Jacqueline Winspear

Four fictional characters are interviewed in this profile of the adventurous sleuth, by the New York Times–bestselling author of A Sunlit Weapon.
 
The historical mystery Maisie Dobbs was first published in 2003, introducing readers to an inquisitive, young, English, working-class woman as she opens her own London detective agency following World War I. Jacqueline Winspear’s debut won her the...

"Set in Post WWII Britain in 1947, this novel follows the coming of age and maturity of former wartime operative Elinor White-veteran of two wars, trained killer, protective of her anonymity-when she is drawn back into the world of menace she has been desperate to leave behind. A reluctant ex-spy with demons of her own, Elinor finds herself facing down one of the most dangerous organized crime gangs in London, ultimately exposing corruption from Scotland...

"Maisie Dobbs got her start as a maid in an aristocratic London household when she was thirteen. Her employer, suffragette Lady Rowan Compton, soon became her patron, taking the remarkably bright youngster under her wing. Lady Rowan's friend, Maurice Blanche, often retained as an investigator by the European elite, recognized Maisie's intuitive gifts and helped her earn admission to the prestigious Girton College in Cambridge, where Maisie planned...

"After sixteen novels, Jacqueline Winspear has taken the bold step of turning to memoir, revealing the hardships and joys of her family history. Both shockingly frank and deftly restrained, her memoir tackles such difficult, poignant, and fascinating family memories as her paternal grandfather's shellshock, her mother's evacuation from London during the Blitz; her soft-spoken animal-loving father's torturous assignment to an explosives team during...

Spring 1940. With Britons facing what has become known as "the Bore War", nothing much seems to have happened yet, Maisie Dobbs is asked to investigate the disappearance of a local lad, a young apprentice craftsman working on a "hush-hush" government contract. As Maisie's inquiry reveals a possible link to the London underworld, another mother is worried about a missing son, but this time the boy in question is one beloved by Maisie.

It's Christmas Eve, 1931. On the way to see a client, Maisie Dobbs witnesses a suicide on a busy London street. The following day, the prime minister's office receives a letter threatening a massive loss of life if certain demands are not met - and the writer mentions Maisie by name. After being questioned and cleared by Detective Chief Superintendent Robert MacFarlane of Scotland Yard's elite Special Branch, she is drawn into MacFarlane's personal...

August 1914. Michael Clifton is mapping the land he has just purchased in California's beautiful Santa Ynez Valley, certain that oil lies beneath its surface. But as the young cartographer prepares to return home to Boston, war is declared in Europe. Michael-the youngest son of an expatriate Englishman-puts duty first and sails for his father's native country to serve in the British army. Three years later, he is listed among those missing in action....

Maisie Dobbs' first assignment for the British Secret Service takes her undercover to Cambridge as a professor, and leads to the investigation of a murderous web of activities being conducted by the up-and-coming Nazi party.

In 1930 London a deathbed plea from his wife leads Sir Cecil Lawton to seek the aid of Maisie Dobbs, psychologist and investigator. As Maisie soon learns, Agnes Lawton never accepted that her aviator son was killed in the Great War, a torment that led her not only to the edge of madness but to the doors of those who practice the dark arts and commune with the spirit world. In accepting the assignment, Maisie finds her spiritual strength tested, as...

In 1931 London, when artist Nick Bassington-Hope falls to his death before the opening of an exhibition of his work and police refuse to investigate, his journalist sister Georgina enlists the aid of psychologist Maisie Dobbs to uncover the truth.