The Consequences of Fear by Jacqueline Winspear

The Consequences of Fear by Jacqueline Winspear

Published by Harper ISBN 9780062868022

Hardcover, $27.99, 352 pages

It's been two years since we had a Maisie Dobbs fix, as author Jacqueline Winspear published a memoir last year in place of her annual Maisie Dobbs historical mystery. 

In  2019's The American Agent, London was dealing with the Blitz, the nightly bombing of London. Maisie and her best friend Priscilla drove an ambulance ferrying injured civilians, and Pris was seriously burned as they pulled injured children out of danger. One of Pris' sons was seriously injured during the evacuation of trapped troops in Dunkirk. It was a harrowing time for Maisie and company.

In the new novel, The Consequences of Fear,  private investigator and psychologist Maisie Dobbs has been pressed into service in the SOE (Special Operatives Executive) by her old comrade Robert McFarlane. She is tasked with psychologically evaluating people who will be sent into France as spies.

At the same time, her private investigation office has a new case- a young boy who has been acting as a messenger witnesses a murder but the police seem to be reluctant to admit that there was a murder. Maisie and her able assistant Billy Beale work to discover why and what connection it may have to the French resistance working in London.

Maisie's personal life has taken center stage in this novel. Her young adopted daughter Anna is growing very attached to Maisie and Maisie's father and stepmother, and Mark Scott, who works at the American embassy in London, has become an important part of Maisie's life. Is Maisie ready to let love back into her life after the tragic loss of her husband years ago?

The Consequences of Fear is vintage Maisie Dobbs. The juggling of her private investigation work and  confidential government work is becoming increasingly more difficult, and with the war ramping up in Europe, the next novels in the series are sure to examine that. 

This is the 16th novel in the series, and not one that you can jump into without having background on Maisie Dobbs. Start at the beginning and you'll find Maisie's story as fascinating as I do. It's one of the only series that I have read every book, and it's a terrific series for high school age young women to read, as Maisie is a terrific role model. It's also a great Women's History Month read. Maise Dobbs fans will be pleased with this one.

My review of The American Agent is here.

My blog post about Jacqueline Winspear's visit to Barnes & Noble is here. 

The American Agent by Jacqueline Winspear

The American Agent by Jacqueline Winspear
Published by Harper ISBN 9780062436665
Hardcover, $27.99, 364 pages

Count me in as one of the many Maisie Dobbs series fans. I always look forward to March when the new Maisie Dobbs novel publishes. The 15th in the series is The American Agent, and with its setting of London during the German blitz, it's one of the best in the series.

Maisie is balancing working as a private investigator and volunteering with her best friend Priscilla as ambulance drivers, ferrying civilians injured during the bombings of London. Maisie and Priscilla worked as ambulance drivers when we first met them many books ago during WWI.

When an American female radio war correspondent is murdered shortly after Maisie and Priscilla meet her, Maisie is asked to team up with an American Department of Justice official, Mark Scott, whom she met when she was in Spain during their Civil War.

Unlike some of the more recent Maisie Dobbs books, the action takes place all in England, and most of Maisie's friends, colleagues and family are all here- Billy and Sandra, who work for her at her private investigations agency, police investigator MacFarlane, Priscilla and her family, and Maisie's father and stepmother, along with the young orphan girl Maisie is trying to adopt.

The stakes in The American Agent are so much higher as everyone in London is endangered by the nightly German bombings. In addition to Maisie trying to find out who killed Catherine Saxon, she and her friends must worry about being killed themselves.

Real people, like a young Edward R. Murrow, make cameo appearances, and Catherine's family has a resemblance to US Ambassador to England Joseph P. Kennedy's family here. (Catherine reminded me of Kick Kennedy, who tragically died in a plane crash during WWII.) Winspear's research and attention to detail are so appreciated here.

If you are a Maisie Dobbs fan, you will enjoy this latest entry into the series. If you are not a Maisie Dobbs fan, I recommend you get on the bandwagon and start with book one, Maisie Dobbs. It's a wonderful series for high school women to read, as Maisie is a strong, smart and caring female role model. She makes mistakes, but she learns and grows from them, something we can all aspire to.

I recently saw Jacqueline Winspear speak at Barnes & Noble, that post is here.
Jacqueline Winspear's website is here.

Jacqueline Winspear at Barnes & Noble

There is only one long-running mystery series that I have read all the way through- Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs series.  We first met Maisie as a young child and have watched her as she worked as an ambulance driver and nurse in WWI France, followed in her mentor's footsteps and became a private investigator, and now in the 15th book in the series, The American Agent, Maisie is again working as volunteer ambulance driver in WWII London during the Blitz.

Winspear made an appearance at Barnes & Noble on the Upper East Side in Manhattan last week and a fellow Maisie fan (and Book Cellar volunteer) Allison and I were thrilled to be part of the standing-room only crowd to hear her speak.

Tom Santropietro and Jacqueline Winspear

Tom Santropietro interviewed Winspear and he began by asking her to describe how she got the idea for Maisie. Winspear said she was driving in a rainstorm in her home in California when she saw Maisie coming up from a train station in London in a fog. She knew Maisie's story right away, everything about her in that vision, which she called a "moment of artistic grace". She came out of it when the car behind honked his horn, asking what particular shade of green she was waiting for the light to turn.

In The American Agent, Maisie is called upon to assist an American Department of Justice official in investigating the murder of an American female war correspondent. Winspear spoke of all of the female war correspondents who inspired her character (Martha Gelhorn, Margaret Higgins, Dickie Chappell).

I particularly liked Winspear's comment that whereas male war correspondents wrote and spoke about tactics, military strategy and weapons, the women "bore witness to the human cost of war", how it affected men, women and families.

She also spoke of how the wireless radio made a big change in how WWII was viewed differently than WWI. The advent of everyone having a radio meant that the war was immediately broadcasted into people's homes. A young Edward R. Murrow's radio broadcasts back home to America helped push American sentiment into entering the war to aid the Allies. (He makes an appearance in the novel.)

Winspear grew up in England, and her parents lived through WWII. She spoke about how little they talked about their experiences. The people of England truly followed the adage "Keep Calm and Carry On".

Santropietro asked Winspear about her most famous fans, the Clinton family. She said she was gobsmacked  when Bill Clinton was quoted in the NY Times saying that Maisie Dobbs was one of his favorites. Then she learned that Hillary, her mother and Chelsea all loved Maisie. She has heard from many fans that they read Maisie Dobbs as a family, and how that delights her.

The American Agent is one of the strongest books in the Maisie Dobbs series, perhaps because the stakes are so high here as everyone is affected by the war coming to London via the Blitz. My review of the book can be found here.

Friday Five- April 5, 2019

This week's Friday Five begins with a quick road trip.

1) We spent a day in Washington DC, where my husband had business and I visited the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. They have such interesting exhibits, like Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence and One Year 1968: An American Odyssey. I really went to see the Barack and Michelle Obama portraits, which are marvelous. Barack's looks almost 3D like, and Michelle's is magnificent. It was great to see so many school groups there looking at them. While there, I heard the best thing I've ever heard in DC. A young boy, maybe 8 or 9, was talking to his older sister and while standing in front of the huge portrait of Bill Clinton, he pointed at it and said to her, "Look, it's Hillary Clinton's husband!" He couldn't understand while he was there and not Hillary.

2) I've always wanted to eat at Jaleo, chef Jose Andres' DC restaurant, and since it was down the block from the National Portrait Gallery, I finally got the chance. I had a JLT- jamon (Spanish ham), lettuce and tomato on grilled brioche bread with a tasty mayonnaise sauce. The best homemade chips I've ever had came on the side and I added a red sangria for a delicious lunch. 

Lunch at Jaleo

3) Tuesday night I attended a book talk and signing of Jacqueline Winspear's 15th book in her Maisie Dobbs series, The American Agent, at Barnes & Noble on the Upper East Side. I've read all of her books, and this is one of her best in the series. It's set during the London Blitz during WWII, and Maisie and company are back together again. Winspear's talk was very interesting, she spoke about how the character of Maisie came to her at a stoplight during a rainstorm in California, fully formed. 

Jacqueline Winspear at Barnes & Noble

4) The season three finale of This Is Us was on this week, and it was everything you would want it to be. I have been a fan since day one, and seeing into the future of the Pearson family was so heartbreaking and emotional, I can't wait for season four. Everyone associated with this wonderful show is top notch- writers, producers, directors and actors. If you don't watch it, I highly recommend it.

5) Speaking of things that make you emotional, I finished reading Lisa See's newest novel, The Island of Sea Women, about two female divers who lived on Jeju Island, off the coast of Korea. I knew very little about the history of Korea prior to the Korean War, and this takes place between the Japanese occupation of Korea, through the Korean War, and ends up in 2008. It's a stunning novel, and as I read the saddest, most horrifying part, I had to stop myself from sobbing on the train. It's one of the best books of 2019.