Investigato in post WW I and pre WW II England and Europe.
September 4, 2020
Second novel that I read in a combination book which also included Maisie Dobbs - which was the introduction to the series and described her early life. She is from a very poor family and her mother places her as a maid in a house with interesting people. Thirteen year old Maisie (or 15 year old) finds the library an enchanting place and indulges her love of philosophy. When discovered, she is treated to education and winds up in a woman's college in Oxford (?) only to leave during WWI to become a nurse at the front. She falls in love with an officer, whom she had known from the aristocratic home in which she was working. He dies, graphic details of suffering. Ten years later, after being mentored by Maurice ? she is established as a detective/psychologist in private practice. Solves a case.
The second book has a more interesting case to be solved.
A diverting read.
The second book has a more interesting case to be solved.
A diverting read.
July 2, 2020
This one was very entertaining and I quite enjoyed it. But of course it wasn't as good as the first. That is so difficult to achieve. I do question the anger about boys enlisting in WWI and their families being upset about it. It was a terrible, terrible war. I wonder how anyone remained sane after it. But I know that while the war was going on, and for a couple of years after, maybe, the peace movement was strong. But that didn't last even into Maisie's timeline. That was my big hangup, why would the general populace, as Ms Winspear would have us believe, be even slightly anti-war? There were so few, especially for people who weren't in the peace movement.
That was a very minor criticism. For the most part I thought the book was excellent.
That was a very minor criticism. For the most part I thought the book was excellent.
February 4, 2021
This novel's plot and background are terrific. I have really only one complaint, and it is in the characters. Maisie is too perfect, too splendidly good at psychology, way beyond the point of realism - she can walk into an empty room and know the psyche of the person, or can hold a garment and understand the emotions of the wearer, etc... And things are just too easy for her and her friends - the solution for a man's opium addictiion is, of course, to call on a few friends, create an action plan, and voila! the problem is more than half-solved, without pain or stress. NOT.
I am going to read one more, because in many ways these are very enjoyable stories, but if Maisie's Mary-sue tendencies remain writ large, I will probably not continue. Sigh...
I am going to read one more, because in many ways these are very enjoyable stories, but if Maisie's Mary-sue tendencies remain writ large, I will probably not continue. Sigh...
November 28, 2018
Maisie Dobbs--3 stars. Birds of a Feather--4 stars.
Winspear's mystery set in post WWI is very well written. Her compassion for those who suffered physical, emotional, and mental injuries in WWI is almost unsettling in its intensity. In the first book, there is a large flashback to Maisie's youth and then her time spent nursing on the front. The flashback, while setting the stage for the series, was a bit long and drawn out.
Birds of a Feather picks up the pace while still looking at the specific WWI experience. Winspear's books are thoughtful and there are no easy, evil villains.
Winspear's mystery set in post WWI is very well written. Her compassion for those who suffered physical, emotional, and mental injuries in WWI is almost unsettling in its intensity. In the first book, there is a large flashback to Maisie's youth and then her time spent nursing on the front. The flashback, while setting the stage for the series, was a bit long and drawn out.
Birds of a Feather picks up the pace while still looking at the specific WWI experience. Winspear's books are thoughtful and there are no easy, evil villains.
July 3, 2019
Book 2 continues to explain how Maisie Dobbs has created a life for herself while investigating a crime . She is also looking for the daughter of a rich man which brings her back to France to meet a friend from her time in the war. She finds out more about the friend's brother. She is a very good observer and retrospective about her own experiences always looking for connections, which of course help her solve her cases.
December 31, 2019
Jacqueline Winspear has a deep and thorough grasp of the history of WWI in Britain. The war combined with the Industrial Revolution had a significant impact on class life in Britain. Winspear weaves this knowledge into her mysteries and creates a view into this era. I love her heroine, Maisie Dobbs for her sensibility, intuition, compassion, and humility.
April 1, 2022
This is the book that made me a Maisie fan. We are right there alongside her struggles to survive the iron grip of her WW1 past just as she tries to retrieve others from the darkness. With a captivating story and marvelous characters we want to know better, this is a great work to enter and linger in.
November 11, 2019
A continuation of Masie’s story as she continues her work through Cambridge which results in a degree psychology and then she begins her studies with Maurice Blanche who becomes more than her teacher, becomes her mentor.
June 12, 2022
I enjoy the psychological and spiritual approach the character takes to her investigations - more about the process of making people whole rather than the crime or other reason clients seek her assistance.
July 19, 2017
Great heroine. Been reading books about women during WWII & WWIi recently.
September 5, 2017
The second in the series of Masie Dobbs mysteries. Historical fiction and enjoyable read about London between the world wars. Masie is an unconventional woman in a conventional world.
September 12, 2017
I enjoy the blend of an acute observer of human behavior and learning so much more about
World War I.
World War I.
October 1, 2018
Really enjoying this series. It is good entertainment.
February 11, 2019
Loved it. once again Maisie Dobbs go over and beyond to find a solution to the mystery at hand.
March 6, 2019
I always like Maisie Dobbs mysteries. The meditation and sitting in rooms with her eyes closed to get vibes and clues is a little weird, though.
October 4, 2019
starts out slow, but gets much more interesting as it goes along
January 16, 2020
Excellent series - this is the second book. Highly recommend if you like mysteries where it is hard to guess "who done it."
March 4, 2020
I love Winspear's writing style.
March 12, 2020
The book continues the story of the life of Ms Dobbs. She continues solving the mystery.
March 19, 2020
Always a great escape!
April 19, 2020
Listened to - pretty good mystery , I thought I knew who done it but I was wrong
After World WR ! Maisie is looking for the daughter of a grocery store magnate
After World WR ! Maisie is looking for the daughter of a grocery store magnate
April 28, 2020
Another good mystery with a tidy ending. Enjoyable.
September 15, 2020
Actually didn't finish
Displaying 1 - 30 of 88 reviews