Member Reviews of forthcoming books.

Rated of 5

Jacqueline Winspear does a wonderful job of creating believable characters dealing with the broken pieces of their lives after WW1. I thoroughly enjoyed "living" in this era while watching Maisie unearth clues to discover who is setting small fires in a village. She reminds me a bit of a young Miss Marple in the way she gains the confidence of the residents of the village.

Rated of 5

Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs makes her life’s journey with intelligence, grit and courage and commands respect from all who encounter her. She is a woman who has the audacity to become both a psychologist and an investigator at a time when women had few options. Winspear resolves her complex plots and character motivations very skillfully.

In our harried high-tech world, it is refreshing to recall a time when letters were eagerly awaited and phone calls were luxuries!

Rated of 5

A vivid portrayal of the tensions between the cultures of the hop-pickers, the gypsies and the townspeople is richly displayed through the use of dialect, history and landscapes.

Through her relationships with Maurice Blanche, her father and Simon, among others, Maisie Dobbs has developed into a fully dimensional main character whose sixth sense along with a highly methodical thought process help prepare her for the most difficult of situations.

The myriad of secondary characters tended to bog down the plot and I found myself losing interest well into the second half of the book. Certain developments towards the end somewhat re-engaged me in the story, unrealistic as they seemed.

Symbols such as the Michaelmas daisies and the importance of identity are interwoven throughout the story. But, it almost becomes more of a somber statement of culture clashes and lessons in death than a mystery.