Slightly better than the first book. Not quite as hokey, but the new agey "aura sensing" involved in the investigating is pretty lame. The characters are rather dull and lack any depth or heart (Billy Beale and his phony accent are too much.) There is still too much pseudo-intellectual psycho-babble and a pretty thin subplot featuring Billy Beale drags the story down a little.

However, the main story is better in structure and content. (Although I figured out who the murderer was well before the fianle so it can't be that great.

And thank God the ridiculous Khan the "Blind Ceylonese Mystic" character is only mentioned briefly.

I'm willing to give Maisie one more shot though.

Some books you save for the appetizer others for the main course, other for dessert. This book is the main course.

Maisie Dobbs is a strong, interesting woman in the post-WW I era that we know little about - until we meet Maisie. She's a former nurse during the war, she's now a private investigator and psychic who doesn't just solve crimes but tries to assure that's all right with the people involved when it's over. It's a little slow in places but then picks up again as life in the early 1930s entices us to read on. Thank you, Ms Winspear, for creating a unique new series.

I like this series. The attention to period detail is a bit nice. I think this is one of the better books of this series.

I find that most sequels do not live up to the original books. However, Jacqueline Winspear's Birds of a Feather is the exception to this rule, and is a much stronger work than the original, Maisie Dobbs.

Dobbs runs her own private investigation business, but also dabbles in psychology. Taking place in England after World War I, Birds of a Feather is refreshing as most women at this time are either housewives or domestics. Joseph Waite, a rich merchant, hires Dobbs to locate his 32-year old daughter who has run away from home. The private investigator is ale to tie Charlotte Waite's disappearance to the murders of three of Charlotte's friends. Dobbs must not only locate the girl, but also discover whether Charlotte might be hiding from the killer or is she actually the murderer. She must also find the motive behind the deaths.

Most of the colorful characters that Winspear introduced in Maisie Dobbs appear in Birds of a Feather including Maurice Blanche (her mentor), Billy Beale (her assistant), Lady Rowan (her benefactor), Frank Dobbs (her father), and Inspector Stratton (a policeman with a romantic interest in Dobbs). Winspear is also very adept at taking this period after World War I and bringing it to life. England was still recovering from the war in many ways--especially emotionally and financially. She weaves her story around a little known movement known as The Order of the White Feather. Dobbs must also deal with some personal issues as well. The combination makes for an interesting tale.

The only thing that kept me from giving Birds of a Feather five stars is that I thought the ending was once again a little hokey. Otherwise, Maisie Dobbs has developed into a well-written and enjoyable series.

I don't ordinarily read mysteries, but because the Maisie Dobbs series has a heroine with a background in the Great War, I was intrigued enough to pick up the first two books (Maisie Dobbs and Birds of a Feather). I found many romance-novel-type elements about these books (not exactly in a good way either) -- many descriptions of what Maisie and other women characters are wearing, for instance, and the potential relationship with Inspector Stratton which is gently hinted at the end of this book. Even her rise from maid to private investigator has a kind of romance-gloss about it.

Although the historical background and research in these books is pretty near faultless, it almost seems as if there's too much of it, somehow. Something doesn't ring true. This book is set in 1930 but modernity creeps in somewhere. I can't quite put my finger on it -- it's like it's written through a historical filter, yet not all the 21st century is held back.

Well, whatever. I found the mystery somewhat bland. I wasn't really caring about any of the characters, and I wanted to be more intrigued by the book; to have a harder time (and for the author to give Maisie a harder time) solving the mystery. It was a good, not a great, read.

Perhaps a habitual mystery reader would rate this higher, but having read the first two Maisie Dobbs books, they don't succeed in leaving me with an appetite for more.

This book follows the author's "Maisie Dobbs" which started out this series of mysteries set in post-World War I England. The first book in the series was so obviously a set-up for a series that I was very curious to see what the author would do with a whole book to fill with actual plot. At least half of "Maisie Dobbs" is backstory, explaining why the title character is where and who she is, in some detail. This second entry shows us her first real entry into the detective field, and while the author's not perfect, she gets most things right.

The plot follows Maisie, and her assistant Billy Beale, as they search for a missing heiress who's apparently run off, though no one can understand why. Maisie's an odd character, and her own view of her job is somewhat different from that of most private eyes: if you hire her, you agree to take her advice with regards to matters of family, relationships, and so forth. While she's not exactly a paragon of virtue, Maisie's one of those women who seem to have advice about everything for everyone, and so of course when she's hired, she has opinions that get expressed about everyone.

This means the plot's a bit thin. She figures out where the heiress is about 1/3 the way through the book, but with subplots, digressions, and rather lame excuses it takes another third of the book before the two characters actually meet. Meanwhile, Maisie's discovered that two of her quarry's best friends from the era of World War I have been murdered in a particularly horrific fashion, and a third one's committed suicide. Maisie decides the police have the wrong suspect in custody, and that she must unveil the real killer.

The subplots deal with her father aging, and her assistant having some pain from his old war wound. As with everything else, Maisie deals with all of this with aplomb and is never flustered, tricked, or outwitted, let alone at a loss for words.

I generally enjoyed this book, and look forward to the next in the series. Winspear could learn to tighten up her plots a bit, and perhaps make them a bit less predictable, but this is still a good book.

The Maisie Dobbs series all reflect the devastating long term effects of WW I. The main character is sympathetic and engaging, and sets about solving this mystery, like the others in the series, in such a way as to resolve the matter for all parties; NOT just solve the crime. It's a great goal for a private investigator, and she has a great supporting cast to help her along the way.

I am a great and new fan of the Maisie Dobbs Mysteries. The period of time and the place described keep
me engrossed and excited. I recommend all the books beginning with the first titled Maisie Dobbs. Here
is a strong women who is smart, clever and flawed. Finding her flaws as well and gaining respect for her
approaches are the challenges. In Birds of a Feather the mystery concerns murders somehow related to
past activities of seemingly unrelated characters. I remember the plot better than I remember most mystery
plots simply because in this one...victims and suspects were all rather unlikely innocents...I highly
recommend this one...one of the best of the series...

I just wish I could meet Maisie in real live and become her friend...What great characters, what a great story. This second book is just as good as the first, if not better. I hope they keep coming.

I wouldn't classify myself as a mystery reader. However, after stumblingonto the Mary Russell books three years ago as a result of a book club recommendation, I have found myself very carefully choosing mysteries in the same genre - strong female characters, different time period. I selected this series at the recommendation of Amazon reader reviews. This series is better crafted than the Fremont Jones mysteries (I like those, too). Once I started this book I couldn't put it down. Loaned it to my mother - and she quickly read it and told all her friends, declaring it her favorite for the year. Highly recommended.

Maisie is now ensconsed in her new digs on Fitzroy Square with her cockney assistant Billy Beale. She has the red MG from Lady Rowan parked around the corner so as to be able to take off on a moments notice. Maisie is hired by one of Maurice Blanche ex-clients, a self-made Grocery Magnate Joseph Waite to find his wayward daughter Charlotte.

Maisie finds herself returning to memories of what happened to both her and Billy during the Great War. Billy is dealing with the leg pain from his wound, and not always in the best manner. Maisie is still trying to deal with the loss of her 'sweetheart' Simon, and her need to move on. She is also forced to deal with her waning relationship with her father when he is injured delivering a foal.

The mystery/murders are really just tangential to the story, and help to tie together everything else that happens. For those interested in the powerful symbol of 'feathers' to men of her generation, rent a DVD copy of "The Four Feathers" that was made in the 1930s. It will give you an idea of how such symbols were looked on in the early twentieth century.

What sets Maisie apart from other investigators, is her degree in Psychology and her want/need to set things right with the victim's families after the murderer has been apprehended. Her sensitivity and insight is comparable to Sherlock Holmes, if he had emotions.

One nitpick:

As far as I have been able to acertain, the word "SMOG" was never used in early twentieth century england. In fact the word was invented to refer to the smokey haze that appeared over Los Angeles in the 1950s.

This is an interesting story, but the writing style was not really to my taste. It is about a case involving investigator Maisie Dobbs and her assistant Billy Beale in 1930 London. The case itself involves a 32 year old woman, roughly the same age as Maisie, who has run off. Her domineering father, who wants her at home, hires Maisie to find her. The case would seem to be a simple case of finding a missing person, but murders are involved, and Maisie finds herself drawn back to events in the Great War where she and Billy had both served.

The story has a lot of background color (details of the time period) and reveals a lot about both Maisie and Billy. Maisie finds out some things about Billy. Maisie also acquires a new man in her life.

2nd in the Maisie Dobbs series, this picks up later on after Maisie's private practice has taken off. Maisie takes the case of a missing daughter to a wealthy grocery store owner - a self-made man, like Maisie. Maisie looks into the history of the girl, and finds several murders of her friends. Maisie, always looking at the big picture as well as the details, seems to go off on a tangent, but is able to make connections she needs to find the answers to all of her questions, with help from her friends and her unusual past.

I bought "Birds of a Feather" (in a two-for-one edition with its predecessor, "Maisie Dobbs") on a three-dollar clearance table. "A bargain!" I thought, since the jacket blurbs made the stories sound like female versions of Charles Todd's Inspector Rutledge novels. Now that I've read them, though, I think I was overcharged.

Despite some surface similarities to Todd's work -- the post-WWI setting, the sensitive, war-scarred protagonist, the careful period details -- Winspear's novels are thin where Todd's are dense, simplistic where theirs are complex, juvenile where theirs are adult, too reassuring where theirs can be ambiguous and disturbing (I exempt Todd's stand-alone novel, "The Murder Stone," which is melodramatic and seriously implausible.) In Todd's books, the character of Hamish MacBeth may be a gimmick, but he works (or at least, he did until recently). The between-social-classes premise of the Maisie books, however, doesn't work, at least not as Winspear presents it. That's too bad, because Winspear has all the right ingredients -- interesting concepts, historical knowledge and insight, potentially-complex themes. But she just can't get the souffle to rise.

The supporting cast is a stock gallery of one-dimensional cliches; the period details are often over-explained, making portions of the text read like one of those children's storybooks determined to be "educational." As for Maisie herself, several Amazon reviewers of "Maisie Dobbs" correctly noted that she's too perfect, like a slightly more grown-up Nancy Drew. In "Birds of a Feather," Winspear does seems to be trying to make Maisie a little less of a paragon, but she doesn't quite succeed. Maisie's rift with her father is unconvincing and unprepared-for (as is its semi-resolution); her sidekick Billy's problems are too easily fixed; she and her cohort have far too many conveniently-placed sources who just happen to have the info our heroine needs (Smiley, Dame Constance, Dr. Dene); the plot ends are too neatly tied together. Even Maisie's hair is too obvious and simple a symbol.

And while I'm complaining, I might as well sound off about the whole intrusive business of Maisie's eating habits. I think the author might intend the food details to be a metaphor for aspects of Maisie's character, but I find them extraneous because they go nowhere. People are forever telling Maisie she's too thin; she's forever assuring them that she eats plenty -- all the while rarely managing to swallow more than a single bite per meal. Time and again, she forgets to eat, or learns something so disturbing that it takes her appetite away just as her dinner is served, etc. Then later, she will realize to her amazement that she hasn't eaten in ten, twelve, twenty hours. So does she at least chow down then? No, she does not. She looks forward to a "hearty helping of fish and chips" for lunch, but then she picks all the breading off the fish and feeds the chips to the seagulls. She takes one "ravenous" bite of toast after a many-hour fast -- and leaves the rest. As best I can recall, her entire food intake over the course of the story consists of gallons of tea, nibbles of toast, a bowl or two of vegetable soup, some batter-less fish, and a plate of eggs and bacon.

Yet nothing is made of any of this; the details are piled up and then ignored. If Maisie's (non)eating is supposed to have themative relevance, then I wish Winspear would do something with this thread (but preferably *not* through some anachronistic diagnosis of an eating disorder or the sort of weak narrative resolution used for Billy's problem in "Birds of a Feather.")

As the series stands now, the food thing ironically comes off as just another one of Maisie's many perfections: not only is she beloved, bright, gifted, compassionate, and capable, not only is she tall and graceful with mesmerizing deep blue eyes and striking black hair that is forever escaping its bun to curl into fetching "tendrils" that we're supposed to believe Maisie deplores (a motif that comes across as an authorial affectation), but when she does have a "flaw," it turns out to be that she's underweight! The 21st-century Western heart, with its obesity-clogged arteries, just bleeds for her.

A mouthful of dry fish might be enough for Maisie, but if I were to continue reading this series, I'd want more -- more complexity, more ambiguity, more depth, more substance. I'd at least want a bite of crispy batter and a chip or two.

The third of the Maisie Dobbs mysteries shows great skill in how to pull a well defined character/protagonist along through a new story without creating a mindless repetition of the earlier ones. The between the wars English atomosphere is as fully realized as before but Maisie Dobbs continues to grow and change as do the surrounding continuing characters. Filled with introspection as well as action, this book left me feeling both entertained and thoughtful, as though reflecting on the lives of real people. The good news here is that Ms Winspear continues to be growing and developing her craft. On to the next one !

In yet another fascinating Maisie Dobbs novel, Ms. Winspear continues to paint realistic pictures with her words. In doing so, not only does she provide a captivating mystery, but also a very moving emotional story. This for me adds that special extra dimension to her books.
I always seem to take away so much more from her books because her writing and the situations she describes, never cease to haunt me during moments of reflection. Her heartfelt descriptions of the vagaries of war (that really never seem to end) seem especially pertinent in this day and age. The numerous heart wrenching examples of characters whose lives have been touched by war and how the destruction reigns long after the wars are finished, have a very strong emotional impact on the reader. I strongly recommend this book.

It's the 1930s and Maisie Dobbs, a shrewd private investigator is called upon to unearth Charlotte Waite, a troubled heiress who for the umpteenth time has run away from home. The case seems straightforward: an overbearing and controlling father, a daughter longing for her freedom and independence. In reality though things are a lot more complicated, and Maisie Dobbs will find herself involved in a multiple-murder investigation, a mystery the solution of which lies in events that took place during the Great War.

`Brilliant' hardly does either the book or its heroine justice. Maisie Dobbs is the ideal detective: hands on, frighteningly perceptive, shrewd, charming, with a sharp intellect and a caring heart. Miss Marple's intuition and intimate knowledge of human nature and Hercule Poirot's logic and nonchalance combined and perfectly balanced. The book itself is a joy. It reads like a theatrical play at times, with the characters so vibrant, their mannerisms, gesticulations, reactions so vividly described, they almost come alive. The plot is carefully laid out, information withheld or divulged at exactly the right time to either blur the picture or provide clues, always sustaining the feeling of suspense. Not to mention Winspear's gift of masterfully evoking the entire social atmosphere of the `30s, a period so charming and intriguing in its own right.

The best crime novel I have read in a long time. This Maisie Dobbs character is without a doubt destined for great things!

This book piqued my curiosity like nothing else. Maisie Dobbs is an excellent heroine because she is a woman each of us would like to know; at the intersection of Victorian self-discipline, Eastern mysticism, Jungian psychology and a smidgen of utilitarian philosophy, Dobbs is the yeoman person finding her way through the world with aplomb. We, the readers, looking for a world just distant enough not to touch us but enough similar that it can inspire our own, find strength in that. The mystery in it is more realistic than most in that although it is cryptic, it peels its own layers through a study of motivation and circumstances that are not what they seem, showing us both the cryptic and the mundane as two sides to the same coin. While it sometimes got a little too "teatime talky" for an American reader, perhaps, the quality is high and the characters only slightly hyperbolic. I would recommend this to any reader blessed with an attention span and a love for procedural mysteries.

I love this book. It's like finding an old friend. I'm looking forward to reading the other two in this series.

Grab a quilt, a cup of hot chocolate, light the fire and curl up with Maisie Dobbs. I won't say much about the plot because others here have done that. If you want a perfectly drawn picture of post WW1 England open this book. Its hero is a woman suffering the effects of class separation, a war injury and loneliness while establishing her own career path. Throw in nascent techniques in meditation and drug rehab, and an introdution to Pilates in the 1930s, you have a mix of finely detailed fiction that lacks hardcore suspense. but who cares?

I bought this after hearing the author speak on NPR. I was seriously disappointed.

First, as one of the other reviewers noted, all of the characters are stereotypes. It was incredibly tiresome to read about the cheeky Cockney, the patrician aristocrat, the blunt capitalist etc. Not one of these characters was real and none were memorable.

I was also surprised by the background the author has created for Maisie Dobbs. This was the first in the series I have read and perhaps there is something in the first book which explains how and why an upper-class woman would basically adopt one of her servants. This makes absolutely no sense! No one is that kind (and certainly not an upper-class woman in Edwardian Britain). Maisie's relationship with her patroness is completely unrealistic as is her relationship with the servants in Lady Compton's house---the servants don't resent Maisie? A little dose of Gosford Park would have done wonders here.

The mystery itself was pretty feeble as well. Anyone who has read even the most basic of books about World War I could and would have figured it out. I wasn't even trying to figure out whodunnit and why but it was so obvious I knew before I was half-way through the book!

I'd say if you are a true murder mystery fan or a fan of World War I literature, give this a miss and go with something written by Charles Todd (a much better read).

I love the character Maisie Dobbs, and Winspear's writing is excellent. A great book for mystery lovers who also like fine writing.

This second novel in the Maisie Dobbs series is a much more conventional detective story--and not quite as good. The plot is linear, while the plot of the previous novel was sinuous and engaging. Still, there is an enjoyment in traveling back to London and environs in 1930, despite a few annoying anachronisms.

The characters here are quite good, especially Mr. Waite and his missing daughter. The scene of him in one of his groceries was absolutely marvelous, humanizing, and showed him in quite a different light.

As for Maisie's background, the most intriguing part of it is the fact that the author apparently borrowed her, almost entirely, from the real life experiences of Vera Brittain, as described in her Great War diary and in her wonderful memoir, "Testament of Youth." Ms. Brittain was in college when the war began and dropped out to join the nurse corps. She served extensively in France and fell in love with a doctor, who was killed in that conflict. Maisie has not yet become a pacifist, as Vera Brittain did, but perhaps that is ahead of us. This is not meant as criticism. Reality adds texture to a character.

There is much to enjoy in the Maisie Dobbs books, but there are flaws that boggle the mind--little things, to be sure, but very distracting.

I haven't read the first book, but Winspear does a good job of making this one stand alone. I feel that I know Maisie's rather hectic back story, though maybe I would find it more believable if I read about it at length. The way it is now, it's not. So she was a maid, then a nurse, and also an empath, and now she's a private detective. Right, and I'm Tallulah Bankhead. Nevertheless I wound up saluting the author for her considerable talent at writing and making you care about her characters, even when they're made of cardboard she brings them to life. Maisie's aide-de-camp, Billy, is convincingly created and contributes a strong subplot to the main affair of Charlotte Waite's disappearance.

I would definitely be interested in picking up the new novel PARDONABLE LIES just to find out what's next for our 32 year old supersleuth. I also respect Winspear's attempts to adapt into mystery terms the historical novel as redefined by Pat Barker, who wrote about the World War I era in similar ways, with a similar social vision, a humanist, liberal vision tinged with the radicalism of Virginia Woolf. I don't think that Maisie Dobbs is as yet any threat to the primacy of Harriet Vane, who remains a more sophisticated, emotionally charged and fundamentally interesting creation than Winspear's--despite what you'll hear here in the Amazon.

The real problem with the story is that the solution depends on an actual historical event, or movement, involving ways to encourage recruiting; if you have never heard of this scheme before you might be puzzled by the mystery, but if you have knowledge of it already, you will know the solution to the mystery here within the first chapters. Why, even the title gives away what the victims have in common. The "movement" isn't obscure at all, it was the basis of the famous novel and film "The Four Feathers." Winspear might have added a few twists and managed to make the ending a surprise, but she didn't, perhaps feeling that WWI was so long ago and cultural amnesia so prevalent, that nobody would have heard of the feathers thing.

What is this book? It's UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAIRS meets THE BIG LEBOWSKI, with just a touch of KUNG FU!

I really adore the Maisie Dobbs books, and I'm the type of person who usually can't stand cosy English mysteries with intrepid lady sleuths. But there has never been a sleuth quite like Maisie Dobbs. Imagine Rose from Upstairs Downstairs, brave and loyal to a fault, only with the precocious intellect of Matt Damon in GOOD WILL HUNTING, and the mystical training of Caine in KUNG FU. Maisie Dobbs has only one flaw -- she's perfect in every way, brave and upstanding, kindly and courteous, idealistic and pragmatic. You will either love her completely or find her unbelievably annoying. I have to admit it was the former for me.

There are some endearing flaws in this novel. The mystical stuff is often unintentionally funny. ("Maisie closed her eyes, for the great mystics of the east had told her that one could often visualize the unseen by simply focusing from within and closing ones eyes.") As someone else mentioned, a lot of these characters are English stereotypes that go back generations, if not centuries. (Billy Beale, the rugged and loyal Cockney, is so by the book Sam Weller and Sam Gamgee both ought to sue his arse!)

I do hope that future books will humanize Maisie somewhat, because she really comes across as too good to be true in the first two books. I think most readers like their detectives to be a little more cynical, more bitter, with resentments of their own. Like Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe. Or like Easy Rawlins! These male detectives take a savage pleasure in revealing the filth and corruption of their so-called "betters" in society, but Maisie Dobbs seems determined to find only what's good and decent in everyone. When her clients stumble she never sneers, she just suggests healthful ways of starting over. It's such a novel approach to the dirty business of sleuthing that it takes your breath away, even though at times you long for some good old fashioned sleaze, or at least some vindictive nastiness.

All in all, however, I have to say, bravo for Maisie Dobbs!

This was a lovely read, but I've have never found more typos in a book anywhere.

This is a very clever mystery set during the time after "the Great War," or World War I, in England. Maisie Dobbs is the daughter of a groom, who has, probably unrealistically, been taken under the wing of the wealthy family that employs her father. One of the primary themes of this book, as well as it's predecessor, the self-titled Maisie Dobbs, is the collapsing of class barriers in England, which is occuring at least in part because of the decimation of the population of young English men. Maisie Dobbs is young, female, smart, interesting, and, most important, independent, and she has opened her own "detective agency" albeit a funny sort of detective agency where she sets interesting conditions on her agreement to assist the people who come to her for help.

So, in Birds of a Feather, the daughter of a very wealthy man disappears, and he hires Maisie to find her and bring her home. As Maisie attempts to locate Charlotte, she finds a disturbing connection to a brutal murder that is being investigated by the Murder Squad.

The story is well-written. I realized who the killer was long before I figured out why, and before I figured out the significance of the title. The author uses a fascinating historical footnote to provide the motive for the murder. I don't want to spoil this book for the readers, but I will say that I was sufficiently intrigued that I did some internet searches and discovered that, in fact, the group from which Jacqueline Winspear drew her title, did indeed exist.

All together, an absorbing read.

Birds of a Feather by Jacqueline Winspear is the second book in a series featuring the detective/psychologist Maisie Dobbs. And like the first book, simply called Maisie Dobbs, readers once again will be intrigued by both the characters in this book and the way Maisie solves the mystery.

Birds of a Father was more mystery than the first book which was used to introduce the characters and their backgrounds. While there was a thinly veiled mystery Birds of a Feather will surely captivate readers as the mystery angle of this book gets better and better as readers turn the pages.

Maisie and her business associate Billy Beale are hired by Mr. Wait to find his daughter Charlotte. Mr Wait, a wealthy store owner, further explains that Charlotte has done this before but this time she also broke off her engagement. After meeting with one of Charlotte's friends, early leads send Maisie to a convent where Charlotte might be living and protected by the nuns. Then Maisie learns that the friend of Charlotte's she's just spoke to had been killed and she's not the only one. It seems as though two other friends of Charlotte and all women who wee friends at one time are now dead under very suspicious circumstances. What did these four women have in common? And what does a small object found next to the nurses have to do with these crimes. Does a plaque in Mr. Waite's store to fallen men who served in WW I and worked for him hold a key to the murders, And most of all is the killer looking for Charlotte next?

As we read this book and consider who did it, one can't help but enjoy characters from the first book which include Maurice Blanche, Maisie's mentor and former employer, Lady Rowan, the wealthy woman Maisie worked for and helped Maisie further her education, and Maisie's devoted father Frankie. There is also a poignant part devoted how Maisie along with others help her business partner finally heal from his war injuries.

This book was a wonderful second book in what I surely hope will be a long series. One can't help but feel they are right on the streets of London so well does the author describe the city and also the country estate of Lady Jane. In addition there are wonderful descriptions of the clothes Maisie wears so we have a clear picture of the English fashion world in the 1930s.

I have thoroughly enjoyed both of these books and once again must thank a friend for suggesting them to me. Now I in turn suggest them to mystery and non-mystery readers alike. I can't wait for the next book in this series. Hope if to won't be too long before it is published. Until then I can always reread both of these intriguing historcial mysteries.

This is one of the few mystery novels whose ending sent chills up my spine. I look forward to the next installment of the Maisie Dobbs saga.

BIRDS OF A FEATHER, Jacqueline Winspear's second book in the Maisie Dobbs series is much better than her first book which was the best mystery I'd read in a while. In fact this second book is a masterpiece and an Anglophile's dream come true. As I was reading the book I thought to myself, Dorothy Sayers has been reincarnated and she has come back as Jacqueline Winspear. I read history as well as mysteries, particularly the history of England, and am fascinated with the early 20th Century.

Winspear includes a great deal of relevant historical information in her novels which makes me feel as if I am on a tour of England with a guide who knows her way around and can share all sorts of anecdotal information you will hear no where else. Her story is set the early 1930s and by default includes the late teens and 1920s as it covers the Great War and it's aftermath in retrospect. This period, as many readers know is approximately the period Dorothy Sayers covered in her masterpieces involving Lord Peter Wimsey who fought in France and was saved by Bunter the man who became his valet and chauffeur.

Time period and an appreciation of history are not the only similarities between these two authors. Winspear writes a complex and satisfying tale that involves a plot filled with verismilitude and characters so real you will swear she must be writing nonfiction. Maisie Dobbs is a woman you would like to know better and come to care a great deal about, just as Harriet Vanes was that woman, and although the two come from different class backgrounds they are both difficult to get to know because they carry the pain of having suffered personal tragedy involving a financé.

But Maisie Dobbs is far more complex than Harriet Vanes. Maisie had a tutor who taught her about aspects of the world Harriet never knew or understood. While Harriet (ala Sayers) sulked about the things that were not available to her as a female member of Virginia Woolfe's class, Maisie went out and made her way in the world, acquiring the education that did not come her way naturally as a female member of the `Downstairs' class.

Because she straddles two words-upstairs and downstairs-like Sherlock Holmes who disguised himself and went out and mixed with the common folk, Maisie has complex insights about the world around her. She recognizes the hard truth that many people suffer and that social justice is not available for all.

While you will probably enjoy this book, you won't like the 'birds of a feather' who ruined many lives and who are -- as one character observes -- a band of harpies. If you haven't read MAISIE DOBBS, read that book first and get to know Maisie before you tackle this book. You are in for a treat. May Winspear keep this character around for a long, long while.

If you're interested in reading a book where every character is a flaming stereotype, this is your cup of tea.

We have everything--the incapacitated lover, the crusty old dad, the Cockney employee with his wife and little nippers, the royal benefactress and the scholarly mentor. Maisie Dobbs, self-styled psychologist, meditation expert, investigator, and all-around know-it-all, has been hired to find the daughter of a successful London merchant.

Along the way, she manages to diagnose and solve her employee's little substance abuse problem, come to a new and enlightened understanding of her relationship with her father, share with us the quaint religious customs of "Dame Constance", and solve three murders! And all without eating anything!

If I've missed the point and this was written completely tongue-in-cheek, I'd have to give it a 5...Otherwise, give it a miss.

I was taken with Maisie Dobbs, the first book in this new series, not so much as a mystery novel but as a portrait of England, especially London, at the end of the 1920s and the lingering effects of the Great War on the survivors of that generation. Maisie is a sort of combination consulting detective, practical psychologist, and freelance social worker. She takes a holistic approach to her cases, insisting that everything, including all personal relationships, be wrapped up to her own satisfaction, not merely to the client's. Her methods often are what we would think of as New Age, and one almost expects her to begin quoting from Madame Blavatsky -- a part of her personality I could do without, frankly. This time, Maisie's looking for the thirty-year-old daughter of a grocery store magnate who has fled her father's mansion, and not for the first time. She eventually locates the young woman, who has sought refuge both from her father and from her own past, but she also comes to realize that the case is connected to a recent murder and another death which appears to be a suicide. And then a third woman dies gruesomely, and Maisie must protect her subject, who might be next on the killer's list. Again, it all goes back to the War, this time focusing on the "White Feather" girls, whose thoughtless pseudo-patriotism brought grief to many families, including that of Maisie's client, and also of her assistant, Billie Beale. There's more "mystery" in this installment than in the first book, but Maisie still grates a bit. She's awfully goody-goody and I suspect trying to be friends with her could be a trial. Still, I'll be looking forward to Winspear's next effort.

It is more than fifteen years after the Great War ended and England is recovering even though the depression makes the division between the classes more noticeable. Masie Dobbs was lucky to find a patron who funded her studies in nursing and psychology. She served as a nurse in France where she was injured and her great love Simon came back from the war in a catatonic state that has not lifted since his return. Masie works as a private investigator, who uses meditation as a way of opening up her senses to the world around her. Although her methods of combining investigation with psychology are unusual, it always works.

Rich supermarket magnate Joseph Waite hires Masie to find his daughter Charlotte who has a habit of running away from home even if she is thirty-seven years of age. Masie deduces that she left the day she saw in the newspaper that one of her old friends from boarding school was murdered. Two more of Charlotte's former friends die and a white feather is found on or near each murder victim. Masie must find a way to keep Charlotte safe and bait a trap to catch the killer.

Readers will thoroughly enjoy this delightful and charming mystery and find themselves interested in the historical details of England between the wars. The protagonist is not a radical feminist but an independent person who believes that she is as capable as any man in her chosen profession. Although she has known much sorrow, she is a kind-hearted and generous person who cares about people, especially those who are suffering the aftereffects of WWI. BIRDS OF A FEATHER will definitely appeal to fans of great mysteries.

Harriet Klausner

Another delightful Maisie Dobbs mystery from Winspear. Set in between the two world wars, Dobbs is perhaps the epitome of do-gooder investigators and gives mighty good book with enough detail that the setting comes alive as do the circumstances of her interesting characters. An entertaining read, indeed.