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BOOK
ILLUMINATIONS
From Merrimon Book Reviews
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A Lesson In Secrets
by Jacqueline
Winspear
Transitional
book with ingenious mystery
As
the storms of World War II arise on the horizon, the life of Maisie
Dobbs takes on a new direction. The British Secret Service
enlists her undercover help working as a professor in a school in
Cambridge, a school whose curriculum might hide dangerous political
leanings for the new times. During World War I, the government
tried to suppress the pacifist children's book The Peaceful Little Warriors by
Greville Liddicote. Now that Liddicote has founded the College of
St. Francis in Cambridge, the government wants to know if there is any
connection to the National Socialist German Workers Party. When
Liddicote is murdered, Maisie Dobbs uses her investigative skills to
find out the truth. How is Liddicote's murder tied to the
faculty and students? How does the past influence the current day?
In A LESSON IN SECRETS, Jacqueline Winspear moves the time frame of her
series forward, from the initial post WWI period to as time when WWII
is on the horizon. Maisie herself has changed as well. Her
investigative agency is now successful and inheritance has moved her
from the ranks of a working girl to that of a woman with more
independence and financial means of her own. A LESSON IN SECRETS
is a necessary step to move the protagonist forward chronologically
into the period where readers presume future books in the series will
be placed. While series fans will want books to cover the
transition, A LESSON IN SECRETS is a big jump ahead, not so much in
time as in Maisie Dobbs' character development. Some readers,
myself included, would perhaps have enjoyed a more subtle
transition. In addition, Maisie Dobbs' enlistment with the Secret
Service is a bit abrupt to be as believable as it might have been. Such
a placement does allow intriguing insights into the class and academic
system and its relevance to the politics of the time. The
historical placement of the Secret Service infiltration of schools
makes the spying more acceptable perhaps as modern day readers know the
threat Hitler would pose later. Still, readers familiar with
later time periods might also find the infiltration and Maisie's
willing acceptance of it somewhat disturbing on purely philosophical
reasons, particularly because she is a character who often sees the
more subtle and yet timeless connections and meanings of psychology and
philosophy. Jacqueline Winspear takes the reader right into the
historical period so that readers can put away the present while
reading the story, and yet, the questions somehow linger.
A LESSON IN SECRETS is an ingenious, fascinating historical mystery, a
mystery that takes readers into the past as well into the heart.
It is in the mystery itself and Maisie Dobbs' unique investigative
skills that fans will most recognize the Maisie Dobbs that they have
grown to love. Like previous Maisie Dobbs novels, A LESSON
IN SECRETS is perfect choice for the reader who
wants a little bit of everything --- the puzzle of a mystery, the
insights into the past, psychological or some sense of spiritual depth
all bound together with a bit of the richness of literary
fiction. Jacqueline Winspear takes readers into the past and,
through Maisie Dobbs, takes readers into the hearts and pasts of her
characters. The multi-dimensional aspect of the past within a
historical novel adds a special delight for historical fiction
lovers. As a transition book, fans might have wished more, and
yet, the mystery itself makes the book worth every page. As the
eighth book in the series, A LESSON IN SECRETS can be read as a
stand-alone by readers new to the series because the character has
changed considerably, but I would recommend that those new to the
series also investigate the early Maisie Dobbs mysteries.
While this is not my favorite book in the series in terms of the
character development between books, the mystery alone excites this
reader with its intriguing path to resolution. Despite
this book not being my favorite in the series, this long time Maisie
Dobbs fan is eagerly looking forward
to future directions in subsequent Maisie Dobbs novels! The
Maisie Dobbs mysteries, this one included, just have both the mystery
and the historical detail to fascinate a reader.
Publisher:
Harper (March 22, 2011)
A Maisie Dobbs Mystery
Author
website
Reviewed by Merrimon,
Merrimon Book Reviews
Courtesy of Amazon Vine
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