A Dangerous Place By Jacqueline Winspear

by Theodore Feit

Maisie Dobbs has led an interesting and varied life throughout the eleven prior novels in this popular series, but now in another chapter of her life she is at a crossroads. Having at last married James Compton and gained a title, becoming pregnant, only to then become a widow when her husband crashes to the ground in Canada while flying a developmental fighter and losing the child as a result. She naturally is deeply depressed. So she goes off to Boston and then India to escape and perhaps gain some composure. But pressure from her stepmother forces her to book passage back to England, a home she does not feel able to face.

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As a result of her ambivalence on returning, she gets off the ship in Gibraltar, the last stop before reaching the British Isles. There she begins to regain something of her old self, when she trips over the body of a murdered photographer while walking. Consequently, she becomes embroiled not only in investigating the murder, but learning of the consequences of the Spanish Civil War just across the border, of the intrigues, spies, and intelligence agents operating on the Rock.

Image source: Harper

Working once again, Maisie begins to approach her old self. She even crosses the border into war-torn Spain to cut through the deceptions and artifices surrounding the murder. Each novel in the series has brought us new insights into Maisie’s character, and this latest effort, now making a even dozen novels, brings the reader even deeper into her mind and psyche. The descriptions of the battles in Spain may not be another Sun Also Rises, but they serve the plot well and give rise to another objective for Maisie to accomplish before returning home.

Highly recommended.

Ted & Gloria Feit live in Long Beach, New York, a few miles outside of New York City. For 26 years, Gloria was the manager of a medium-sized litigation firm in lower Manhattan. Her husband, Ted, is an attorney & former stock analyst, publicist & writer/editor for, over the years, several daily, weekly and monthly publications. Having always been avid mystery readers & since they're now retired, they're able to indulge their passion. Their reviews appear online as well as in three print publications in the UK & US.