Book Review -- Messenger of Truth
The Latest Maisie Dobbs Mystery by Jacqueline Winspear
Some mysteries are best left unsolved, as 1930s intrepid detective Maisie Dobbs and her wealthy client discover, much too late.
Maisie Dobbs is not your typical British woman in the 1930s. She lives alone, owns her own flat, and has her own business. What's more: she spurns the advances of an eligible suitor simply because she's not attracted to him. Imagine that? What she is attracted to is solving mysteries, a vocation for which she has more than a little aptitude.
In this fourth novel in the series, Ms. Dobbs' services are sought out by a wealthy young woman, Georgina Bassington-Hope, a fellow graduate of Maisie's alma mater, Girton College. The woman is troubled by her twin brother's recent death, a death that has been ruled an accident by the local police. Miss Bassington-Hope, however, can't seem to shake the notion that the death was something more sinister.
Accident or Murder?
The brother, Nicholas Bassington-Hope, was an artist, one who was gaining considerable local acclaim. In the process of setting up his latest exhibition, high atop the scaffolding, the young man fell to his death. The young artist's talents had been used by the army as a poster artist during the war (World War I), an experience that left him profoundly troubled. To escape his guilt at having encouraged young men to seek their deaths, Bassington-Hope traveled to America where his art blossomed and where he met a wealthy benefactor. That this benefactor was set on owning every piece the artist produced had become troubling. How far would this man go to own the latest B-H creation?
A Unique Family
The Bassington-Hopes are a unique family. Blessed with family money on both sides of the family in a time before heavy taxation, the family is free to indulge its creative impulses. The mother and father are both artists; sister Georgina is a prize-winning journalist; and Nicholas was the most talented of them all. Only sister, Noelle ("Nolly") seems to have been passed over. Could this frustration, combined with the impact of losing her young husband in the war, cause her to react violently?
Maisie's investigations take her all over London and to the countryside in Kent where Nicholas B-H kept an artist's cottage/trailer. She learns a lot about the family, Nicholas and his friends, and Miss B-H, not all of it flattering. How much has to do with the young man's death? This is the question that haunts Maisie's quest.
Messenger of Truth is a well-written, thoughtful mystery, with a nostalgic air. Maisie has been compared to a combination of Hercule Poirot and Agatha Christie. It's an apt comparison, but Maisie Dobbs adds something fresh and new to the mix, also -- the spirit of the independent woman. This was my first Maisie Dobbs mystery, but it won't be my last.
About Jacqueline Winspear
Jacqueline Winspear is the author of three previous Maisie Dobbs mystery novels, including the 2005 release, Pardonable Lies. She has won two Agatha awards and been nominated for an Edgar Award, among other honors. A native of Kent, Ms. Winspear now lives in California.
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