Maisie Dobbs

I thought I'd add a little, once in a while, book feature to my blog. I
am going to school to become a librarian, so I might as well add books
to the mix of never ending hobbies at dontcallmebecky, right?

I recently finished
reading five books in the Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear. I
came across the first book, Maisie Dobbs, a few years ago at a used
book store and was immediately drawn to the cover. (I believe that was
in my vintage travel poster loving phase). Having grown up reading
mysteries as comfort books (Bobsey Twins, Nancy Drew, Boxcar Children),
I was excited to find a non-gory, non-thriller adult mystery series to
try. One nice feature about the series is that she introduces character
and plot information in each subsequent book very minimally. I've often
read serial books that spend at least a chapter recapping previous
books in the series, so it was nice to just have a few flashback
sentences here and there.

The books are set in post World War I England and Maisie Dobbs,
psychologist and investigator, is a new style of detective who uses
body language, astute interviewing techniques and her acute sense of
deduction to solve crimes. These are cute, mostly light, quick reads,
but they have a lot of information about WWI and various lifestyle
facts from the 30's that make them interesting. If you're like me and
were a Nancy Drew fan in your earlier years, you'll probably find these
books to be just as entertaining. And, for you fiber fans out there,
Maisie learns how to spin, die and weave tapestries in An Incomplete
Revenge.

Here's the complete list in the series:
Maisie Dobbs 2003
Birds of a Feather 2004
Pardonable Lies 2005
Messenger of Truth 2006
An Incomplete Revenge 2008

Winspear has a new addition to the series, Among the Mad, that is due out in 2009.