Maisie Dobbs, Jacqueline Winspear
Birds of a Feather, Jacqueline Winspear
Picador Press, 2004, 2005
Jacqueline Winspear writes a mystery series set in 1930s England. Her detective is Maisie Dobbs, an independent woman who probably represents the beginning of England’s modern middle class. Maisie’s father was a costermonger who sold vegetables from a cart; when her mother died he put her into “service” because he thought she would be fed, kept warm and taken care of. The aristocratic woman who hired Maisie became her mentor, encouraging her love of learning and providing a tutor for her. When the Great War began, Maisie joined up and trained as a nurse, and she served by the side of the love of her life until a random shell took him from her.
Maisie has honed her observational and interview skills, and also her intuition. By concentrating and mimicking the posture or movements of a person, she has flashes of insight into their feelings and thoughts. This gives her an edge as an investigator.
The first book, Maisie Dobbs, focuses more on what happened to Maisie during the war than solving the actual mystery, which is fairly thin. The second book, Birds of a Feather, delves into an interesting area of British history, and addresses the power of peer pressure and propaganda. I knew that it was customary to give someone accused of cowardice a white feather. I didn’t know that during the war, before a draft was instituted, young unmarried women carried packets of feathers, and handed them out to any young men they saw who were not in uniform, making a judgment and publicly humiliating them while knowing nothing about their situations. In Birds, one young woman faces the results of her thoughtlessly cruel actions.
Winspear grew up hearing stories from her grandfather and grandmother about World War I, and she made good use of their information. Although in many ways Maisie has it far too good to be true, with an aristocratic patroness who provides a place to live and a flashy red motorcar for our sleuth, the details of day to day life ring true. The period between the two world wars is not one I’ve known much about, and so it is interesting to see that England too was in the throes of an economic depression. In each book, some aspect of the story reminds us of the social and economic devastation the war caused this small island nation.
Maisie is an engaging heroine with an interesting life dilemma as she tries to invent, or discover, herself. Her use of intuition is something different in the history-mystery field.
The books are not long, and experienced mystery readers will solve the mystery about the time Maisie does, but this does not ruin the enjoyment. These trade paperbacks also benefit from Picador’s beautiful covers with their vivid colors and heavy, textured paper that make reading one a sensuous experience as well as a cerebral one. Curl up in front of the window or the fireplace if it’s raining, with a cup of tea and one of these books. It will be time well spent.