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Critics' Opinion:
Readers' Opinion:
First Published:
Aug 2005, 352 pages
Paperback:
Jun 2006, 368 pages
Book Reviewed by:
BookBrowse Review Team
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In the third novel of this bestselling series, London investigator Maisie Dobbs faces grave danger as she returns to the site of her most painful WWI memories to resolve the mystery of a pilot's death
In the third novel of
this bestselling series, London investigator Maisie Dobbs faces grave
danger as she returns to the site of her most painful WWI memories to
resolve the mystery of a pilot's death
Agatha Christie's Miss Marple. Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone.
Alexander McCall Smith's Precious Ramotswe. Every once in a while, a
detective bursts on the scene who captures readers' hearts -- and
imaginations -- and doesn't let go. And so it was with Jacqueline
Winspear's Maisie Dobbs, who made her debut just two years ago in the
eponymously titled first book of the series, and is already on her way
to becoming a household name.
A deathbed plea from his wife leads Sir Cecil Lawton to seek the aid
of Maisie Dobbs, psychologist and investigator. As Maisie soon learns,
Agnes Lawton never accepted that her aviator son was killed in the
Great War, a torment that led her not only to the edge of madness but
to the doors of those who practice the dark arts and commune with the
spirit world.
In accepting the assignment, Maisie finds her spiritual strength
tested, as well as her regard for her mentor, Maurice Blanche. The
mission also brings her together once again with her college friend
Priscilla Evernden, who served in France and who lost three brothers
to the war -- one of whom, it turns out, had an intriguing connection
to the missing Ralph Lawton.
Following on the heels of the triumphant Birds of a Feather,
Pardonable Lies is the most compelling installment yet in the
chronicles of Maisie Dobbs, "a heroine to cherish (Marilyn Stasio,
The New York Times Book Review).
PART ONE
London, September 1930
ONE
The young policewoman stood in the corner of the room. Plain whitewashed walls, a heavy door, a wooden table with two chairs, and one small window with frosted glass rendered the room soulless. It was a cold afternoon and she'd been in the corner since coming on duty two hours ago, her only company the rumpled and bent girl sitting in the chair that faced the wall. Others had come into the room to sit in the second chair: first, Detective Inspector Richard Stratton, with Detective Sergeant Caldwell standing behind him; then Stratton standing while a doctor from the Maudsley Hospital sat before the girl, trying to get her to speak. The girl—no one knew her age or where she had come from because she hadn't spoken a word since she was brought in this morning, her bloodstained dress, hands and face showing a month's worth of dirt—was now waiting for another person who had been summoned to question her: a ...
If you're a fan of quality period fiction and have not yet discovered Jacqueline Winspear you must, absolutely must, hurry down to your bookstore or library and pick yourself up a copy of Pardonable Lies (or one her two earlier books) at your earliest opportunity; the plot of each book stands alone and Winspear provides sufficient backstory in each that you can dip into the series at any point...continued
Full Review
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(Reviewed by BookBrowse Review Team).
The Series so
far
Maisie Dobbs (2003)
Birds of a Feather (2004)
Pardonable Lies (2005)
Messenger of Truth (Aug 2006)
The year is
1930 and it's been more than a
year since Maisie Dobbs first
hung up her shingle as a private
investigator She is a
perceptive observer of human
nature and, most important for
her line of work, she is able to
move smoothly between the
classes - a useful skill
in the still highly class-stratified
England of the inter-war period.
Her ability in this area is due
...
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