Maisie Dobbs is back in the latest historical thriller by Jacqueline Winspear. We're now into the Blitz with bombs falling amid a murder investigation involving spies, propaganda and lies. Will Maisie survive this one? I think you know the answer but it's fun to find out. An easy read without being demanding. One for a lazy afternoon with a cuppa.

I had given up on the Maisie Dobbs series for a while because I found her all the discussion of her version of psychological detecting tiresome (and I zone out every time Maurice Blanche is mentioned), but I decided to try her again recently when I got am ARC from NetGalley of her latest novel. I enjoyed the atmospherics of this novel, especially the accounts of the Blitz, her work driving an ambulance, and the passages taken from actual reporting by Murrow and others.

One of my problems with Winspear's novels is that I find it hard to keep track of the characters, and she never leaves any breadcrumbs in the narrative to help you remember who people are. I also found that the solution to this mystery was like pulling a rabbit out of a hat because it felt completely disconnected from the information that Maisie had gathered in her investigation. My other complaint is that the love story was completely unbelievable to because there was no build up. Instead, it just comes out of the blue with no romantic tension between the characters.

Those complaints aside, I still enjoyed this book, even though I felt like I was just along for the ride on the detecting part.

I have read the majority of the Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear, and while I liked this it wasn't the best I have read.

I struggled at first with the story, thought too many characters were thrown in right at the start, with little development of them as people, also I thought the writing was 'clumsy' and the clues were laid out too easily and too readily, blurting out about a knife, when how Catherine was killed hadn't been mentioned to her, the left handed person, and then the picture of someone else as a baby (sorry trying not to give too much away for spoilers!!) Was also a brief character name change/wrong person mentioned, very sloppy editing.

Will try the next one that comes out in the series and hope they have improved.

The American Agent is the first book in the Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear that I have read and I found it a very enjoyable wartime thriller.

Set in 1940 Dobbs has to investigate a murder due to their links to American politics.

The author makes 1940 London come alive with her description of the nightly German bombings and has written a good story that moves along at a decent pace.

This book can easily be read as a standalone and is one I would recommend

This is the latest in the Maisie Dobbs series, which follows the eponymous heroine through some pretty pivotal decades – pre WW1 and now into WW2, a time of enormous upheaval and social change. She’s an interesting character because she defies a lot of the conventions of the time, but is more nuanced than simply being a woman who takes on the role that a man might play in an investigation. The thing about the Maisie Dobbs books is that they could so easily tip into lazy stereotyping and for me, manage to avoid that through vivid depiction of Maisie’s interior life. They are always meticulously researched and thick with period detail, worn lightly throughout.
In The American Agent, Maisie’s briefed to look into the death of a young American journalist, at the height of the Blitz. It takes in the work of the pioneering burns unit led by Sir Archibald McIndoe, the Spanish Civil War, female friendship and what it really means to be a mother, along with a hint of romance and a thoroughly satisfying ending. This for me is the ideal Sunday afternoon book, to be read lying on the sofa to the accompaniment of rain sliding down the windowpanes. It absorbs your attention without being overwhelming, and at the end, you’re left with a sense that everything in the world has assumed its right place.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Allison & Busby for a review copy of The American Agent, the fifteenth novel to feature investigator Maisie Dobbs.

London 1940 and the war is in full swing so when American journalist Catherine Saxon is found murdered in her flat tact and diplomacy are called for. Whitehall mandarin Robert MacFarlane drafts in Maisie to investigate alongside consular official Mark Scott, the man who saved her life in Munich.

I enjoyed The American Agent which is a well plotted novel with a wealth of historical detail. This is my first foray into the series so I wasn’t sure what to expect but I was pleasantly surprised on the whole. I must admit that joining the series so far in I was a little lost about the characters’ backstories and their relationships but this is only to be expected as Ms Winspear would end up boring her series readers to death by repeating all the details ad nauseum in every book. I will remedy this myself by reading the series (in order, obviously).

I liked the plot which is suitably convoluted with a host of suspects and motives. It is realistic enough to be believable and very suitable to the era. I was a bit disappointed that it has more serious tone than the lighthearted approach I was expecting but, on reflection, that is probably a better match to wartime London and the Blitz. The descriptions of these conditions is very well done and I don’t think it had occurred to me before just how much it took over people’s lives and how regimented that life had to be. It’s given me a much better understanding of people’s strength and grit at that terrible time. I also liked the contemporaneous quotations from the period at the start of each chapter that added to the already strong atmosphere.

I like Maisie Dobbs who is a strong, no nonsense character with a past. My curiosity has been arisen to find out more so I will be visiting her previous escapades.

The American Agent is a good read which I have no hesitation in recommending.

This is the latest novel that features London based investigator, Maisie Dobbs. One of a long established series, you can expect not just Maisie herself, but a cast of her regular characters – her family, employees, friends and police oldie Robbie MacFarlane of the “Met”. Having read a cluster of the previous novels, but not kept up to date two people, new to me will be Anna – a daughter that Maisie plans to adopt – and Mark Scott , previous almost love interest, who is the “American Agent”. The year is by now 1940 – and it is the autumn of the “blitz”. Britain (and empire) is standing alone, the Germans are trying to bomb Britain into submission before invading and the USA is still to enter the war. A difficult time for all Londoners – and those elsewhere.
Maisie is asked by the police to quietly investigate the death – in conjunction with Mark Scott – of a young, but rising, American journalist Catherine Saxon. Without saying too much to give away any key plot lines – it turns out that she is the daughter of a powerful anti-war senator but is nonetheless building a career in journalism covering complex political and international issues – the Civil War in Spain, the fall of France, the war all in opposition to the men of her family.
Maisie, working as an auxiliary ambulance and rescue worker with friend Priscilla, will be asked to take her out on an “operation” in the blitz. Within 24 hours she will be found dead & Maisie will be asked to quietly investigate. She needs to check her home in lodgings, the other women she met there, those she encountered as part of her work and her back life in France and Spain. The enigmatic Mark Scott is supposedly helping.
The writing and procedural is of course assured. The plot is suitably complex and the murder not unravelled too early. But.... All the Winspear novels have an historic setting. This one is set at a particularly critical time for the British people. Subject to war, death, random violence they nevertheless have to carry on with their lives, supporting their families, friends and communities. So whether this novel succeeds will depend on whether you feel that Winspear has balanced the crime investigation with the personal issues depicted through the characters and with the greater political realities of life then.
It needs to be remembered that Winspear is an American writer writing (in part) for an American audience, with a different perspective. And yes, time has passed and most readers will never have experienced those years directly, but only through family memories and experiences coupled with what they have been told or seen since.
My personal view is that is the weakest Winspear novel I have read. Largely because it was over-ambitious in its range. To my mind she just could not integrate so much information, experiences, pain and difficulties within a single novel, particularly when her format is using a suite of interlocking characters. “Conversations” between them used to highlight issues or emotions and fears became unlikely, clunky even. Which was disappointing because what she was recounting is increasingly “lost” (sometimes secret) history that it is important to know. It was not an automatic that Britain would win the war or that the USA would come in. Some young people had to grow up very fast. And yes lots of people were maimed, or died, or left orphaned. It was a very long and expensive 6 years.
However, remember that I am interested in history and my family were Londoners living through these times, so you might on reflection regard me as over-picky. The murder plotline ran smoothly, historical discrepancies were not too obvious and initially it was not easy to predict the murderer. If the story is the most important thing read on and enjoy.

Nazi Germany has begun its Blitz on London. September 1940 sees private investigator Maisie Dobbs and her best friend Priscilla working as volunteers for the Auxiliary Ambulance Services. Each night they drive to where their nursing skills are needed most as bombs rain down on Britain's capital city.
Then, Maisie is called in by British Intelligence officer Robbie MacFarlane to investigate the murder of an American journalist, Catherine Saxon. The authorities are keen that the matter be dealt with discreetly and pair Maisie with Mark Scott of the US Department of Justice, the man who helped her escape from Nazi Germany and for whom she has mixed feelings. But Maisie has troubles of her own, hoping to surmount the difficulty of adopting Anna, a 6 year old orphan. Worse follows when her friend Priscilla is seriously injured as she rescues two children from a burning building.
This book perfectly captures the sights and sounds of the London Blitz - the shattered buildings, the raging fires and the bodies of the dead and injured, as Londoners struggle to cope with the terrible disruption to their lives from night after night of heavy bombing.
Throughout, Maisie conducts her inquiries into Catherine Saxon's murder, discovering her past in war-torn France and in Spain during the Civil War. She seems to have been a brave woman, who was well liked by everyone she met. Who would want to kill her? Left mostly on her own, Maisie carries out a painstaking investigation which uncovers secrets about Catherine's life at every turn. All the while, she suspects that British Intelligence and their American counterparts are not being entirely honest with her.
I've read a few books in the Maisie Dobbs series and this is by far the best. Each chapter is introduced with quotes from the radio scripts of the famous American journalist Ed Murrow, whose radio broadcasts from London influenced the people of the USA to reject their country's isolationism and support Britain's fight against the Nazis.
My thanks to the publisher Allison & Busby and to NetGalley for a copy of this book in return for an unbiased review.