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.