Maisie Dobbs

Maisie Dobbs, Book 1

By: Jacqueline Winspear

Narrated by: Orlagh Cassidy

Maisie Dobbs got her start as a maid in an aristocratic London household when she was thirteen. Her employer, suffragette Lady Rowan Compton, soon became her patron, taking the remarkably bright youngster under her wing. Lady Rowan’s friend, Maurice Blanche, often retained as an investigator by the European elite, recognized Maisie’s intuitive gifts and helped her earn admission to the prestigious Girton College in Cambridge, where Maisie planned to complete her education.

The outbreak of war changed everything. Maisie trained as a nurse, then left for France to serve at the Front, where she found—and lost—an important part of herself. Ten years after the Armistice, in the spring of 1929, Maisie sets out on her own as a private investigator, one who has learned that coincidences are meaningful, and truth elusive. Her very first case involves suspected infidelity but reveals something different.

In the aftermath of the Great War, a former officer has founded a working farm known as The Retreat that acts as a convalescent refuge for ex-soldiers too shattered to resume normal life. When Fate brings Maisie a second case involving The Retreat, she must finally confront the ghost that has haunted her for over a decade.

©2003 Jacqueline Winspear (P)2022 Recorded Books

Excellent narrator!

Orlagh Cassidy is a superb narrator. She’s on par of David Suchet reading Death on the Nile.
The story has a slow middle, but ends very fast paced and interesting

Beautiful first book

Yes, she’s a female Sherlock Holmes, but though I have seen people complain she is a “too perfect“ character, I think she is exactly the person forthis story. She is not infallible; rather, her cracks are well hidden, and her heart runs deep. I felt thoroughly immersed in the 1920s, and the post World War I mindset. Wonderfully done! I thoroughly enjoyed this first installment, and look forward to reading more!

Yay a new series for us !

Great presentation of a time disappearing into history. I've seen pictures of here wounds and the masks created for the wounded ad had a grandfather twice gassed... it made it more real. Loved the compassionate justice leveled by the ending.

A heartbreaking and loving tale

New to Maudie Dobbs, but have embarked upon road of reading WW I historical fiction and biographies of medical personnel. This is a great example of the genre.

Stunning

Captivating story of strength, love, and vulnerability and the ability to be and understand those things in one’s self and others.