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The backstory:  I started reading the Maisie Dobbs series in 2010 (it began in 2003), and it's one of my favorite mystery series. The last title,  A Dangerous Place , was a bit of a departure for the series, and it my least favorite in the series, so I approached  Journey to Munich  with cautious optimism it would delight me. My reviews of other Jacqueline Winspear novels:  Maisie Dobbs ,  Birds of a Feather ,  Pardonable Lies ,  Messenger of Truth ,  An Incomplete Revenge ,  Among the Mad ,  The Mapping of Love and Death ,  A Lesson in Secrets ,  Elegy for Eddie ,  Leaving Everything Most Loved ,  The Care and Management of Lies ,  and  A Dangerous Place . The basics:  It's 1938, and the German government is willing to release a particularly valuable British prisoner to a family member only. Coincidentally, the prisoner's daughter looks a lot like Maisie, so she's enlisted to travel to Munich ...

I adore winter, but our current weather is getting a bit too cold for even me. When I woke up this morning, it was below zero, with windchills making it feel like it was -25. It's the perfect day to stay inside and read. Or clean, which should be done, but I doubt it will be done. I'm treating myself to the forthcoming twelfth Maisie Dobbs mystery, Journey to Munich, which I started earlier this week and hope to finish today.. My review won't post until March 29th, the book's release date, but it's a gripping read. I hope to finish during Hawthorne's nap(s) today, even though it means my next Maisie experience is back to being too far away.. I'm having a fantastic reading and blogging year so far. Despite January being my busiest month at work, I've managed to read seven books already this month, and I hope to finish the eighth today. I've also been keeping up with the blog and posting every day, at least partially thanks to the large review backlo...

The backstory: A Dangerous Place  is the eleventh historical mystery featuring Maisie Dobbs. My reviews of the other eleven (plus Winspear's stand alone historical novel) are in my Book Review Database . The basics: Set four years after the last Maisie Dobbs novel, Leaving Everything Most Loved , in A Dangerous Place , we meet up with Maisie in Gibraltar in 1927 during the Spanish Civil War. She gets off her England-bound ship in Gibraltar because she's not quite ready to return. Note: this review contains spoilers about what happened in those four years of Maisie's life between books, all of which are revealed in this novel's first thirty pages.  My thoughts: Sunday I wrote about the Maisie Mail I received. These postcards appear in the book itself, along with many others. After setting the stage in Gibraltar in the opening pages (Maisie stumbles upon a dead body), Winspear recounts the last four years of Maisie's life in the form of postcards, letters, an...

Good morning! It's a magical bookish time of year: the Bailey's Prize longlist was just announced, we're a week into the Tournament of Books (albeit an underwhelming set of brackets this year), the #Mockalong is in full swing, we're just over a month away from the Pulitzer Prize announcement on April 20, and the combination of Daylight Savings Time and early spring weather has me reading outside after work. I find myself reading more, talking about books more on Twitter , and generally feeling both bookish and connected right now. Amidst all of this, the highlight of my week this week may well be these two postcards that came in the mail: I knew they were coming, and I still squealed with delight at this clever marketing idea. In anticipation of the release of A Dangerous Place , the latest Maisie Dobbs novel, on Tuesday, Harper sent Maisie Mail to a select number of bloggers. One post card is from Maisie herself (although not actually written to me--it's to h...

Note: this post contains some spoilers about the plot events in Leaving Everything Most Loved ,  the tenth Maisie Dobbs mystery. There is good news and bad news in the Maisie Dobbs world. The good news: Jacqueline Winspear's next novel comes out July 1st. The bad news: it's not a Maisie Dobbs novel. It is a historical novel about World War I, and I'm very much looking forward to reading it. Buried in the announcement about the paperback release of the last Maisie Dobbs novel, Leaving Everything Most Loved , and the new novel, The Care and Management of Lies , was a note that " Maisie Dobbs returns in a new series featuring the psychologist-investigator" in Spring 2015 . What does that mean? I've been pondering this revelation for several weeks now. In my review of Leaving Everything Most Loved  last March, I said " it represents a dynamic turning point for the series, and I can't wait to see what Winspear cooks up for Maisie next." A ne...

The backstory:  Leaving Everything Most Loved  is the tenth Maisie Dobbs mystery novel. Here are links to my reviews of the first nine books:  Maisie Dobbs ,  Birds of a Feather ,  Pardonable Lies ,  Messenger of Truth ,  An Incomplete Revenge ,   Among the Mad ,   The Mapping of Love and Death ,   A Lesson in Secrets , and An Elegy for Eddie .  (There may be some minor spoilers from earlier novels in this review.) The basics: When Usha Pramal is found dead in London, the police soon run out of clues. When Usha's brother arrives in London two months later, he is dismayed at the lack of progress in the case and enlists the help of Maisie to help solve his sister's murder. My thoughts: Reading a Maisie Dobbs novel feels like spending time with an old friend. I'm particularly fond of Maisie as a character, and I appreciate how much changes in her life over the course of her books. Leaving Everything Most Loved  rais...

The backstory:  Elegy for Eddie  is the ninth Maisie Dobbs mystery novel. Here are links to my reviews of the first eight books:  Maisie Dobbs ,  Birds of a Feather ,  Pardonable Lies ,  Messenger of Truth ,  An Incomplete Revenge ,   Among the Mad ,   The Mapping of Love and Death , and A Lesson in Secrets .  (There may be some minor spoilers from earlier novels in this review.) The basics: Elegy for Eddie  opens with several of Maisie's childhood friends seeking her help. Their mutual friend Eddie has been killed in a factory accident, but they believe he may have been murdered. My thoughts: Reading a Maisie Dobbs novel feels like hanging out with an old friend. It's comforting, interesting, and engaging. After reading the first eight books in this series last year, it was so refreshing to once again have Maisie back in my reading life. While I've enjoyed all of the Maisie novels, The Mapping of Love and Death  was m...

Jill from Breaking the Spine hosts Waiting on Wednesday, which allows bloggers to highlight an upcoming release we can't wait to read. My pick this week should come as no surprise to readers who have seen me read and enjoy the first eight Maisie Dobbs novels in the ppst year. My reviews of the first eight novels:  Maisie Dobbs ,  Birds of a Feather ,  Pardonable Lies ,  Messenger of Truth ,  An Incomplete Revenge ,   Among the Mad ,   The Mapping of Love and Death , and A Lesson in Secrets . The ninth installment, Elegy for Eddie, will be published March 27, 2012, which is too far away for my taste, but quality mysteries do take time! Plus, for those of you who haven't discovered the delightful Maisie Dobbs, you have time catch up! Here's how the publisher describes this one: "In this latest entry in the acclaimed, bestselling mystery series-"less whodunits than why-dunits, more P.D. James than Agatha Christie" ( USA Today )-Maisie Dobbs ta...

The backstory:   A Lesson in Secrets  is the eighth Maisie Dobbs mystery novel. Here are links to my reviews of the first seven books:  Maisie Dobbs ,  Birds of a Feather ,  Pardonable Lies ,  Messenger of Truth ,  An Incomplete Revenge ,   Among the Mad , and The Mapping of Love and Death . (There may be some minor spoilers from earlier novels in this review.) The basics: The British Secret Service recruits Maisie to work semi-undercover as a professor of philosophy at a small college in Cambridge. Maisie is qualified, but she must apply and actually get the job. Her goal: see if anything is amiss at this college, whose founder and president wrote a pacifist children's book during the war that was suppressed. When he soon ends up murdered, Maisie has trouble distinguishing between her duties as a mole and her driving need to solve the crime. My thoughts:  After The Mapping of Love and Death , which was my favorite of the Maisie Do...

The backstory: The Mapping of Love and Death  is the seventh Maisie Dobbs mystery novel. Here are links to my reviews of the first six books:  Maisie Dobbs ,  Birds of a Feather ,  Pardonable Lies ,  Messenger of Truth ,  An Incomplete Revenge , and Among the Mad . The basics: The mystery at the center of this novel is about the death of Michael Clifton, an American cartographer who died in World War I and whose body was only recently recovered. His parents hire Maisie to look into his suspicious death. My thoughts: For the first time, our story opens in the United States. Knowing Ms. Winspear now lives in California made this detail even more fun to read. At times I worry the war-based mysteries will become too much of a stretch, but this one was among my favorites of the series for several reasons. First, I loved the story of Michael Clifton, an American-born cartographer who felt compelled to journey to England to fight for the country his fat...

The backstory: Among the Mad is the sixth Maisie Dobbs mystery. Here are links to my reviews of the first five books: Maisie Dobbs , Birds of a Feather , Pardonable Lies , Messenger of Truth , and An Incomplete Revenge . The basics: Winspear raises the stakes in Among the Mad; it's Maisie Dobbs meets Criminal Minds . The reader sees both the mind of a terrorist intent on killing many people while Maisie works closely with Scotland Yard to stop him. My thoughts: After not loving the last Maisie Dobbs novel, I was thrilled to see Winpsear deliver a true page-turning thriller with a fascinating, timely case. One of the best gifts of historical fiction is to remind the modern reader how similar some problems are through the years. In Among the Mad , Maisie and the detectives of Scotland Yard scramble to discover the identity of the person threatening London with chemical warfare that has the potential to decimate an entire city. It was a sobering reminder that domestic terrorism ...

The backstory: An Incomplete Revenge is the fifth books in the Maisie Dobbs historical mystery series. My reviews of the first four: Maisie Dobbs , Birds of a Feather , Pardonable Lies , and Messenger of Truth . The basics: James Compton, son of Lady Compton, reappears to ask Maisie to do some digging around a property he's considering buying. There have been fires and thefts over the years, and he wants to know if either present cause for concern. My thoughts: For whatever reason, it took me quite some time to care about this mystery Maisie was so keen on. I enjoyed some of the background stories, and I tend to be fascinated by tales of small towns, but the plot of this book lacked much mystery, I thought. I plodded along enjoying Maisie and her insight through the first half of the book. Suddenly, the action picked up quickly, and I (foolishly, I know) realized I wasn't giving Maisie or Ms. Winspear enough credit. The second half of the novel soared and offered a fascina...

The backstory: Messenger of Truth  is the fourth historical mystery in Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs series. I'm reading the entire series as part of Book Club Girl's Maisie Dobbs read-along . (Links to my reviews of Maisie Dobbs , Birds of  Feather , and   Pardonable Lies .) The basics: Georgina Bassington-Hope, who attended Girton at a different time than Maisie, hires Maisie to look into the death of her artist brother, Nick, which was deemed accidental. My thoughts:  After the third Maisie Dobbs mystery being my least favorite, I hoped the series would rebound a bit for me. In the opening pages I discovered a delicious trifecta  of a suspicious death, art and a client with a hyphenated last name (I have a fondness for hyphenated names that has only increased since Mr. Nomadreader and I hyphenated our names.) Yes, these point of intrigue may be rather nomadreader-specific, but you must admit, art and murder are steeped with intrigue. This novel (a...

The backstory: Pardonable Lies  is the third Maisie Dobbs mystery novel. I'm reading the entire series as part of Book Club Girl's Maisie Dobbs read-along . My reviews of the first two novels: Maisie Dobbs  and Birds of a Feather . My thoughts: Of the three Maisie Dobbs novels thus far, Pardonable Lies  falls somewhere in between the first two in terms of Maisie's personal connection with her case. In some ways, this novel felt like a reversal of the progress made in Birds of a Feather , where the mystery took center stage. Initially, this novel took me a bit longer to get interested in, but I still read it voraciously and enjoyed all of Maisie's adventures, even those unrelated to her cases. Maisie has her hands full with three mysteries, and her quest stirs up many painful war memories and gives her cause to visit France again. Although the mysteries all ended up being compelling, the narrative of this novel seemed more about Maisie's personal journey to put ...

The backstory: Birds of a Feather  is the second Maisie Dobbs mystery novel, and I'm reading the entire series as part of Book Club Girl's Read-Along . My review of Maisie Dobbs , the first novel in the series, is here . The basics: Maisie Dobbs is back to solve another case. This case is a bit more serious than the last one: Maisie is hired to find Charlote Waite, the only daughter of a wealthy businessman, who has gone missing. My thoughts: Birds of a Feather  was more of a pure mystery than Maisie Dobbs . The reader is already familiar with Maisie and her history, and Maisie gets to solve a much more difficult (and increasingly frightening) crime. The missing person case is shrouded in mystery and Maisie is cognizant of the fact Charlotte's father came to her rather than the police. Despite the mystery being the focus of this novel, Winspear still manages to enhance Maisie's character as well as let the other minor characters shine. Part of what makes this ...

The backstory: I've been intending to read Jacqueline Winspear's  Maisie Dobbs  (and the rest of the series) since it began in 2003. Thanks to Book Club Girl's " I'm Mad for Maisie! " Read-along, I finally took the plunge, and boy am I glad I did! You can join in on the discussion questions for this novel on her blog today. The basics: Maisie Dobbs is a single woman in London after World War I who sets up her own private investigation business. My thoughts: First novels in new mystery series often involve a very personal mystery story. Sometimes these personal escapades are more successful than others, but Jacqueline Winspear takes a unique spin on it. The novel begins in Maisie's present day. She receives her first client, a man concerned his wife is cheating. As Maisie begins to investigate, she discovers a deeper mystery. Then the book jumps back in time to Maisie's teens. I wasn't expecting the jump, but I loved it. I'm a huge fan...