Journey to Munich: A Maisie Dobbs Novel

by Jacqueline Winspear

Paperback, 2017

Call number

MYST WIN

Collection

Genres

Publication

Harper Perennial (2017), Edition: Reprint, 320 pages

Description

Fiction. Mystery. Historical Fiction. HTML: Working with the British Secret Service on an undercover mission, Maisie Dobbs is sent to Hitler's Germany in this thrilling tale of danger and intrigueâ??the twelfth novel in Jacqueline Winspear's New York Times bestselling "series that seems to get better with each entry" (Wall Street Journal). It's early 1938, and Maisie Dobbs is back in England. On a fine yet chilly morning, as she walks towards Fitzroy Squareâ??a place of many memoriesâ??she is intercepted by Brian Huntley and Robert MacFarlane of the Secret Service. The German government has agreed to release a British subject from prison, but only if he is handed over to a family member. Because the man's wife is bedridden and his daughter has been killed in an accident, the Secret Service wants Maisieâ??who bears a striking resemblance to the daughterâ??to retrieve the man from Dachau, on the outskirts of Munich. The British government is not alone in its interest in Maisie's travel plans. Her nemesisâ??the man she holds responsible for her husband's deathâ??has learned of her journey, and is also desperate for her help. Traveling into the heart of Nazi Germany, Maisie encounters unexpected dangersâ??and finds herself questioning whether it's time to return to the work she loved. But the Secret Service may have… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member lit_chick
2016, Harper Collins, Read by Orlagh Cassidy

Publisher’s Summary: adapted from Audible.com
It's early 1938 when Maisie is intercepted by Brian Huntley and Robert MacFarlane of the British Secret Service and sent to Hitler's Germany on an undercover mission. The German government has agreed to
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release a British subject from prison, but only if he is handed over to a family member. Because the man's wife is bedridden and his daughter has been killed in an accident, the Secret Service wants Maisie – who bears a striking resemblance to the daughter – to retrieve the man from Dachau, on the outskirts of Munich.

My Review:
Knowing the inimitable relationship Maisie had with her mentor, Dr Maurice Blanche – and knowing the confidence he had in her abilities – it is gratifying to witness her being called to serve in his place. Before Blanche died, he told Maisie she would be called upon, and so she is, in Journey to Munich. Trouble is, it is not only the British Secret Service that is interested in Maisie’s travel plans. Her nemesis, Canadian newspaper magnate John Otterburn – the man she holds responsible for James’ death – is desperate and has asked her for help. Otterburn’s selfish, spoiled, daughter, Elaine – who was to have piloted the fatal test flight James took – has deserted her husband and infant, and he believes her to be in Munich.

Winspear nails the thrill of danger and intrigue in Journey to Munich. And Orlagh Cassidy is just the one to narrate the tale. When I started the Maisie Dobbs series, this twelve installment was the last available novel, and I presumed incorrectly it would be the finale. Its ending is highly satisfying – and it surely would have worked very well as a conclusion. That said, I’m thrilled to learn that a thirteenth novel will be available in Canada in spring 2017: In This Grave Hour –’ll be waiting!
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LibraryThing member readafew
Journey to Munich is the 12th book in the Maisie Dobbs series and the first one I have read. I will say that I think knowing more about her past before reading this book would be a good idea. So much of her past seemed to be affecting her throughout this book and we only know what she tells us as
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the story goes on. I found myself getting different events of her past mixed up because they were similar to each other and it confused me a few times.

Maisie Dobbs has just come home recently from being on a ‘sabbatical’ of sorts. Her husband had died in an accident and the shock had caused her to miscarry their first child. So she went to lose herself. Which she did. Only recently finding herself again, to come back home.

Turns out some people from her past have a large favor to ask her. There is a man of great import currently stuck in Dachau, and the British government want him back. The Nazi’s have agreed but require a family member to show up to claim him. Since the man’s wife had recently died and his only child was dying from consumption, it made it difficult. But Maisie looked very similar to the man’s daughter, had some spy training and was known to the men in charge of getting the man back. She was the perfect candidate.

After spending the better part of a week in immersive training for the mission Maisie is given her final briefing, her documents and sent on her way. When she arrives she is met by an embassy man who is to help guide her through the Nazi bureaucracy in trying to reclaim her ‘father’. On top of this, the family responsible for the death of her husband asked her to try and convince their prodigal daughter to come home. Of course none of it goes as smoothly as planned.
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LibraryThing member Virginia51
This has been my favorite Maisie Dobbs novel in a while. She was more like her old self. Losing her child and husband was very sad but she needed to be more like her old self. It was nice to revisit all the old characters from other novels. She does a wonderful job in Germany as a spy. That would
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have been such a scary time. I look forward to many more Maisie Dobbs novels again. I received an ebook copy of this through eidelweiss for a fair and honest opinion.
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LibraryThing member Twink
I read the first book in Jacqueline Winspear's wonderful Maisie Dobbs series back in 2003 - and was promptly hooked. The latest entry (#12) - Journey to Munich - is newly released.

Maisie has been many things - housemaid, student, nurse, psychologist, private investigator and an agent for the
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British Secret Service. Maisie is such a wonderfully drawn character - her intellect, determination, courage, kindness, loyalty and stalwartness have all endeared her to me. Winspear has moved Maisie's personal life along from that first book - although not always in a direction I wanted - and I have happily followed along.

But I also appreciate Winspear's plotting. She draws on historical fact, social mores and customs of the time periods and mixes in an always intriguing mystery.

The series began in the years of WW1 and Journey to Munich finds us on the cusp of WWII. A British citizen has been held captive for two years in Dachau. The Germans have agreed to his release - but only to a family member. Maisie is sent in to facilitate that release, appearing as the man's daughter. I found the impetus for this plotline fascinating....

"Journey to Munich was inspired by a story told by my mother of a man she worked for in 1944, when she was seventeen years old.......told her that before the war he had been set free from a German concentration camp into the hands of the British government after they had paid for his release."

A secondary plotline involving someone from Maisie's recent past tests her personally. There were a few plot points that thought were a bit unrealistic, but they didn't detract from my overall enjoyment of the book.

Winspear does a fantastic job of bringing time and place to life - the months just before all out war is declared again and the danger that was Nazi Germany.

And the ending is just perfect - I can't wait for the next installment in this series. Although this book could be read as a stand alone, I recommend starting with the first book.
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LibraryThing member Kathy89
Maisie Dobbs is one of my favorite series and in this book she's ready to start living again after the loss of her husband and unborn baby. Old friend, Robbie MacFarlane offers her an assignment to go to Germany as the daughter of Leon Donat to secure his release from Dachau prison. Some unexpected
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circumstances made things more complicated than she expected and the introduction of the arrogant Mark, American spy, will most likely be involved in Maisie’s life going forward.
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LibraryThing member cfk
Maisie accepts an assignment posing as the daughter of a prisoner held at Dachau by the Third Reich. Leon Donat is to be released and returned to England, where he is highly valued for his inventive and creative mind--a useful tool for the anticipated clash with Germany.
LibraryThing member Lindz2012
What a journey this book takes you on. This book takes you back to WW2 a bit and Nazi time. What will happen to Massie Dobbs? The story gets even better as you read.

Why is everything a secret? They need to get a British man home from Munch. Will that happen? Massie got to go to Germany as a family
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member of the man who being held by Hitler.

Massie needs to be careful and Also protected. Will she return back home safe or will she be caught?

Jacqueline Winspear has become one of my favorite authors with the first book that I got to review. I will be looking for more of her books. I love to finish off the rest of the books in this series. She captured my attention the min you start reading. It takes a bit before getting to the story of a book. She gives a little background about Massie Dobbs from the earlier book and continues on in this book.
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LibraryThing member hemlokgang
Not my favorite in this wonderful series. It fell a bit flat. Maisie is tasked with transporting an important person out of pre-WWII Munich. The suspense felt muffled and restrained. I look forward to the next one.
LibraryThing member etxgardener
This is the 12th installment in the Maisie Dobbs series that, after the last disastrous novel, I had almost decided to give up. However, since I've loved this series for so lang, I decided to give it one more chance, and this installment was considerably better.

It is 1938 and Maisie, now back from
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Spain, has decided that she needs to reenter into life instead of perpetually mourning her dead husband, James. She begins looking for a new apartment and also reesatablishing herself as a professional detective, wen she is approached by her old pals from MI-6, Brian Huntley and Robert MacFrland to help retrieve an important member of the British scientific community who is being held by the Nazis in Germany. Additionally, her old nemesis, John Otterburn, learns of her mission and implores her to help track down his wayward daughter and to bring her home.

Against her better judgement, Maisie agrees and soon finds herself in the thick of Nazi Germany., Masie is still a prig and far too self-punishing for my taste and alo shows her usual penchant for not following orders which, I would think, would be fatal in a secret agent, but this would seem to be the path that the author has now set out for her - at least until the books come to the end of the war. There also sems to be an interesting American, Mark Scott, who is in the fledgling American intelligent services who will be playing a role in future books. He's smart & a bit of a wise as and seems to have Maisie's number. Let's hope he provides some future leavening to her otherwise buttoned-up life.
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LibraryThing member BooksCooksLooks
I must admit that I had lost faith in Maisie. The last few books gave me a heroine that was at a far remove from the smart, direct woman I had met in the first book I had read. In this book Maisie leaves Spain where she had gone to deal with the traumas she had suffered in A Dangerous Place. I
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don’t want to offer too much in the way of plot for those who have not read the previous book. This book can stand alone as the author does weave in the pertinent information to inform the reader of past events in such a way that you are educated without feeling like you are being force fed a long list of details.

Maisie returns to England to face the ghosts of her past. She is not anxious to go back to her childhood home, nor does she want to spend time with her in laws. She opts to temporarily move in with her old friend Priscilla and that is just what she needs. Although her peaceful stay does not last long as she is approached to handle a sensitive mission to Germany for her country. As much as she doesn’t want to do it she knows she will and in a way knows it’s what she needs to get her out of her funk.

As Maisie pursues her assignment she soon learns that all is not as it seems and she was not told everything she really needed to know. Thrown into the mix is the request of her husband’s former employer who wants her to find his daughter who has disappeared somewhere in Germany. All of this takes place just as Hitler moves into Austria and the Reich strengthens it’s hold on the people of the region. Maisie finds herself caught in a dangerous place once again.

I enjoyed this book. It was a return to the Maisie I first fell in love with. She has changed due to the major events she has experienced but she is back to being a smart, decisive woman. She is back in control of her life and moving forward. Unfortunately the times to come are not good as well all know from history. While the book ends with Chamberlain’s appeasement, Hitler did not pay any attention to what England or the rest of the world. Soon England will be at war and I’m sure Maisie will be elbow deep in fighting the Nazis to the best of her abilities. I’m glad she has found herself. I’ll look forward to the next book now despite my not wanting to read WWII books. This is a character I’ll follow into that second Great War.

I had a hard time putting this book down. It was full of twists, turns and spies from assorted countries all trying to deal with a very great evil.
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LibraryThing member arielfl
After the last two books that made me want to give up on the series, this was a refreshing turn around back in the right direction. Maisie is called upon by the British government to extract a man of great worth to them out of pre WWII Germany. This book seemed like a reset hopefully launching
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Maisie into a better future. Unpleasantness from her past tragedy is reconciled and beloved characters who haven't been seen for ages are finally making a comeback. The last few pages were such a delight that at long last I am actually looking forward to the next book
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LibraryThing member jamespurcell
Maisie is still sorting her life out as a young widow when she is drafted back into service for the Crown. Her task is to masquerade as a boffin's daughter to get him released from Dachau. It does not go as planned and Maisie must outwit the Nazis to rescue the very useful scientist. Good story
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that evolved from a family nugget of history. Well told with some insightful images of pre-WW2 Germany.
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LibraryThing member pennykaplan
Fast forward to 1938 and the Maisie Dobbs we first met as a young girl in service pre-WW1 is now a widow haunted by her husband's death. Now,seeking peace, she has returned to England from war-torn Spain, but is requested by the Secret Service to be an emissary to Germany on the brink of nazism.
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Lots of intrigue, mystery and details about that time. A strong entry in the Maisie Dobbs series. Maisie has come a long way!
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LibraryThing member Lindz2012
Book Tour: Journey to Munich What a journey this book takes you on. This book takes you back to WW2 a bit and Nazi time. What will happen to Maisie Dobbs? The story gets even better as you read.
 
Why is everything a secret? They need to get a British man home from Munch. Will that happen? Maisie
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got to go to Germany as a family member of the man who being held by Hitler.
 
Maisie needs to be careful and Also protected. Will she return back home safe or will she be caught?
 
Jacqueline Winspear has become one of my favorite authors with the first book that I got to review. I will be looking for more of her books. I love to finish off the rest of the books in this series.  She captured my attention the min you start reading. It takes a bit before getting to the story of a book. She gives a little background about Maisie Dobbs from the earlier book and continues on in this book.
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LibraryThing member ahaehl
Some meaningful people. Pretty good puzzle. Closes up perhaps a little too neatly.
LibraryThing member lrobe190
It's early 1938, and Maisie Dobbs is back in England. On a fine yet chilly morning, as she walks towards Fitzroy Square--a place of many memories--she is intercepted by Brian Huntley and Robert MacFarlane of the Secret Service. The German government has agreed to release a British subject from
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prison, but only if he is handed over to a family member. Because the man's wife is bedridden and his daughter has been killed in an accident, the Secret Service wants Maisie--who bears a striking resemblance to the daughter--to retrieve the man from Dachau, on the outskirts of Munich.

This is the 12th volume in the Maisie Dobbs series. You can read this book if you haven't read the previous volumes, although it gets a little confusing at times. Winspear is British and the Maisie Dobbs novels take place in Great Britain right after WWI, leading up to WWII. Maisie is extraordinary because she is a woman and a private investigator and psychologist. The reader is privy to Maisie's thought processes throughout the novel and it's fun to see how she solves the crimes. Sometimes, the books are a little slow, due to the British conventions that are followed, but once she begins working on the crime, they are fast paced and suspenseful. This book takes Maisie into the heart of Nazi Germany in 1938 and the reader can literally sense the dread pervading the characters and setting.
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LibraryThing member shazjhb
She writes good books. Like the character, like the events. Always consistent.
LibraryThing member bookchickdi
The Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear is the only series of books that I have read all the way through. When I was first introduced to the young nurse/psychologist/private investigator and her friends and colleagues in London just before WWI, I was hooked.

I have followed Maisie and
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company, with all their ups and downs and truly feel like they are friends. Each spring I look forward to catching up with everyone in Maisie's world.

When we left Maisie at the end of book 11, A Dangerous Place, she was returning home to England after a stay in Spain during their civil war. She had suffered two devastating losses and was grieving. It was a very somber and sad story, and we didn't see many of Maisie's friends and family.

Book 12, Journey to Munich brings Maisie back home, trying to rebuild her life. She is living with her best friend Priscilla and Pris' family, who adore Maisie. Soon Maisie is recruited once again to help the British Secret Service.

Maisie agrees to go undercover in Munich to help bring home a British businessman who is being held prisoner by the Germans. The year is 1937 and the Nazi party is growing in power. The man is believed to be in a concentration camp, and Maisie must impersonate his daughter to rescue him.

Times are dangerous in Germany, and another world war is on the horizon. Memories of the horrors of WWI remain in Maisie's mind, and she fears for the future of Europe.

Maisie has also agreed to help find the daughter of another powerful man in England, to convince her to come home. She has a connection to this young lady, one that she would rather forget, yet she agrees to try.

Journey to Munich is a strong entry in the Maisie Dobbs series. Maisie has gone through so much, it's good to see her back on her feet and trying to move her life forward. The storyline is interesting, and as always, Winspear has done her research into what life was like at that time, in that place.

We get to see more of the gang- Pris, Sandra and my favorite Billy- and the end of the book the readers are rewarded with the possibility that Maisie and company will be back together working to solve cases.

As England moves closer to war once again, I expect that the next books in the series will deal with this. England lost so many young men in WWI, an entire generation, that the prospect of going through that again is a frightening one.

Maisie Dobbs is an incredibly strong literary heroine, and these books are great reads for young women and for anyone who enjoys historical mysteries. For a woman in her era to do the things that Maisie does with such strength, compassion and intelligence is a wonderful example for girls. She has her flaws too, and that makes her human.

I give Journey to Munich my highest recommendation and it is one of the best books in the series.
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LibraryThing member sleahey
This latest adventure of Maisie Dobbs is set primarily in Munich in 1938, describing the horrors already imposed by Hitler and the Nazis leading up to World War II. Maisie impersonates the daughter of a man valued by England for his possible contributions to wartime science who had been sent to
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Dachau by the Germans. Still grieving the death of her husband, Maisie has spent time in India and Spain prior to this story, but a melancholia seems to pervade her mood, even as she responds with her usual quick thinking and wits to the dangers she encounters in her attempt to bring this gentleman home to England for the Secret Service. The personalities involved are complex and interesting, and add to the reader's suspense and commitment to hurrying to the ending to find out how the situation is resolved.
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LibraryThing member wyvernfriend
It's 1938 and Maisie is back in London, trying to see what she's going to do with her life now. She's still somewhat distraut by the death of her husband and child and is trying to see what her future has in store for her when the Foreign Service interrupts her with a mission. An important inventor
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and businessman has been detained in Dachau Prison and the German government will only release them to a family member, but his only relative, a daughter is seriously ill in hospital. Fortunately Maisie looks a lot like her. At the same time, her husband's ex-partner wants her to search for his daughter, the person Maisie blames for his death, who is also in Munich.

She's about to embark on a tour of the beginnings of Nazism and there's a lot of commentary about it.

Interesting read, Maisie is becoming almost a James Bond type of character.
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LibraryThing member delphimo
A wonderful afternoon listening to Journey to Munich by Jacqueline Winspear. This story takes the recently widowed Maisie Dobbs to Munich in 1938 as Hitler’s regime grabs control of the economically challenged Germany. Brian Huntley and Robert MacFarlane convince Maisie that she is the only
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person who can retrieve Lean Donat from Dachau Prison Camp. Jacqueline Winspear presents a well-written story that shows the beauty of German parks, but hints at the maelstrom approaching. Maisie encounters all types of individuals in her assignment. One poignant scene has two young girls playing in a hidden alley because one girl is Catholic, and her dear friend is Jewish, and their parents do not want them playing together. The story encompasses forgiveness and understanding.
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LibraryThing member cbl_tn
Maisie Dobbs is finally back in England and considering what to do next. She is approached by old friends in the intelligence service and asked to take on an undercover mission in Nazi Germany. A man whose fate is very important to the British government has been a prisoner in Dachau for two years.
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The Germans have agreed to release the man, but only to a family member, and Maisie looks enough like the man's daughter to impersonate her. During the mission, Maisie encounters the person she blames for her husband's untimely death and the consequent loss of her unborn daughter.

For the most part, I thought this shift from detection to espionage worked better than Maisie's prior spy missions. However, it made no sense that someone as smart as Maisie would seek out an unstable person who knows her as Maisie while undertaking such a delicate mission under a different identity. She risked, not just the failure of her mission, but her own life as well as the lives of others. The series is transitioning well from post-World War I to pre-World War II, and I look forward to reading the next Maisie adventure. (Or rather, listening to the wonderful Orlagh Cassidy read the next Maisie adventure!)
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LibraryThing member tangledthread
Having returned from Spain during the Spanish Civil War, Maisie heads to Munich on a mission for the British Secret Service to bring home an aging British National who is also an inventor and entrepreneur, believed to be detained in Dauchau. The time is March 1934. Ancillary to this mission, John
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Otterburn has approached Maisie about finding his daughter, Elaine, who is also in Germany having fled her marriage and young son.

There are the usual twists, turns, drama & suspense. But all's well that ends well. Maisie returns to London and it appears that she will open up her old office.

I like this series very much. Though must admit that I've only read them as audiobooks.
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LibraryThing member cathyskye
As Maisie was told in a previous book, once you've done the British Secret Service's bidding, you're done for. They will just keep coming back no matter how many times you say no. That person was telling Maisie the truth: she keeps saying no, the Secret Service merely smirks and hands over her
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railway tickets. At least the time she spent in Spain has helped her overcome the worst of her grief, and she feels ready to re-enter her old life and be with her friends and family once more.

Being in Munich in 1938 gives Maisie a very clear picture of what is to come. It goes without saying that the Germans don't release the Englishman in a timely manner, and Maisie has to keep her composure and her cover while the Nazis play cat and mouse. This is a good, solid mystery that puts the reader right in the middle of a world that's on the brink of going completely mad, and I enjoyed it even though there are some rather large holes in a secondary plotline involving a family called the Otterburns.

I don't think Winspear is capable of writing a bad book, but I have to admit that, after reading A Dangerous Place, almost all the luster has been knocked off this series for me. This was always a series in which I bought and read each new book as soon as it came out. I was so invested in Maisie! But my feeling of being betrayed is staying with me even though I realize I'm being a bit silly. After reading Journey to Munich (which I did not buy), I am still two books behind, and I feel no urgency whatsoever to catch up. This may very well be the last book I read in this series. And now I feel as though I'm in mourning.
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LibraryThing member LisCarey
Minor spoilers ahead, but not for the main plot of this book.

Maisie Dobbs, properly Lady Compton, but she won't use it because it reminds her of what she's lost, is starting, very slowly, to recover from the loss of her husband and her unborn child. She's back in England, spending time with her
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friend Priscilla, her father Frankie, and her stepmother Brenda. Europe is sliding toward war, though, and British intelligence has a mission for her though, something they believe only can do well enough.

They need her to go to Munich, posing as the daughter of a British industrialist and "boffin" who has been imprisoned there for two years. The Germans have finally agreed to release him--but only into the custody of a family member. He has no surviving family except his daughter, and she's too ill to travel. Maisie, though, speaks French fluently and German passably, and is close enough to the daughter in appearance that she be made to pass for her, especially since Miss Donat wasn't a socially active woman when she was well.

So against her better judgment, after a few weeks of training in spycraft and learning to be Miss Donat, Maisie is off to Germany.

She encounters all the malicious bureaucracy of early Nazi Germany, but patience, persistence, and going with her experience and training finally leads to the moment when she is inside Dachau, seeing for the first time the man the Germans have imprisoned for two years as her "father," Mr. Donat.

That's when her mission goes off the rails, and becomes a mire of mystery, confusion, and intrigue.

And accomplishing her mission may force her to ally with the woman she holds responsible for her husband's death.

I think Winspear had hit a point in the Maisie Dobbs novels where, if she didn't break form, Maisie would have nothing to do that wouldn't be repetitive. Anne Perry worked through a similar problem with the Thomas & Charlotte Pitt series; eventually, Thomas's rise through the police ranks reached the point where he had to become head of the department, but doing it wouldn't be plausible for a character of his relatively lowborn origins. So Perry gave him a major change in direction.

Winspear appears to be doing something very similar here. It's true the book ends with Maisie saying she's never doing another intelligence mission, and getting her old team together in office space not far from their old office--but she seems to have very different plans, even if they haven't been articulated to the reader yet.

This Maisie is older, more hardened, more confident, and I'm looking forward to seeing where Winspear goes with her in the future.

Recommended.

I bought this book.
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Pages

320

ISBN

0062220616 / 9780062220615
Page: 0.5715 seconds