Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Among the Mad

Among the Mad (Maisie Dobbs Novels) Among the Mad by Jacqueline Winspear

Book 1 of 10 for the Orbis Terrarum Challenge (England)
Book 26 of 100 for the 100+ Reading Challenge
Book 13 of 25 for the Support Your Local Library Challenge

rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the sixth book in the Maisie Dobbs series. Jacqueline Winspear writes lovely post-WWI mysteries set in London. In this installment, Maisie teams up with Scotland Yard to find a mentally unstable man who wants to punish the government for ignoring the needs of veterans in the post-war society. The man is highly dangerous and kills helpless animals to demonstrate his chemical warfare capabilities. The other men working on the case doubt Maisie's unorthodox methods, but Maisie knows that time is short before something catastrophic happens, and she will not rest.

Winspear's characters are so likeable, even with their flaws. Maisie herself is still coming to terms with her place in society as a working single woman from a working class background. This book deals with inner turmoil of the mind--specifically that of Maisie, her best friend Priscilla, and the wife of her employee, Doreen Beale, and of course, the killer's mind. This mystery actually creeped me out a little more than her others have, but I was riveted.

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6 comments:

bermudaonion said...

I love strong female characters like Maisie. This series sounds great. Thanks for the review.

Luanne said...

I enjoy this series as well, but I've only ever listened to it. The reader has a lovely English accent and brings Maisie to life for me. Can't wait to 'read' this one.

Hedgie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Hedgie said...

(Let's try this again without the gross grammatical error.)

Thanks for reviewing this. I have seen this series on the bookstore shelves and have been interested in it, but haven't gotten around to purchasing or reading any of the volumes of it as yet. Too many books, too little time . . . .

Eva @ One Swede Read said...

I'd never heard of this series before, but it looks great. And I saw somewhere that it has been described as "part Dorothy Sayers, and part Upstairs, Downstairs" and now I'm sold. Thanks for the heads-up!!

/Eva - fellow OT-er

Jill said...

I love this series, and I'm very much looking forward to reading this one, now that I've read all the others. I'm glad you enjoyed it!