Jacqueline Winspear, A Lesson in Secrets

A Lesson in Secrets

Jacqueline Winspear

Harper, Mar 22 2011, $25.99

ISBN 9780061727672

In 1932, Maisie Dobbs is feeling the ennui of a long summer with nothing critical to do as she no longer needs to worry about making money since her mentor Dr. Maurice Blanche died and left her with his vast estate. She knows part of her boredom is grief from Maurice's death. That abruptly ends when the British Secret Service appears for a special investigation into a pacifist who they believe he is betraying the country.

Greville Liddicote wrote a children's book extolling the virtues of pacifism that the British government censored during WWI. Now he has opened a college in Cambridge whose mission is Pax Europe. Maisie goes undercover obtaining a position as a philosophy instructor so that she can watch the staff, faculty and students for seditious activity. However, the political war within the college already ugly turns deadly when someone kills Liddicote. While Detective Chief Superintendent Robert MacFarlane and Detective Chief Inspector Richard Stratton struggle with their inquiry into the homicide, Maisie looks at extremist groups like the new Nazis party for the killer.

The historical backdrop is super while the competing whodunit makes for an entertaining Depression Era thriller. Maisie's new wealth reduces her personal problems in terms of earning a living vs. doing a gratis case, but her change in personal circumstances leads to new issues like what to do now with her free time. Readers will enjoy Maisie's latest investigation as she attends school in Cambridge in which she learns A Lesson in Secrets can be fatal.

Harriet Klausner