If Maisie’s ruminations are sometimes overly romantic, or her actions predictable if a male character falls into cliché caveman mode, there are enough corkscrew corners in the plot and layered thinking from the characters to hold interest.
Women just before and during World War II lost brothers, fathers, husbands, and other men in their lives, but they gained independence through employment, education, the freedom to dress differently, and more. Winspear never manipulates to appeal to 21st-century sensibilities: Maisie is simply historically accurate. One of the distinct pleasures of the Dobbs’ series is the strong, spirited, central female character. Adding to the tension of entering Nazi German with falsified documents and a wig that refuses to stay put, the man she believes is responsible for her husband’s death has asked her to locate his wayward daughter in Munich and convince her to return to England. Maisie, returning to her work as an investigator and government operative, must pose as Donat’s daughter, Edwina Donat, who is too ill to travel.
The secret service has agreed to the Germans’ demands that a family member be sent to secure his release. It’s 1938, and partly to escape the haunting memories of her husband, James, who died in a plane crash, she accepts a request from the British government to retrieve a man vital to Britain’s war plans. Journey has Maisie returning to her native England after a stint as a nurse in Spain during the Spanish Civil War. Or, Journey’s downside is in two compelling themes that threaten to dominate the simplistic plot that sometimes veers into unbelievability: Maisie’s grief after becoming a widow is thick and fascinating the well-described tension of a community on the brink of war may leave a reader wishing for more of the same. If there’s danger, it’s found in the deception of historical facts that slide into the narrative without calling attention to the skilled writing and steep research behind their appearance. Journey to Munich, the 12th installment in Bay Area author Jacqueline Winspear’s best-selling Maisie Dobbs series, proves Winspear particularly adroit on the high wire. Suspended above danger or delight, they face readers who become attached to certain traits and resent when an author unleashes an unexpected twist in the book’s protagonist-often a detective, investigator or spy-and others who threaten to depart if things become too predictable. Mystery book authors perform on a tightrope.
Jacqueline Winspear has written 12 thrillers starring Maisie Dobbs.
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