Patti St asked Jacqueline Winspear:

Maisie has really come a long way since your first portrayal of her. During the Munich book, she pulled out her famous murder board (or, wallpaper piece), but did not really use it. That made me think about the complexity of pulling together a murder mystery. What is your format? Do you keep biographies of each character? How do you keep up with the growth of each main character, while creating new one off characters

Jacqueline Winspear Hi Patti. I have known these characters for a long time now, and I have never kept biographies, because I know who they are and what they might be doing next. In fact, that's my main task - building and maintaining characters. That comes first for me - the plot comes as a result of that. In truth, I don't think of my books as "murder mysteries" first and foremost - the true mystery to me is the journey of Maisie Dobbs and her fellow characters.

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