Leaving Everything Most Loved Review

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Leaving Everything Most Loved

A Maisie Dobbs Novel

Jacqueline Winspear

Harper, 2013

            If you haven’t already been introduced to Jacqueline Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs mystery series, start reading them – they are wonderful. This is one of those series that should be read in order of publication, if possible; but each book can easily stand alone with the paragraph or two of background always provided by the author. Maisie began life in a London slum in Edwardian England as the daughter of a poor street seller of fruits and vegetables. When her mother died her father arranged a position for her as housemaid to a wealthy peer. Twenty years and ten books later Maisie is wealthy in her own right, lover of the peer’s son, James Compton, and mistress in the house where she once served. How Maisie made this unlikely leap in such a strictly structured society is told over the course of these beautifully written cozies.

            The charm of this series is the historical setting in early 20^th century London and environs. In addition Winspear gives us an unusual background shared by almost every character in the series – World War I and especially the effects of that terrible war’s carnage on the women who served at the front lines in France as nurses, including Maisie and best friend, Priscilla Partridge. Like the troops in the trenches the nurses, too, suffered the constant shelling and appalling living conditions. Maisie was seriously wounded in a bomb strike on the medical tent that ultimately killed her doctor fiance. Her loyal assistant, Billy Beale, was also badly wounded in the war and he and Maisie share the fears and effects of their trauma. All Maisie Dobbs books are shadowed by the scars of World War I and later books by the looming threat of World War II. Priscilla lost all her brothers in the first war and readers who know history can’t help but wonder how many of Priscilla’s sons will be lost to WW II. 

            In Leaving Everything Most Loved Maisie’s detective agency is hired to investigate the murder of Usha Pramal, a young Indian woman who had been living and working in London. Usha’s brother suspects – correctly, Maisie learns – that the London police did not conduct a thorough investigation and he spends weeks traveling from India to England to find his sister’s murderer. As soon as Maisie picks up the very cold trail, an Indian housemate of Usha’s is murdered before she can talk to Maisie. During the course of her investigation Maisie begins to have doubts about her vocation and longs to travel the world, the path taken by her mentor and benefactor, Maurice Blanche

            This is not the best book in the series, disappointing in dragging out Maisie’s continued refusal to marry James or let him go. If the sexes in this situation were reversed, readers would be horrified by the sexist use of Maisie by James. And Maisie’s dithering on the issues of marriage and career is jarringly inconsistent with the woman who has been so determined and ambitious for most of the series. Is this some sort of early onset mid-life crisis? Loyal readers will certainly expect a satisfactory resolution in the next book.