To die but once / Jacqueline Winspear.

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  • Additional Information
    • Publication Information:
      First edition.
    • Abstract:
      Summary: While investigating the disappearance of an apprentice craftsman who had been working on a secret government contract, Maisie discovers links to the London underworld.
    • Abstract:
      Summary: Spring, 1940. Following Britain's declaration of war on Germany, Maisie Dobbs has been investigating the disappearance of a young apprentice working on a hush-hush government contract. Her investigation leads from the countryside of rural Hampshire to the web of wartime opportunism exploited by one of the London underworld's most powerful men. When a final confrontation approaches, she must acknowledge the potential cost to her future-- and the risk of destroying a dream she wants very much to become reality. Meanwhile, the plight of thousands of soldiers stranded on the beaches of France causes one of Maisie's friends to make a decision that will change his life.
    • Notes:
      Sequel to: In this grave hour.
    • ISBN:
      0062436635
      9780062436634
    • Accession Number:
      2018001821
    • Accession Number:
      ocn991105176
      991105176
    • Accession Number:
      fay.564059

Reviews

Booklist Reviews 2018 February #1

In the latest Maisie Dobbs mystery (the fourteenth in the series), a young man working on a secret government contract vanishes. Maisie, the English psychologist and private investigator, soon discovers that his death might have a connection to London's organized-crime world. Winspear has done a remarkable job with this series, which has now covered more than a decade (the first installment was set in the late 1920s; this one takes place in 1940); Maisie, a woman working in what was at the time considered almost exclusively a man's field, is a wonderful creation, representative of her era while being at the same time a thoroughly modern woman. The mystery in this book is cleverly designed, too, allowing the author to explore the environment in England in the early, quiet days of WWII—the so-called phony war, before the Blitz—and to explore England's 1940s-era criminal underground. A first-rate historical mystery. Copyright 2018 Booklist Reviews.

LJ Reviews 2017 October #1

A World War I nurse who became a "psychologist and investigator" in postwar London, Maisie Dobbs has gone through numerous New York Times best-selling cases to arrive at World War II. Here, it's spring 1940, and Maisie is probing the disappearance of an apprentice craftsman who had been working on a secret government contract. Is the London underworld involved? Everyone loves Maisie, which explains the 100,000-copy first printing and nine-city tour to Chicago; Houston; Los Angeles; New York; Phoenix; San Francisco; Seattle; Portland, OR; and Washington, DC.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal.

PW Reviews 2018 January #1

The possible disappearance of a teenage boy drives bestseller Winspear's so-so novel set in 1940 Britain, her 14th featuring London investigator and psychologist Maisie Dobbs (after 2017's In This Grave Hour). Before the war, 15-year-old Joe Coombes worked as an apprentice for a painting and decorating company that the British government retained to paint RAF facilities with a new kind of fire-retardant. When Joe's family doesn't hear from him for several days, his father, publican Phil Coombes, asks Maisie to trace the boy. His son seemed different during their last visits, Phil tells her. Maisie soon learns that Joe took a fatal fall onto a railway track, but the reader already knows, via the prologue, that he was bludgeoned to death. The whodunit story line is often secondary to the larger historical picture—in particular, the British response to the retreat from Dunkirk and the threat of German invasion—and to developments in Maisie's private life. A gratuitous closing contrivance doesn't help. Still, Winspear fans will find much to like. Agent: Amy Rennert, Amy Rennert Agency. (Mar.)

Copyright 2017 Publishers Weekly.