Maisie Dobbs #3 Pardonable Lies | Jacqueline Winspear

Pardonable Lies is the third book in the Maisie Dobbs series. Maisie has become a dear old friend of mine in a short period of time.

When my life seems too busy and a little out of control, I know I can always relax into the soothing embrace of Maisie and her world. Secure in the knowledge that I will get a great story simply told, a gentle mystery to solve and plenty of satisfied ‘ohhh’s and ahhh’s’ in every chapter.

Maisie is a private investigator in London 1929. She was a poor girl, sent into service, befriended by the well-to-do, offered a place in Girton school, trained as a nurse before heading off to WW1 France to do her bit, returned traumatised and heart-broken to finish her training with her mentor/psychologist detective friend Maurice Blanche.

Pardonable Lies sees Maisie return to France to help solve two cases of missing presumed dead soldiers. The case becomes dangerous as she unknowingly gets too close to matters that the secret service would rather nobody knows about.

In some ways the mystery is the cover story in all the Maisie Dobbs books. They’re simply a way of getting to know Maisie, her world and her times much better.

I love them whole heartedly and without reservation. One is not enough…which is why I’ve just started Maisie Dobbs #4 Messenger of Truth.

Winspear also has a great blog full of information about this particular period in history and her progress as she writes each novel.

This is adult fiction but any mature teen reader who loves historical fiction and gentle crimes would love this too.

_{In the third novel of this bestselling series, London investigator Maisie Dobbs faces grave danger as she returns to the site of her most painful WWI memories to resolve the mystery of a pilot’s death.}

_{A deathbed plea from his wife leads Sir Cecil Lawton to seek the aid of Maisie Dobbs, psychologist and investigator. As Maisie soon learns, Agnes Lawton never accepted that her aviator son was killed in the Great War, a torment that led her not only to the edge of madness but to the doors of those who practice the dark arts and commune with the spirit world.}

_{In accepting the assignment, Maisie finds her spiritual strength tested, as well as her regard for her mentor, Maurice Blanche. The mission also brings her together once again with her college friend Priscilla Evernden, who served in France and who lost three brothers to the war — one of whom, it turns out, had an intriguing connection to the missing Ralph Lawton.}