A change in genre from my usual reads. I really enjoyed this one. I definitely want to read more historical/wartime fiction after reading this

I do love a Maisie Dobbs story and have been reading Jacqueline Winspear’s fab series for years I always love catching up with Maisie. I love finding out what’s going in her personal and professional life, it’s like I’m catching up with an old friend.
This is the 17th book in the series and while it’s not my favourite in the series, it’s still a good historical cosy mystery. I must admit that I did get a bit confused at times with the ins and outs of the mystery, because there were a few strands to it, but that’s definitely down to me as my concentration hasn’t been that great recently.
As always Jacqueline Winspear writes about really interesting aspects of the time and I loved reading about different women involved in the Air Transport Axillary. They really were very brave women ferrying RAF aircraft to different parts of the country, without no back up and no way to defend themselves against enemy aircraft! I knew about these women but didn’t realise that they weren’t able to defend themselves should the need arise! I also didn’t realise that on occasion aircraft was flown all the way from Canada and that there were no toilets on board, so the pilots had to wear adult nappies!
I also loved seeing a different feisty side to Maisie in this book with regard to her daughter Anna and bullying at school. It was really good to see Maisie in protective mother mode, rather than her usual professional mode, and it really suited her!
I still love this series and definitely recommend it if you enjoy cosy historical mysteries set in WW2.

I have been a long time fan of this series and so I was delighted to read this advance copy. Maisie is like an old friend and reading a new book is like catching up. I am glad that Maisie has some happiness at last, despite there being war and injustices aplenty. An utterly delightful series.

Maisie Dobbs mysteries are usually excellent and gripping stories. This one is the best I read so far and I learned something I never knew about the American army in UK.
I was a bit shocked but it was also an excellent way to learn something new, I will surely read more about this topic.
That said the mystery and the plot are excellent, ful of twists and gripping.
Maisie and the cast of characters are fleshed out as usual and the historical background is vivid. The solid mystery kept me guessing.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

A Sunlit Weapon is the seventeenth book in Jacqueline Winspear’s historical crime series featuring psychologist/private investigator Maisie Dobbs. I only discovered the series with the publication of The American Agent (book fifteen) but reading that, and the book that followed it, The Consequences of Fear, was enough to make me a firm fan.

For those new to the series, I believe A Sunlit Weapon can easily be enjoyed as a standalone. And, although there are references to events in previous books, I don’t think that would preclude going back to read earlier books in the series (as I hope to do one day) in order to learn more about Maisie’s past. However, at this point we find her married to former US Department of Justice agent, Mark Scott, and dividing her time between her London office and the family home in Kent where she lives with her adopted daughter, Anna, her father and stepmother.

Fans of the series will be familiar with Maisie’s methodical approach to investigating the cases that come her way, often recalling the advice of her former mentor, Maurice Blanche, and carefully constructing her elaborate case maps. She possesses a keen eye for detail, has perfected the art of getting information through seemingly casual conversations, is not averse to telling a few white lies to elicit facts and is no stranger to intrepid exploration. Her background as a psychologist gives her an instinct for whether someone is telling the truth and often points her in the direction of a motive that might not be obvious to others.

Her current case sees Maisie searching for a connection between a series of rather disparate events. As she delves further, the picture becomes increasingly complex with new avenues of enquiry opening up all the time. Whenever faced with an obstacle, what motivates Maisie is a sense of responsibility towards her client and her innate sense of justice.

The war is a constant backdrop to events in which few families have been left unaffected whether that’s because of loved ones injured or killed, forced relocation or just the sheer mental strain of not knowing what tomorrow will bring. Will today be the day that dreaded telephone call or telegram arrives? As Maisie observes, ‘We’re all told we can take it, but I’m not sure we can’, wondering if in fact people have become used to death, used to absorbing the shock of loss.

One particularly interesting element of the book for me was the focus on women’s contribution to the war effort, whether as Air Transport Auxilliary ferry pilots or members of the Land Army. As Maisie discovers not everyone approves of women taking up these roles, believing that it is not ‘women’s work’. Prejudice of another kind also runs through the book, some very close to home for Maisie, and other more institutional in nature.

As you’d expect, Maisie – with the help of her trusty assistant Billy and some string-pulling by her husband – is eventually able to put together the pieces of what turns out to be a very complicated picture. What she discovers is a chain of events which is the product of ‘manipulated minds’. Throw in some dramatic scenes, a portion of woolton pie and lashings of tea and you have another very entertaining addition to the series.

It’s 1942 and Jo Hardy, a member of the Air Transport Auxiliary is delivering a plane to Biggin Hill Aerodrome when someone starts shooting at her. Later, when she is on the ground, she goes to investigate and finds an American soldier tied up in a barn who claims he was abducted along with another soldier. After another pilot is shot down and killed she takes her story to Maisie Dobbs, an investigator, to try and uncover what is happening.


This is the 17th instalment in the Maisie Dobbs mysteries and I’ve been an avid follower for many years. Jacqueline Winspear elevates these historical mysteries by the quality of her writing and the characters. Maisie is excellent, as usual, and I love that we’ve managed to see her grow and evolve over the years. She’s a very progressive character who uses psychology as well as traditional investigative techniques.


We have all the usual characters appear again including her adopted daughter Anna who has a plotline of her own. The soldier discovered in the barn was a black man and because of the prejudices of the time, was immediately accused of abducting his fellow solder, a white man. The issues of segregation in the army were discussed as well as racism as a whole. Anna has darker skin because of her Maltese father and she started to face teasing and bullying at school because of this. It helped to highlight a side of the war that is rarely talked about and I thought this was nicely done.


The initial mystery expanded to include a potential threat to the life of Eleanor Roosevelt who was visiting Britain and I loved the factual touches the author included. I admit that at some points I became slightly confused by the different threads of the mystery and how they all fit together but by the end Winspear had managed to tie everything up nicely.

A SUNLIT WEAPON
by Jacqueline Winspear
Allison & Busby
Pub Date: March 22

Maisie Dobbs is my favorite histfic character, and I've read all 17 now in this gripping series. I loved the newest, A Sunlit Weapon, set in England in 1942, as British pilots are being attacked from the ground. Maisie is called in to investigate, and also is drawn into an effort to protect America's First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, on her visit to England.

I adore the characters the author has created, which feel like old friends now: Maisie, new husband Mark, her adopted daughter Anna, her parents, her investigative team, her many close friends, and as they gather for dinner at her home in the country, I can see myself there, feeling very much part of this loving clan -- a sort of safe haven from the war more evident in London.

Winspear also crafts such a compelling narrative showing the importance of women pilots, the impact of racism imposed by the American military, and the efforts of everyday Brits trying to survive the deadly conflagration.

I can't speak highly enough about A SUNLIT WEAPON and the entire series. This can be read as a stand-alone, and you're in for a treat if you've not read Winspear before. I promise you'll want to go back and read the whole series! Highly recommended for histfic fans, those intrigued by Britain during WWII, and anyone who loves beautifully written character-driven tales.

Thanks to the author, Allison & Busby, and NetGalley for the ARC. Opinions are mine.

#ASunlitWeapon #JacquelineWinspear #AllisonBusby #NetGalley

I would like to thank Netgalley and Allison & Busby for an advance copy of A Sunlit Weapon, the seventeenth novel to feature psychologist and investigator Maisie Dobbs, set in London and Kent in 1942.

Jo Hardy, an Air Transport Auxiliary ferry pilot, contacts Maisie to investigate her suspicions. She believes she was shot at while piloting a spitfire from nearby Biggin Hill base and going back on foot she discovers an African American soldier bound and gagged in a barn. He comes under suspicion because his white soldier friend is missing. She wants Maisie to clear Matthias Critendon of suspicion and investigate the shooting, because Jo was the only one of three to survive incidents in the same neighbourhood.

I thoroughly enjoyed A Sunlit Weapon, which has an interesting mystery and a great sense of warmth in the face of adversity. The novel is told entirely from Maisie’s point of view, so the reader can settle into the narrative without the disruption of changing perspectives and voices.

The plot could be described as a bit silly, moving from attacks on pilots to an assassination plot on Eleanor Roosevelt, but, unfortunately, it has a certain ring of truth to it due to the wartime setting. War has a habit of exacerbating unstable minds and bringing out the crazies. As I had no clue about what was going on (as in where it was leading, rather than not understanding events) I was glued to the pages for the least hint of a solution before time, but to no avail. I think the solution when it comes is clever and unusual. It is all about the players, their motivations and their ineptitude at everyday life.

I was quite frankly shocked at the depiction of race relations in the U.S. Army at the time, strict segregation and an assumption that Black meant guilty until innocence was proven beyond shadow of a doubt. And then to say that the British were less racist, overtly maybe, but we’re hardly paragons. It’s distressing to read.

I like the optimism in this series. Times may be hard, but the characters are sustained by the love of family and friends. It’s hardly realistic as Maisie lives a privileged life, but it gives a flavour of the hardships. It makes me think of the people of Ukraine and how, as ordinary people, we’re relatively powerless to help them.

A Sunlit Weapon is a good read that I have no hesitation in recommending.

September, 1942. Jo Hardy, an Air Transport Auxiliary ferry pilot, is delivering a Spitfire when she has the unnerving experience of someone shooting at her aircraft. A few days later she hears that another ferry pilot has been killed when her aircraft crashed in the same area of Kent. Although the death has been attributed to ‘pilot error’, Jo is convinced there is a link between the two incidents.

Jo takes her suspicions to Maisie Dobbs and while Maisie wants to find out why someone appears to want to take down much-needed pilots, she finds it is part of a much larger operation involving Eleanor Roosevelt, the American president’s First Lady. To protect Eleanor’s life – and possibly the safety of everyone in London – Maisie must quickly uncover the connection.

The author has thoroughly researched her story in the archives of the British Museum and the War Museum and you really get a good sense of daily life in the 1940s; I remember my parents telling me stories of life at that time and those experiences gel very much with what this author is saying. This is a really high quality story with very good characterisation of Maisie, Billie and the other lesser characters which are very insightful and leap off the page.

There is a freshness about the writing of Jacqueline Winspear which makes it truly exceptional and I was gripped until the final exciting page. Strongly recommended

For those readers who have not come across Jacqueline Winspear's character Maisie Dobbs then they are in for a treat and a back catalogue of well over a dozen books in which she features. I would describe the character Maisie as a bit of a wonder woman with the detective accumen of Hercule Poirot, the common sense and compassion of Elinor Dashwood and derring-do of Richard Hannay. Her character is a private investigator/ psychologist and she takes on cases often involving real historical figures from the time period spanning both world wars.. Maisie is a woman performing a traditionally male role which in wartime was a common occurrence and Winspear often highlights such roles in her books. In A Sunlit Weapon we meet Jo Hardy, a Ferry Pilot of the Air Transport Auxiliary who comes across an African American Serviceman bound and gagged in a barn while looking for people whom she was convinced were shooting at her Spitfire as she was delivering it to nearby Biggin Hill Airfield. Having saved the serviceman she realises he is being held in custody by the US Military Police suspected of being responsible for the disappearance of a white US Serviceman. She engages Maisie to help clear this man she suspects is innocent and also to investigate the shots fired at her aircraft and which maybe linked with other suspicious aircraft downings in the same area. Thus the adventure begins and expands into a much larger and more serious assassination plot.
Maisie Dobbs books are always a joy to read as they have well researched historical references and the characters provide a realistic look into life in wartime Britain. I would like to thank NetGalley and the publishers for providing this prepublication copy for review.

You always know you are in for a great read when you read a Maisie Dobbs book, and this book, book 17 in the series, is no different. They always have such a unique and quaint style to detection and to life itself.

It is now 1942 and Maisie finds herself embroiled in a strange case where someone is taking potshots at an Air Transport Auxiliary ferry pilot as she is delivering a plane, and this leads to a death of one pilot. As Maisie digs into the story she finds this is linked to a visit by the First Lady to UK shores. Is someone targeting her visit?

I loved the depth of this story and the slow and patient way she carried out her investigation. During the course of the story Maisie had some good interactions with the US authorities in the U.K. and was limited in what she could do due to this.

The book confronts prejudice both in the main investigation and what her daughter is going through at school, and Maisie finds a certain symmetry of her investigation and her personal life.

I totally recommend this book, as I do all the other books in the series, but also acknowledge how well the book has been written so that it can also be read as a standalone. Just another year to wait for the next one now.

Thanks to the publisher and Net Galley for a review copy of the book in exchange for a fair, open and honest review.