Title: Elegy for Eddie: a Maisie Dobbs Novel by Jacqueline Winspear
Published: October 30, 2012; Harper Perennial
Genre: historical mystery
Source: publisher
Maisie Dobbs, private investigator in London, 1933, is asked by Covent Garden costoermongers -fruit and vegetable sellers - to find the person or persons behind the suspicious death of Eddie Pettit, a simple minded man who had a special gift understanding and working with horses. Eddie was hit and killed by a massive roll of paper that had fallen from a conveyor belt in a paper manufacturing firm owned by an important newspaperman. To Eddie's friends, the incident was not an accident but deliberate.
The mystery plot is tied to a larger scenario - Britain's preparing way in advance for a likely war with Hitler's Germany.
Comments: The plot moves well - the life and death of Eddie Pettit, a simple worker, integrated with the larger political scene in England in 1933.
This was my first introduction to Maisie Dobbs and to her lover James Compton, who unlike Maisie, belongs to a privileged and wealthy English family. I wish I had met Maisie in her first books and read about her early struggles growing up in the working class and the gradual improvement in her life before this book, which seems to be the ninth in the series. I felt as I read along I had missed out on a whole lot about Maisie and would have appreciated the character better if I had seen how she had developed. Nevertheless, this can be a stand alone read.
Sounds like a series I might enjoy... from the beginning as you said, so I would get the whole background.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a good series, and like you mention it's good to read the previous books to get more background on the characters.
ReplyDeleteI think I'd enjoy the Maisie Dobbs series very much. Terrific review, Harvee!
ReplyDeleteThis series is one of my all time favorite series. Thanks for introducing other readers to such a fabulous book series. Glad to see you enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteKimberlee
http://girllostinabook.blogspot.com
I've only read the first one of these but I did like it and have the second here to read someday.
ReplyDeleteI read every book in this series, and not a single one in order. But I wish I had! If you're going to read more of them, go back to the beginning. : )
ReplyDeleteI loved the first Maisie book on audio and don't know why it's taking me so long to continue with the series... think I'll stick with reading them in order though ;-)
ReplyDeleteGlad you liked it. I read the one before this book, and that was my first Maisie Dobbs. Now I want to go back and start from the beginning!
ReplyDelete