Maisie Dobbs book review

Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear
Series: Maisie Dobbs #1
Published by Penguin on May 25, 2004
Pages: 309
Goodreads

Maisie Dobbs isn’t just any young housemaid. Through her own natural intelligence—and the patronage of her benevolent employers—she works her way into college at Cambridge. When World War I breaks out, Maisie goes to the front as a nurse. It is there that she learns that coincidences are meaningful and the truth elusive. After the War, Maisie sets up on her own as a private investigator. But her very first assignment, seemingly an ordinary infidelity case, soon reveals a much deeper, darker web of secrets, which will force Maisie to revisit the horrors of the Great War and the love she left behind.

I will just say I wasn’t expecting to love Maisie Dobbs as much as I did. I knew that there would be part of the story surrounding the Great War but I wasn’t expecting it to make me as emotional as it did. Although I knew that there was going to be a mystery but I was surprised by how little that actually played a part in the book and how much emphasis there was on her as a nurse and also her life previous. I think that although I enjoyed learning about her past it was definitely the slower part of the book and I struggled a little bit with that. I wasn’t sure where the relevance was going to come in, and I’m still not sure it was all relevant.

We obviously follow the main character, Maisie Dobbs, as she starts her new investigating business and deals with the aftermath of the Great War. She is the perfect heroine, strong and independent but still with the same level os self-doubt to be realistic. I loved hearing about how she went about solving everything, it definitely reminds me of Sherlock Holmes but I could move past that because her methods were quite interesting. I do think that the ways she went about things were a little off, and I was a little concerned about the way she was speaking to her clients but overall she was an enjoyable character to read and learn about.

If I’m completely honest the best bit of Maisie Dobbs would definitely have to be the flashback, I felt as though we learnt a lot about her as a character and also the world she grew up in. I will say the most interesting part to me was when she left service and joined the army. I thought the way that the information was presented, without flowery language but almost matter of fact made more of an impression than if I had been drowned in words. It was this that made me emotional, hearing the facts of what they were going through without having to bolster it with unnecessary commentary.

I definitely think the worst bit of Maisie Dobbs for me would have to be the earlier parts of the flashback. I think it was a little repetitive and dull. I didn’t really learn anything about her as a character and the information that we did learn could have been sprinkled throughout the story in a better way. It just felt a little disconnected from the rest of the story!

I would definitely recommend Maisie Dobbs, the story blew me away in ways that I wasn’t entirely sure I was ready for. I have already borrowed the second one and put it on my February TBR. I think I might have gained a small obsession, I mean what’s new!

What book have you read that has completely blown you away when you weren’t expecting it? Let me know what it was and why in the comments!