Messenger of Truth: A Maisie Dobbs Novel (Maisie Dobbs Novels)

by Picador

$14.00
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Sales Rank:17117 (lower is better)
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Release Date:2007-06-12
Label:Picador
Pages:336
Binding:Paperback
Publication Date:2007-06-12
Published By:Picador
ASIN:0312426852
Category:Book

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Editorial Reviews and Product Descriptions

Product Description

 Sue Feder/Macavity Award for Best Historical Mystery Award Nominee London, 1931. On the night before the opening of his new and much-anticipated exhibition at a famed Mayfair gallery, Nicholas Bassington-Hope falls to his death. The police declare it an accident, but the dead man's twin sister, Georgina, isn't convinced. When the authorities refuse to conduct further investigations, Georgina takes matters into her own hands, seeking out a fellow graduate from Girton College: Maisie Dobbs, psychologist and investigator.
 
The case soon takes Maisie to the desolate beaches of Dungeness in Kent, as well as the sinister underbelly of the city's art world. She again uncovers the dark legacy of the Great War in a society struggling to recollect itself in difficult times. But to solve the mystery of the artist's death, she will have to remain steady as the forces behind his death come out of the shadows to silence her.
 
Jacqueline Winspear delivers another vivid, thrilling, and utterly unique episode in the life of Maisie Dobbs.

Customer Reviews

Great Read! - Reviewed on 2008-10-20
* * * * *

Maisie Dobbs is a really fun read and I love the way Jacqueline Winspear brings the era to life. I find I learn a great deal about life in England after World War I as I am led through the unraveling of the "case" Maisie is working on. Her characters are finely detailed, the pace is rapid and the book is hard to put down. Bravo!
educator - Reviewed on 2008-09-21
* * * * *

What a great read! Now I'm hooked on the series. Jackie Winspear is clever and brings World War One England alive. Her heroine is smart and real. A fun mystery too.
Good Novel, Less-Than-Great Writer - Reviewed on 2008-09-08
* * * *
1 customer found this review not to be helpful.
This novel is not as well-written as it is well-plotted.

Winspear has a firm and interesting grasp on characters, and a relentless eye for not only period detail (1930-1931 England) but the anguish of a failing economy and crumbling class structures.

But her prose is clunky. I presume she's attempting to imitate the more ornate style of 30s British mysteries--still abstract and flowery, compared with their Hammett-Hemingway American counterparts.

But, far from being quaint or authentic, her prose is often just imprecise and wordy.

This is a very minor flaw.

The range of characters, the social commentary, the surprises of the plot make this well worth reading.
a new connecton - Reviewed on 2008-04-27
* * * * *

I geatly enjoy Ms Winspear's mysteries but this one was so much more to me. Not only was it a fascinating well told story but it had a very personal connection for me. I had a great uncle who waa a WWI doughboy. He also, like the character of Nick, was an artist. A mural of his can be seen, last I knew, in the Belmont, MA town hall. He was also a drunk. By the time I knew him he was little more, to me, than an boring old man, the source of many family stories who tried to make me drink gingerale and milk. I never really knew him. This book made me know him. I understand so much more about what made him what he was. I felt very close to him as I waa reading this.
Read this book if you want an engaging mystery, it is. But for me it is a world more.
Just to my liking... - Reviewed on 2008-02-10
* * * * *

After exhausting all of Alexander McCall Smith's books and searching desperately for another slow paced mystery without much gore, I stumbled upon Jacqueline Winspear's books with great luck. She writes with much darker undertones than Smith's, but like Smith the characters are very real and endearing and she is accurate when describing the place, time, atmosphere (post-WWI England). I absolutely recommend this to anyone that is a history buff, a PBS Mystery fan (Miss Marple and the likes) or who liked Nancy Drew novels as a child.
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