photo of the day: fireworks

reviews: an incomplete revenge and among the mad

Two more Maisie Dobbs finished: An Incomplete Revenge and Among the Mad.  In An Incomplete Revenge, Maisie is asked by James Compton to investigate some acts of vandalism on an estate in Kent that he is interested in purchasing.  Her assistant, Billy, is already heading to the area for the annual hop picking with his family.  What seems like a simple inquiry becomes more complicated as Maisie learns of yearly fires in the town – incidents that she ties to a family that were killed by a Zepplin raid during the war.  More of Maisie’s history is also brought out in this volume, as Winspear reveals that Maisie’s grandmother was a gypsy and Maisie reconnects with their culture during the course of her investigation.  The central mystery was very powerful, just as it was in Messanger in Truth, though to me, I felt those that were guilty were not punished sufficiently, and that made the ending a bit disappointing for me.

Among the Mad struck me as quite different from the other Maisie Dobbs novels I’ve read.  It begins with Maisie and Billy witnessing a desperate young man take his life just before Christmas.  A couple of days later, Maisie is brought into Scotland Yard because an anonymous letter threatening an attack mentions her name and they suspected that the letter is connected to the young man who took his life.  The letter writer wants something done for the soldiers who fought in WWI, those who are suffering in a society that doesn’t see or acknowledge them, and threatens to bring the type of chemical warfare seen in the trenches to 1930s London.  This volume of Winspear’s series very much focuses on shell shock and the difficulties faced by those trying to adjust after the war.  The dangers posed by those that feel themselves on the fringes of society and the dangers of chemical warfare had strong contemporary parallels.  The political elements of the novel seem more pronounced than in the earlier volumes, and the tone seems darker – fitting with the shift in society at that period and the darkening clouds of WWII.  While I think that a shift is necessary given the period Maisie is now living in, there was also quite a bit of darkness in terms of the personal lives of those close to Maisie (Billy and Doreen Beale and her friend Priscilla), and though Winspear has Maisie say that there is a peace and lightness and freedom in her now, I would have liked to have seen a bit more in the book that showed that to me.

photo of the day: somewhere over the rainbow…

photo of the day: little lady

photo of the day: red rose

review: messenger of truth

The Artsy Mama has fallen hook, line and sinker for Maisie Dobbs.  I can’t remember her reading a book so quickly since Harry Potter.  I quite enjoyed the first three books in Jacqueline Winspear’s series when I first read them – though I did read number two before number one and that wasn’t a wise thing to do as I missed much of Maisie’s backstory.  Somehow I left Maisie fall off the reading radar though.

Inspired by the Artsy Mama’s readings, I decided to make the fourth Maisie Dobbs book my next read.  In this volume, Maisie is asked to look into the death of Nick Bassington-Hope.  It has been deemed an accident by the police, but his twin sister, Georgina, has suspicions that it was murder rather than an accident.  Nick was an artist and he fell to his death while preparing for an exhibition of a mysterious work about the war that no one had seen.  Set against the case is the economic struggles of the period – ones that impact on Maisie’s assistant Billy very directly.

I was quite impressed with Messenger of Truth, and it is probably my favourite in the series so far.  I still find myself a bit distracted by descriptions of the way in which Maisie regulates her behaviour, but the central mystery in this one kept me very interested.  I was able to figure out the why and what quite early, though it took me a bit longer to figure out the right who.  I don’t want to give too much away, but the central moment from Nick’s past experiences that Winspear uses is both horrific and quite moving and emphasizes the pure insanity of WWI.

I think the next two in the series will be next in the TBR pile – if I can wrestle them away from the Artsy Mama that is.

photo of the day: little bee

reviews: the physick book of deliverance dane and

I finished Katherine Howe’s The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane several days ago, and I’m still not sure what I think about it.  When I read the description in the book jacket, I couldn’t resist.  It’s another one of those stories about a modern-day academic finding evidence of some historical mystery with narratives that alter between the present and the past.  I seem drawn to these, but I haven’t found many recently that are satisfying as I expect them to be.

In this case, Connie, a graduate student studying history at Harvard, is asked by her new-age mother to spend the summer living and cleaning her grandmother’s long neglected house so it can be sold.  Connie finds a Bible with a hollow key that contains a rolled up bit of parchment that says Deliverance Dane.  Her quest to discover the meaning of those words leads her into a history of witchcraft – one that connects to her own family.

As I’ve already said, Connie’s narrative in the present is interspersed with narratives from the past.  I found that it was the latter that interested me the most.  If anything, I would have preferred more glimpses into the past and less of a focus on Connie’s present.  Her journey didn’t really interest me or surprise me, and I also found the writing in those passages more jarring than the most historical tone used in the passages that narrated moments related to Deliverance Dane and her female descendants.

Next, I turned to the second novel in Andrew Pepper’s Pyke series: The Revenge of Captain Paine.  A few years have passed and former Bow Street runner Pyke has settled into his new role of banker.  A headless body is found and his assistance is requested.  That investigation leads him into the newly developing railway, the fight for workers’ rights, and to the British monarchy.

Pepper did a good job of pacing the book, though the last third had Pyke doing less and just explaining the central mysteries, and the revelation of the true evil-doers came a bit early for me.  In fact – spoiler alert – there weren’t enough characters introduced that didn’t have some role in the crimes Pyke is investigating and that would be my main problem with the narrative.

There were some twists, and I do find Pyke a really intriguing creation.  As in the first book, he is very found of taking matters into his own hands, and while it makes for a thrilling narrative, I am starting to wonder how long he can continue down this path.

photo of the day: little bee

review: the birth of venus

I decided to take a break from my recent diet of mysteries and turn to some historical fiction, but in spite of my good intentions, the opening scene of the novel introduces a mystery that isn’t resolved until the conclusion of the novel.

Durant’s The Birth of Venus is set in Florence during the Renaissance.  Alessandra Cecchi is a young girl, with a mind of her own and a yearning for freedom and a thirst for knowledge and art that conflicts with a woman’s expected role during this period.  Her father brings home a painter to work on the frescoes in her family’s chapels and Alessandra is immediately drawn to him.  Their love story takes place against the backdrop of fundamentalist monk Savonarola’s rise and fall in Florence.

The novel had a few twists and turns, but nothing that was entirely unexpected.  The sense of mystery that was built in the opening scene didn’t carry out throughout the novel, and the horrific murders that are described in the novel and which could have put the story into the thriller category didn’t seem to be as developed or as present as I expected they might be.  The characterization of Alessandra is strong and there are some interesting relationships, though the most interesting to me was the one between Alessandra and her servant, Erila.  The descriptions of religious extremism and suppression were also strong and probably the most interesting element of the novel for me.

Next up: The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane.