Maisie Dobbs (Maisie Dobbs, #1) in Crazy Challenge Connection

Jan 29, 2017 Book Concierge rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: audio, england, cozy-mystery, series, concierge, strong-women, library, war, world-war-1

Book on CD narrated by Rita Barrington

This is the first in a series featuring a former housemaid and Army Nurse. The book begins in 1929, and Maisie Dobbs has opened her own private investigation agency. Her first case is a man who believes his wife is unfaithful. Maisie gets to the truth quickly, but it leads to some painful memories.

I like Maisie and the supporting characters who will, no doubt, make appearances in subsequent books in this cozy mystery series. But this first book spent way to ...more

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Apr 03, 2015 Martha rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, audible-downloads, cozy, england, war, 2016

Really enjoyed this one.

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Nov 22, 2018 Rachel N. rated it liked it

Shelves: series, england, historical-fiction, philosophy, world-war-i, read-in-2018

The book begins in 1929 with Maisie Dobbs taking her first case involving finding out whether or not a mans wife is cheating on him. This leads Maisie to The Retreat where many men who were disfigured during WWI have gone to live. About 70 pages into the book we suddenly enter a very long flashback section chronicling Misie's life from age 13 to her work as a nurse during the war. There was very little mystery in the book and what little there was was easy to solve. I really didn't like Maisie a ...more

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Sep 19, 2011 Chris rated it liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction, fiction, audiobook, united-kingdom, series, mystery-historical, mystery

There were many things I liked about this book and a couple that I didn't. I love the story’s look at the impact of WWI on Britain, even more than a decade after the armistice. And I loved that this was much more than a mystery. The story starts in 1929 as Maisie opens her brand new detective agency. Her first client seems to have a pretty straightforward case of a straying wife. Instead it opens up lots of old war wounds and raises questions about how we treat soldiers who come home horribly di There were many things I liked about this book and a couple that I didn't. I love the story’s look at the impact of WWI on Britain, even more than a decade after the armistice. And I loved that this was much more than a mystery. The story starts in 1929 as Maisie opens her brand new detective agency. Her first client seems to have a pretty straightforward case of a straying wife. Instead it opens up lots of old war wounds and raises questions about how we treat soldiers who come home horribly disfigured. We seem to be able to handle soldier with missing limbs, but missing part--or even all--of their faces is something we'd rather not think about. The book then jumps back in time, providing us with Maisie’s backstory. She starts out as an incredibly bright young woman of the lower class forced into service after her mother dies. She's lucky enough to be in the employ of a somewhat forward-thinking aristocrat who pays for her education and apprentices her to a French philosopher cum detective. (It's very difficult not to think of Maurice Blanche as an alter ego of Hercule Poirot.) But the war intervenes and Maisie becomes a battlefield nurse who falls in love with an army doctor. Jumping back to 1929, the various threads lead to a country retreat that offers refuge to veterans with facial wounds but that’s run more like a prison. Maisie is forced to confront not only what’s going on behind the gated walls but also the demons that she has carried with her since the war.
What I didn’t like was the insinuation that Maisie has some kind of psychic ability. The idea that she could determine exactly what a person was feeling simply by copying his or her body language was ridiculous. The ideas she’s picked up from Maurice seem just a bit to “new world,” and while I think they’re designed to make Maisie seem more empathetic, sometimes they just left me thinking they were silly.
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Finally, I really hated that Maisie knew things about the mystery that she didn’t reveal she knew until after it was over. As the story progressed I kept wondering, Why doesn’t she ask about this? She should follow up on that. Then, after the danger is resolved, we find out that she did do all of those things.
And given everything we’ve been told about Maisie, it doesn’t feel right that she would wait 12 years before facing her wartime past. While it certainly worked as a device for keeping the reader guessing, it’s definitely out of character. ...more

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Feb 08, 2013 Sue rated it it was amazing

Shelves: series, british-isles, early-20th-century, mystery, audio-books, wwi, neighborhood-bk-club

2014: listened to the audio for my second time around for book club and loved it just as much as the first time-maybe more now that I know more about her future.

2013:This was an engaging story but it's not a suspense mystery, rather an intellectual mystery. Maisie is a servant whose intellect causes her to rise above her station and become a private investigator in post-WWI London. The book's form is interesting as it begins the mystery, then the entire middle section is a flashback to how Maisi ...more

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Aug 17, 2009 Suzanne rated it really liked it

Shelves: mysteries

What a fantastic series! At least, if the debut book is any indication. I'm glad I read the first in the series first as more than a third of the book went back in time to give Maisie's history. I loved the psychology aspect of the investigation and loved the characters - Maisie Dobbs, Frankie Dobbs, Lord & Lady Compton, Carter, Mrs. Crawford, Maurice Blanche, and Billy Beale.

I'm looking forward to reading more in this series. ...more

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Dec 05, 2016 Kate rated it really liked it

I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading the next book in the series. I don't frequently read books from this time period, so it was really interesting to see a female character in the time the suffragette movement. And to see the affects of war on the returning soldiers (from the first world war). ...more

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