Maisie Dobbs, psychologist and investigator, has a fairly decent workload of rather routine investigations, but when Dr. Francesca Thomas asks for Maisie’s help with a murder investigation, Maisie agrees to take on the case. Dr Thomas’ efforts during World War I have transitioned into working in the Secret Service, and Maisie has no interest in that agency whatsoever. But murder, and the prevention of more deaths, is something with which Maisie feels she can assist.
It’s not long before Maisie is looking into a series of events that extends back to the time of the German invasion into Belgium during World War I. With World War II having just been declared, the realization that the First World War, the war that was to be “the war to end all wars,” has a far-reaching grasp on those who lived through it. The murder victim is a refugee, and it’s through that aspect that Maisie must delve back through recent history to finally discover why this individual was targeted twenty years past the end of WWI.
In the meantime, life goes on for Maisie’s extended circle, and her family and friends prepare to face war once more. Children are being funneled out of London to safer, rural locations, and Maisie is caught up a small aspect of that effort as well. Time are changing, and the world is once more on the brink of war – but Maisie will do what it takes to solve her case and keep those around her safe and sound.
In This Grave Hour is one of the best books thus far in the fantastic Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear, and that’s saying a lot! Maisie is focused and grounded, scarred by her past for sure, but taking her experiences and using them to make her stronger yet. Her seemingly impermeable fortitude is softened by glimpses of her deep affection for her dear friend Priscilla and her family, as well as Maisie’s own father and step-mother, and, of course, her team of Billy and Sandra, who are by her side as faithfully as ever. The looming specter of World War II and our knowledge of the events of that war looking back now almost 80 years from when Neville Chamberlain declared Britain at war imparts an even stronger sense of urgency to Maisie’s work, and the conclusion of this novel leaves many delightful bits to be explored. If you haven’t read this series, go start now! And if you are already a fan of this series, In This Grave Hour will leave you satisfied … and eager to see where the winds of war will send the intrepid Maisie Dobbs next.