A Sunlit Weapon (Maisie Dobbs #17)

A Sunlit Weapon by Jacqueline Winspear is her seventeenth book featuring detective and psychologist Maisie Dobbs. 

October 1942. ATA pilots ferry planes to bases and around the United Kingdom. These female pilots make sure the planes are where they need to be for the male pilots to use on bombing runs.

Jo Hardy is shot at while ferrying a plane to Biggin Hill. A friend a is later shot down in the same location. When Jo drives back to the area to investigate, she finds a US soldier tied up in an old barn. 

Hardy hires Maisie to find out who is shooting at the planes and why. When Maisie needs to interview the US soldier, she runs into both US bureaucracy and racism, as well as her husband's job. 

Maisie Dobbs is probably my favorite fictional character! Winspear is a wonderful writer who fills her books with accurate history, fully formed characters, intrigue and a real sense of being there. If you are a fan of history, mystery or just good writing, buy the first book in series today.

Winspear, Jacqueline. (2022). A Sunlit Weapon. New York: Harper.

The King's Justice (Maggie Hope #9)

The King's Justice by Susan Elia MacNeal is her ninth book in the Maggie Hope series - an historical mystery / espionage series lead by a wonderful character. 

Maggie has had many jobs since she moved to London - from secretary to Mr. Churchill, to espionage work, to helping Scotland Yard catch a sequential murderer. Now she just wants a break. 

Of course her idea of a break from that previous work is to join a bomb disposal unit. Her role being defusing the UXBs before they can explode. 

The man from Scotland Yard has other ideas. He wants her help, and to get her away from the UXBs. She can choose her case - either a new sequential killer who is putting human bones in suitcases in the Thames, or the theft of a Stradivarius violin. 

MacNeal's series is one of my favorite in any genre. This and Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs are equally the best of historical mystery.  

MacNeal, Susan Elia. (2020). The King's Justice. New York: Bantam Books.

The American Agent (Maisie Dobbs #15)

The American Agent by Jacqueline Winspear is the 15th book in her mystery series featuring Maisie Dobbs - an investigator and psychologist.

Maisie is asked to investigate the murder of an American reporter, Catherine Saxon. One of Edward R Murrow's reporters sending news back to the US from England during World War II.

The last article Saxon wrote was about British volunteers - after spending the night with Maisie and her best friend Priscilla - driving an ambulance through an attack by German planes.

Winspear's Maisie Dobbs is one of the best fictional characters written. She should be listed on all lists of classics. If you are not yet reading this series, start today!

Winspear, Jacqueline. (2019). The American Agent. New York: Harper.

In This Grave Hour (Maisie Dobbs #13)

In This Grave Hour by Jacqueline Winspear is the thirteenth book in her Maisie Dobbs series. Maisie is an investigator and psychologist.  This may be my favorite book series.

September 3rd, 1939 England declared war against Germany. When Maisie returns home from her best friend’s house where they listened to the radio announcement from the king, a Doctor Thomas is waiting for her. Maisie knows her to be a spy. Dr. Thomas wants Maisie to investigate the death of a Belgian. England took in many Belgian refugees during WWI. Some of them stayed. But the attitude toward other cultures within England has changed since the war started. Dr. Thomas is concerned that the police are not looking in the right place, if at all. Maisie takes the case.

At the same time, operation Pied Piper is put into effect. Children in London, a city likely to be bombed by the Nazis, are being evacuated to the countryside. Maisie’s estate has gotten three children. Her father is going to get the two boys working with horses. But the small girl who doesn’t speak is a mystery. She came without any paperwork. None of the other children know where she came from.

Winspear is a brilliant writer. Her books will grab you from the first page. Plus, if you listen to the firstbook on audiobook read by Rita Barrington will put the wonderful accents in your head for the rest of the series!

Winspear, Jacqueline. (2017). In This Grave Hour. New York: Harper.

Journey to Munich (Maisie Dobbs #12)

Journey to Munich by Jacqueline Winspear is the twelfth book in her historical mystery series featuring Maisie Dobbs.

It is 1938. Maisie Dobbs is back in London after time spent in Spain, once again being a nurse in a war. She is still recovering from a personal loss. When she returns to London, she is not sure where she belongs. Her old flat is rented out and her house has too many memories. She finds herself walking toward her old office when she encounters a man with whom she used to work.

Robert MacFarlane is no longer with Scotland Yard. He now works for the Secret Service. And he has a job for which he needs Maisie's help. Having no plans of her own, Maisie agrees to a meeting.

The German government has been holding a British man in one of their prisons - at Dachau. They have agreed to release him, but only to a relative. Unfortunately, the man's only relative - his daughter - is not well enough to travel. And she does (slightly) resemble Maisie. The man is a boffin, or engineer, and England needs him for the likely war with Germany. Luckily, the Germans do not know how valuable an asset they have captured.

Maisie will come in contact with the Nazi machine, in a city cowed by fear. On top of her assignment, she will be asked by a family friend to look in on his daughter who is rumored to be in Munich, and ask her to come home - a request that will put Maisie in more danger as she is going not as herself but as Edwina Donat.

Winspear is an amazing writer. Of the one hundred plus books I read each year, this is one of my favorite series. Maisie Dobbs is one of the best protagonists in fiction. Read this series from the beginning. Read it now! Go on, run to your library or bookstore and get started!

Winspear, Jacqueline. (2016). Journey to Munich. New York: Harper.

A Curious Beginning (Veronica Speedwell Mystery #1)

A Curious Beginning by Deanna Raybourn is the first book in her Veronica Speedwell mystery series.

Veronica Speedwell grew up is an orphan who grew up with her two aunts. Now her second aunt has passed away. While she Veronica should feel sad her thoughts keep drifting to the fact that she will be free to do as she pleases - which in her case is go on expeditions and catch butterflies. Having moved every few years growing up, she does not feel attached to the village she happens to be living in at the moment.

Veronica is a lepidopterist. She has been on quite a few expeditions and has sold butterflies to fund future travels. And she is ready to be off on a new adventure, but when she returns to the cottage after her aunt's funeral, there is a man searching the place. Assuming it is someone who read the death notice in the paper and is looking for valuables, Veronica scares him off. A baron helps her chase the intruder away.

Convinced Veronica is in danger and unwilling to leave her alone, the baron offers her a ride to London. Because it will save her the train fare, Veronica agrees. Once in London, the baron hands her over to Mr. Stoker for safe keeping. Mr. Stoker is in the midst of trying to stuff an elephant for a wealthy client. While Veronica does not believe she is in danger, she humors the baron. So begins her argumentative relationship with Stoker, a natural history scientist as well. When the baron is killed, Veronica and Stoker decide to find out who killed him.

Raybourn has created a wonderful new mystery series which begins in the year 1887. Fans of Maisie Dobbs will likely enjoy this series, thought the books have a different feel and are set years apart. I am very much looking forward to Veronica and Stoker's future adventures.

Raybourn, Deanna. (2015). A Curious Beginning. New York: New American Library.