Maisie Dobbs

Maisie Dobbs is a fictional character created by the author Jacqueline Winspear. Dobbs is a "psychologist and investigator" in post–World War I London. After serving as a Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse during the war, she returned to London to work with her mentor, the accomplished detective Dr. Maurice Blanche. When Blanche retires, Dobbs takes over his private investigation business.[1]

This article is about the character. For the novel, see Maisie Dobbs (novel).

The character

Maisie Dobbs was raised in London by her father, Frankie Dobbs, who is a costermonger, after Maisie's mother died when she was a child of 13. Her grieving father placed her as a maid in the household of Lord Julian and Lady Rowan Compton, in part because he had no funds to place her in school after paying his wife’s medical bills. Lady Compton discovers Maisie reading books in the Compton's library and is so impressed by Maisie's intelligence that she has her brilliant friend, Dr Maurice Blanche, tutor Maisie. She wins a place at Girton College in Cambridge to study further, but leaves soon after to volunteer as a nurse in the war in France. After the war, she continues nursing shell-shock victims in England. She then returns to Girton to complete her university education. She, then joins Dr. Blanche as his assistant in his private investigation and psychology practice. In the fifth book in The Maisie Dobbs Series, An Incomplete Revenge, it is revealed that Maisie's maternal grandmother was a gypsy.

At the beginning of the first novel of the series, Maisie is starting her own detective agency.[1]

In one of the best known of her books, Pardonable Lies, Maisie takes on the case of Ralph Lawton, a former Royal Flying Corps pilot who was apparently shot down and killed. However, his mother refused to announce him dead, stating that she knew he was alive. She also takes the case of a 13-year-old girl being set up for a murder who did not talk to anyone else except Maisie, since Maisie was able to use her psychology background to find a way to get the girl, Avril Jarvis, to talk.

The Maisie Dobbs Series deals with many of the common problems people dealt with after World War I ended, problems that permeate life after the war. Problems include the struggle to grieve for loved ones who died in the war, drug addiction caused by attempts to manage pain from war wounds, struggling to fall in love with someone else after losing your first love in the war, and the economic depression that began a decade after the Great War ended.

Books about Maisie Dobbs

Sixteen books have been published in the Maisie Dobbs series:

  • Maisie Dobbs (2003)
  • Birds of a Feather (2004)
  • Pardonable Lies (2005)
  • Messenger of Truth (2006)
  • An Incomplete Revenge (2008)
  • Among the Mad (2009)
  • The Mapping of Love and Death (2010)
  • A Lesson in Secrets (2011)
  • Elegy for Eddie (2012)
  • Leaving Everything Most Loved (2013)
  • A Dangerous Place (2015)
  • Journey to Munich (2016)
  • In This Grave Hour (2017)
  • To Die but Once (2018)
  • The American Agent (2019)
  • The Consequences of Fear (2021)

Awards and reviews

Maisie Dobbs (2003) was chosen as one of Publishers Weekly's Best Mysteries of 2003, received starred reviews in Publishers Weekly and Library Journal, and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year 2003, an Edgar Award nominee for Best Novel 2003, and the Agatha Award winner for Best First Novel in 2003. In addition, Maisie Dobbs received an Alex Award in 2004.

Additional characters

Billy Beale - A patient saved by Dr Lynch and nurse Dobbs during the war, Beale recognises her immediately when she rents an office in the building where he is caretaker. Drawn into helping Dobbs with her first case, Beale soon becomes her assistant.

Dr. Maurice Blanche - A mentor and tutor to Dobbs since her teen years, Blanche is a celebrated detective with a mysterious past. When Blanche retires, he turns his clients over to Dobbs, supporting her in her efforts to open her own business. Despite their close relationship, Dobbs' work eventually causes a rift between them. Although they remain on speaking terms, mentor and student grow apart for a time.

Priscilla Partridge née Evernden - wealthy and stylish friend of Dobbs, classmate at Girton College, Cambridge. After two terms she joined the Nursing Yeomanry in 1915 and drove an ambulance in France. All three of her brothers were killed during the war and her parents died shortly after of influenza. She is married to Douglas Partridge, a famous author and poet. She and her husband have three sons, born in Biarritz.[2] She smokes cigarettes.

Dr. Simon Lynch - A doctor who Maisie Dobbs meets through Priscilla at Girton. They fall in love, and when working together during the war, a bomb destroys the convalescent hospital at which they were working. Simon is seriously injured; he survives after the war but cannot communicate and needs constant care. He lives in an institution paid by his parents. Maisie is injured as well, but makes a full physical recovery. Maisie focuses on her work at first to distract from the pain of loss, and then to work through her struggle find love again.

References
  1. Brunsdale, Mitzi, Gumshoes: a dictionary of fictional detectives, Greenwood Press, 2006, pages 133-135. ISBN 0-313-33331-9. Retrieved January 26, 2012
  2. Jacqueline Winspear, Pardonable Lies (2005), pp. 9–10.
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