Maisie Dobbs is one of the freshest female characters I've discovered in the last decade, and ironically, her adventures are set in post World War I in England. Jacqueline Winspear has done painstaking research and created a rich, believeable world full of wonderful characters--with a few not so wonderful thrown in for good measure.
The latest story in the series, The Mapping of Love and Death (2010) is another outstanding read. I've remarked before on the substance behind each Maisie Dobbs tale: while they are set in a very different time span, there are remarkable parallels to our world today.
Maisie's world is coping with the aftermath of war, and the ravages of war in the lives of the soldiers who returned, the families of those who lost loved ones, and the overall sense of trying to return to normal while grieving. It is also a world filled with economic hard times, uncertainty, recession, and poverty.
As the story opens, it is 1932 and Maisie has now established herself as a private investigator--and more. She brings a deeply psychological approach to her work, and assisted by Billy, a WWI veteran who works with her, has had many successes. A wealthy American couple contact Maisie with a puzzle; the body of their son has just been uncovered in France, where he served with his Unit of mapmakers. Among his personal possessions were some love letters and documents; they want to find the person who wrote those letters. And so, the hunt begins.
This is another engrossing story, with several plot lines. Many of the characters introduced in earlier books are back: Maisie's dear friend Priscilla, her father, her mentor Maurice, and Lord and Lady Compton, once her employers and later her benefactors.
You can find The Mapping of Love and Death on the New Fiction bookshelf at the Waterloo Public Library.
You may also want to look at the author's website, which is fascinating and has more information about the series, the background/historical aspects, and the characters.
http://www.jacquelinewinspear.com/mapping-love-death.php
c Waterloo Public Library 2009
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