Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Elegy for Eddie: A Maisie Dobbs Novel by Jacqueline Winspear

Elegy for Eddie: A Maisie Dobbs Novel by Jacqueline Winspear
Published: March 27, 2012 by HarperCollins Publishing
Source: this copy courtesy of the publisher for TLC Book Tours

In this ninth book in the Maisie Dobbs series, Maisie and her team are hired by a group of costmongers (fruit and vegetable street venders) to investigate the suspicious death of Eddie Pettit. Maise grew up in the same neighbor hood as Eddie and knew him to be a kind, gentle, if somewhat slow person who was what we would now call a horse whisperer. The police refuse to investigate what appears to be merely an accident but these men Maisie has known all of her life are convinced that Eddie's death was no accident. As Maisie and her team begin to investigate, they quickly discover that there is much more to this case than simply the death of a common man. Set in 1933, Winspear brings the behind the scenes build up to the coming Second World War right into Maisie's life as her probing leads her to question a friend and brings the press and a certain Mr. Winston Churchill into the fray.

As with The Mapping of Love and Death, Elegy for Eddie is as much about Maisie as a person as it is about her as an investigator. In this book, Maisie, who appears to have a propensity for introspection, begins to question the motives behind her acts of kindness, her feelings about her new wealth and, above all, her feelings for Viscount James Compton.

Both of the Maisie Dobbs books I've read this month, could very easily be books about Maisie and her circle of friends that happen to have a mystery included as mystery stories that happen to rely heavily on the characters involved. For me, this is both a great asset to the books and a deterrent. Any time you write a series with recurring characters you have to make a choice - will the reader absolutely need to start at the beginning if they want to know what's going on with the characters or will you figure out a way to get new readers up to speed in each book. Winspear has made the latter choice, a choice I very much appreciated when I read The Mapping of Love and Death but here I did find it to be a bit in my way as I read. Still, easy enough to skim over those bits and get on with the lives of Billy, Sandra, Priscilla, James, Frankie, and, Maisie as they move forward with their lives, loves, and difficulties.

For other opinions about this book, check out Word Lily's review, Ryan's review at Wordsmithsonia, and Leeswammes' review. Thanks to TLC Book Tours for letting me help celebrate "March is Maisie Month!"

11 comments:

  1. I loved Maisie Dobbs on audio, but haven't made time to continue with the series. When I do though, I'll need to read them in order... it may take a while to get to this one ;-)

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  2. As I've said before, I do think I gave up on this series too early, and I am thinking about going back. It seems like there is so much here to enjoy and really get invested in, but since I only read a brief bit of the series, I feel like I am missing out. This was a very nice review, and I do think you were very truthful about how skipping books in the series could make for confusing results.

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  3. I'm just going to be diving into this series in April sometime. I checked out 2 and 3 on audio so we'll see how it goes!

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  4. I just finished the first one and almost put it down about 1/4 of the way in - her education at Rowena's didn't hold my interest - but I ended up loving it. No way I can read the rest in time to see Jacqueline Winspear at my local mystery bookstore!

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  5. This wasn't my favoarite one, but I liked it enough to want to read the next book in the series. Hopefully Maisie will have calmed down by then.

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  6. Great review. And I love the "second opinions" you added. :)

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  7. Great review. And I love the "second opinions" you added. :)

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  8. Nice review! And I love the "second opinions" you added too!

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  9. I can't wait to read this book, but I put it aside so I can go back to the beginning and read the rest of them in order, as I started with the 8th book. ;)

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  10. I wish that Maisie Dobbs wasn't a series. I'm TERRIBLE at reading series but I'm so interested in these books! maybe my library has them on audio...

    I think this is what holds me up with series: "will the reader absolutely need to start at the beginning if they want to know what's going on with the characters or will you figure out a way to get new readers up to speed in each book" Just so daunting when there's SO many books to read (and one is compulsive and must start at the beginning).

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