In This Grave Hour: A Maisie Dobbs Novel

Britain and Germany went to war in September 1939. Although a milestone in British history, for investigator and psychologist Maisie Dobbs her latest assignment is a local situation. It is so close, indeed, that a senior Secret Service agent is awaiting her when she returns to her flat and opens her front door. Dr. Francesca Thomas beseeches her to find who assassinated Frederick Addens, a refugee who escaped as a teenager with a group of Belgian resistance fighters in World War I.

With little to go on, Maisie sets to work and finds additional victims, the link between them deriving from a photograph whose owner she tracks down in a sleepy English village. The photographer will tell all, but she is found brutally murdered next day with her companion and dog. The saga is lifted from sordid to intriguing through Maisie’s personality, charm, and psychological skills.

Jacqueline Winspear has created a marvelous 1930s character, typically English in her approach, complete with word-perfect dialogue, fashion, and social standing, a titled lady with humble roots. With over a dozen challenges successfully accomplished in discrete settings, Maisie’s family, friends, and official police colleagues return as the series continues. In This Grave Hour introduces little Anna, a winsome orphan who will in all probability return for Maisie’s next challenge.