A Lesson in Secrets

I really wanted to like this series, but at Book 8 – A Lesson In Secrets – I gave up. I’ve read every Agatha Christie novel, every Miss Fisher’s Detective Series, and a lot of Josephine Tey. I watch Poirot and Miss Fisher and Foyle’s War, etc. I loove the genre, particularly when it covers Europe 1920s-1940s. So when I came across Jacqueline Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs series, I was super excited.

But the first few books made me wonder if the stakes were ever going to be raised on Maisie, or if every book would end kind of like, “…well, so what?” The review of these books as “less who-dunnit and more why-dunnit” is apt, but when you have a mystery series based on psychology, where the twists and turns are not the evidence/mistake/reveal, but more “now I understand why…”, you better make it outrageously interesting. And Winspear does not.

(As an example, I think Miss Marple (Agatha Christie) is a character who relies entirely on psychology, and the twists and motives are fascinating – so it’s not like it hasn’t been successful in the past!)

Part of this is because I think the Maisie character herself is not very interesting. Despite her “rags to riches” background and training by her ingenious mentor Maurice, despite her experience as a nurse in the war, she remains a very straight-laced, basic character. Yes, she’s smart. I appreciate that! We need smart women characters at the head of their own households… But honestly, Maisie is just kind of boring. She’s too kind, too well-intentioned, and her “dark past” in the war is more about the suffering she experienced and witnessed, which makes her even more kind, more understanding… You get the picture.

I guess it’s not fair to compare this series to Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries. Because Maisie is no Miss Fisher – the nuances of righteous justice, sexuality, women’s lib, and just plain adventurous fun are missing from Maisie Dobbs’ books. Maisie is too sincere, if that makes sense. She’s like the girl you went to school with who was so nice you never knew how to be her friend, because if you made a joke, it might break her.

But if you’re not asking for that all of that, then here’s another reason why I had a hard time with this book (no spoilers):

In “A Lesson In Secrets”, Maisie narrows down the murder suspects about halfway through the book. So you have about 2-3 possible murderers that you’re milling over in your mind. When the final reveal takes place, you’re not really surprised, simply because you’ve been given a list of suspects and that doesn’t change. The revealed motive is lackluster, too.

Another plot-line is that Maisie is sent by the secret service to a university to try and find anyone who might be engaging in activity “against the interests of the Crown.” Ok – cool! Spy stuff! I can get into this. But Maisie reports from the very beginning that there’s a group of British Nazi sympathizers. The secret service’s response? “We’re not too worried about them.” So the rest of novel, Maisie is trying to prove the secret service that they should be worried.

These are the two major plots of the book, the first reveal totally anticlimactic, and the second reveal (“oh hey, maybe these Nazis are bad!”) is just way too obvious.

There’s little satisfaction in a murder mystery where you know the main character is right from the beginning, and she just has to convince everyone else to come around to her side.

This review sounds super negative, but I don’t hate this series. It’s just ok. Like I said, I gave it 8 books, and I just don’t find them interesting. I hope my criticisms will be helpful to those who like Miss Fisher, Poirot, Marple, and other amazing 20th century sleuths. If you haven’t read them yet, go there first. In my opinion, you’ll get a better education in masterful mystery writing, and learn to expect more from your detectives!

Sorry Maisie, I wish it wasn’t like this :/

This book is a good story of murder and revenge. The heroine is Maisie Dobbs and the tale is set in the early 1930s. Maisie is a PI who is recruited by Scotland Yard to attend a new college devoted to peace in the Cambridge University system. The founder of the college is Dr. Greville Liddicote famous for his belief in pacificism following the horror of World War I. Maisie acts as a philosophy teacher at the school sending reports to Scotland Yard on activities which could prove harmful to His Majesty’s Government. She is shocked with Liddicote is found strangled to death in his comfortable office. The author of “The Peaceful Little Warriors” is dead. This children’s book became famous because of its readership of troops in the bloody trenches of France which turned young men into pacifists. The book was read by both sides. One of the teachers at the school learned his son had been executed as a deserter after his perusal of the book. Dr. Matthias Roth, formerly a German officer in the Great War, is Liddicote’s assistant who turned to pacifism following the Armistice in 1918. A secondary plot deals with the murder of Maisie’s friend Sandra’s husband Eric while working at a car dealership. The novel is good at drawing the mood of Great Britain in the 1930s as the threat of Fascism reared its ugly head in Germany. Two of the British characters in story are Nazis. We also are made privy to the love affair between Maisie and the wealthy James
Compton who runs a large company and was a flying ace in World War I. A quiet book where the violence occurs offstage. Enjoy!

My favorite mystery writer is Louise Penny, but I heard so much about Maisie Dobbs mysteries that I had to try one. I found it enjoyable, but it wasn’t a page turner. Unlike Penny’s books, I could have put it down for a few days or even a week. On the plus side, Maisie Dobbs was a very unconventional woman for the 1930s. She was a strong willed, hard working, intelligent woman who had a mind of her own. She even had her own business. The book had two story lines and I thought the one involving the mechanic who was killed in the garage was just a distraction from the main story involving the murder of a college head. All in all, I thought it a good book to read while traveling or lounging on the beach.

I’ve devoured each Maisie Dobbs book in order and loved each one until now. Winspear is keeping time moving forward in the series and here, in 1933, she is introducing the looming Nazi threat as a story backdrop. Dobbs is asked by the Special Branch to take a job as an assistant philosophy instructor at a small college founded on pacifist ideals, but the government suspects there are surreptitious activities taking place that work against the Crown’s interests.

Despite this high-stakes assignment, which becomes higher stakes when the school’s dean is promptly murdered shortly after Dobbs’ arrival, I didn’t find the story compelling until at least three-quarters of the way through. Much time was spent discussing Dobbs’ philosophy classes, and for the first time, the characters she sketched mostly were not interesting, at least to me. I am usually much more compelled by both the characters and the story line, but not this time. When she put all the pieces together at least, it really felt like a stretch.

However, I wasted no time in getting to the next in the series, Elegy for Eddie, which was excellent in every way. I continue to be an ardent fan of Jacqueline Winspear.

I have read this on the Kindle

This was the 8th book in the Maisie Dobbs series, while it was a Good read i didn’t think it was as good as previous ones
I think it was because she was doing work for the Secret Service
It still had the main people in it as you follow their lives
I think that the story in this one was not so smooth as in others & i think the reason that Maisie was in Cambridge didn’t gel as what she finds out the secret service seems to not be interested in so if they not taking notice of her why did they send her there i found that the subplots more interesting that what she was suppose to be looking at
All that said it was still a good read just not as good as her others

Galaxyaudiobook Member Benefit

- Able to comment

- List watched audiobooks

- List favorite audiobooks

- Bookmark will only available for Galaxyaudiobook member