English Mysteries Club discussion

Our more modern English mystery for October's group read will be Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear. It is the first in a series featuring former servant Maisie Dobbs, and set in 1929 London. "Maisie Dobbs starts her own business as a psychologist and investigator in this unique and gripping historical mystery series."

My sister-in-law recommended this one ... she was given a whole bag of books in the series, and quickly got hooked!

Who will be joining in?

I just acquired this at a library sale so I’m planning on joining in!

I was in on the beginning of this great series. Jacqueline Winspear's first stop on her book tour for Maisie Dobbs was Houston at Murder by the Book. She made Murder by the Book her first stop on all her subsequent books tours and I only missed a couple of them. Love author visits and independent book stores.

I'm in! I haven't participated in a while, but this fits perfectly for another book challenge and I've owned it for a long time.

Great! Let's have some more in 🙂

I am aiming to be in as the has sat on my TBR for such a long time

I requested the ebook from my library but haven't gotten it yet, however the audio book is available now. So I can start that today, but my progress will be slow. It always is with an audio book.

I have a copy in audiobook format so I will join in soon. I’ve been wanting to start this series for a long time.

I started the audio book and it's going much faster than usual. I like it and am glad it's the beginning of a series. I always feel like having a series you enjoy and knowing there are more to read is like money in the bank. sort of.

This is sounding really good! Our official start date is today, so there's plenty of time to join in! 🙂

I’m in! Jaqueline Winspear was a favorite author of one of my mystery loving friends, and I also recently added The Comfort of Ghosts to my library after another friend borrowed it from his library to read! It’s about time I read one of these! Looking forward to starting the first book in her series, and having the “Jacqueline Winspear reading experience!”

It has been awhile since I have been able to join in the monthly read. Thankfully with my schedule I can this month. I have never read this book before or this author (though I do have one of her books on my TBR list), but I am very interested. Watch, I will have another series to add to my TBR. (That is what happen when I joined in to read Ann Cleeves.) Happy reading everyone!

I'm just over half way through the audio book

Good to see you in, Debbie and Nikita!

Are you enjoying it, Jackie?

I read many different types of books, but never feel as much at home as when I’m reading a mystery. I love the characters we’re introduced to early on, thoughtful, compassionate, intelligent, and then Maisie’s history. Learning she was a servant, but the woman she worked for is essentially now a staunch benefactor in Maisie’s new profession as an independent investigator, which indicates a high level of confidence in Maisie’s skills. She’d previously worked with another investigator who’d let her take over his firm (another sign of confidence in her abilities) and she learned much from him. A tradesman arrives to hang her door sign, but before he leaves, we learn more of Maisie’s past. The story just grabs and draws you in, wanting to know more. I was struck by the idea if you didn’t know the author, you could at least tell it was a woman, and I am reminded of a favorite tv series “Miss Scarlett and the Duke” about a Victorian era woman trying to establish herself as a private investigator. Maisie is more modern, but both have much in common.

I finished last night! I may be late to the party but am a Maisie Dobbs fan now! She is a fascinating young woman, intelligent and wise beyond her years. Looking forward to many more in the series. So happy that it was selected for the October group read and that I had just picked up a free copy last month at my sister’s Wisconsin campground library room! Serendipity for sure!

Great series with a properly intelligent lead female

Bionic Jean wrote: "Good to see you in, Debbie and Nikita!

Are you enjoying it, Jackie?"

yes, but I'm getting a bit nervous as I'm near the end and I feel like (view spoiler)[ Billy is in danger! (hide spoiler)]

Audio books take me much longer than if it was on my Kindle, but that isn't necessarily bad.

Done!

I gave it a three star review even though I liked it, because I think it had a lot of promise and could have been better. But I liked it well enough I've already ordered the second in the series from my library.

Basically, the book attempts to tell more than one story and it's too much detail. The plot, giving us a glimpse of what WWI vets faced and then a mystery of what is happening to those who go off to The Retreat, would have been a good movie, but told with a giant chunk of Maisie's entire back story stuck right in the middle distracted me.

I really liked the descriptions of Maisie learning from her mentor, but that was yet another story. As was Lady Rowan's early life, and how Frankie Dobbs' life went. The integration of all these stories seemed forced or something.

Having finished it and written my review, I am now enjoying reading the reviews of others. I can't agree with either those who give it one star or those who give it five!

Here is a rave review:

https://www.npr.org/2014/07/10/329568...

I am 10% in. It is holding my attention and focus but does fall into the trap of telling factual information just because the author has researched it. I find this very distracting in a book - if I wanted to read a book about London that is what I would read. I am reading a detective novel and therefore want a bit of detecting!

I am sure it will improve and the series as too many good reviews to be poor but it is perhaps written with a non-British audience in mind?

I continue on and will be back with more thoughts ....

I would maybe say it is not a detective novel, exactly? But very interested to hear what you think when you are done. I will see how the second book goes, since maybe it was setting up the character for detecting more later?

I wonder if this info-dumping is because it was the first in a series, Jackie? Perhaps they improve. (My sister-in-law is hooked and has read half the series/)

The idea that it might have been "written with a non-British audience in mind" surprised me though, Craftyhj. Do you often find this to be the case with English mysteries? I'd only really noticed it with some TV series, where we might say sagely, "Oh they want to sell this to America".

I do sometimes find it in books, although less in mystery books than others. The over-explaining of basic "British" things. In this one it is the over explanation of geography that marks this out for me.

I notice this author is British-born but has lived in the states for 30 years which is interesting. I am always fascinated at the number of US authors who set their books in the UK. I suspect it is far more than the reverse. I don't know why and it doesn't bother me - it just interests me.

I admit I am struggling with this book - I keep flipping back to the non-mystery book that I am reading so it is not fully holding my attention. I think I find it a bit too modern in outlook perhaps given the era in which it is set.

I shall continue on though - the writing itself is good and the book is well edited which is always a big plus.

I just finished the audio version of this book and enjoyed it very much. The time period has always intrigued me and drives me to want to know more. The early chapters are somewhat slow but I thought them necessary to setup what the author likely envisioned as a long-running series. The audio presentation was very well executed by a talented voice actor. At the conclusion I decided to add book two to my TBR list.

Craftyhj wrote: "I do sometimes find it in books, although less in mystery books than others. The over-explaining of basic "British" things ..."

Ah yes, I know what you mean. I suppose though that a balance has to be met, between that, and assuming your audience would understand something only a long-term British resident would, in which case the author might lay themself open to the charge of being parochial.

"I am always fascinated at the number of US authors who set their books in the UK." - Yes, me too! Quite a few of them are nominated for our polls; I have to check carefully.

I'm still ploughing through this one. I am warming to it but won't finish for a little while as I have a couple of ARCs to finish by the end of next week.

Leaving this current for a few more days, to allow everyone to finish.

I finished this one last night. After a slow start I really enjoyed it and will definitely read on in the series. It is undoubtedly quite sad a lot of the time, not surprising given the theme, but the true friendship shown to Maisie by Enid and Priscilla really shone through.

The book is well written and well edited which is always important to me.

A solid 4*.

Thanks for this Craftyhj. I'm glad you and others enjoyed this one 😊