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Among the Mad (Maisie Dobbs Mysteries) by Jacqueline Winspear
Book Summary InformationAuthor: Jacqueline Winspear Edition: Hardcover Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published) Published: 2009-02-17 ISBN: 0805082166 Number of pages: 320 Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Book Reviews of Among the Mad (Maisie Dobbs Mysteries)Book Review: Winspear's writing transcends time and place Summary: 5 Stars
Jacqueline Winspear has created a unique sleuth in Maisie Dobbs. Her combined professions of psychologist and detective surely precede what would now be called a psychological profiler. Maisie uses her hard-wired intelligence and highly developed intuition to aid her in solving cases between World War I and World War II England. AMONG THE MAD, the sixth book in this period mystery series, is set in London during Christmas 1931 through New Year's 1932.
On Christmas Eve, Maisie and her assistant Billy Beale set off to deliver a final report to a client. They come across a man sitting on the pavement in some distress, and Maisie tells Billy to move away. Her keen sense of people informs her that something is not quite right. Shortly thereafter an explosion occurs. Maisie, who is injured in the blast, becomes a witness to the crime. Billy, a WWI veteran, identifies the weapon as a Mills bomb, or a basic hand grenade. But the identity of the man who died while setting off the explosive is a mystery.
Billy spends Christmas Day with his family, while Maisie goes to visit her father. Scotland Yard's Detective Chief Superintendent Robert MacFarlane of the Special Branch calls her back to London. A letter has arrived at Westminster demanding that the government alleviate the suffering of the unemployed, especially those who have served their country in wartime. If no action is taken by a specific deadline, the letter implies that harm will come to England, its people and the Prime Minister. Maisie, who is also mentioned in the letter, becomes an advisor on the case for MacFarlane.
As the Special Branch begins their search for the person who wrote the letter and the identity of the suicide victim, Maisie calls on her contacts from her nursing days during WWI. She interviews a doctor with whom she worked alongside in surgery and who is now studying the effects of gas and nerve agents in wartime. She knows well the suffering and loss that men experience in war. With this knowledge, she hopes she can determine the lifestyle, background and behaviors that may lead her to the letter writer and/or the dead man.
As she races against time, another attack occurs. This time a poisonous gas is released at a dog and cat shelter. More threatening letters arrive. Maisie and Scotland Yard realize that their suspect has the power to inflict immense harm. As they continue to investigate, Maisie uncovers evidence that leads her to conclude that the letter writer is mentally unstable, suffering from the post-traumatic effects of war. He is a forgotten man with a vendetta against the system that abused and abandoned him.
This series is set in a time when people were facing the social consequences of war and the resulting economic conditions that deeply affect daily life. Worse yet, another war is looming. Winspear's usual cast of characters is also undergoing their own individual losses. Billy's wife requires special care after the demise of their daughter. Priscilla Partridge, Maisie's friend, continues to recover from the deaths of her brothers in WWI.
Winspear's writing transcends time and place. Even though the characters and their conflicts are set in another era, the reader gets a sense of the familiar as they struggle to avert crisis. She creates a rich tapestry of characters that are developed against the backdrop of England between two World Wars. However, it is Maisie Dobbs who continues to intrigue. Maisie is a unique protagonist who is not only intelligent, but has the smarts to use her sixth sense to solve complicated mysteries around sensitive and important matters. She also maintains her personal integrity about the truths of the cases she investigates, which makes her an indomitable heroine.
I have enjoyed this series from the first book to the latest story, and can hardly wait for the next Maisie Dobbs mystery.
--- Reviewed by Jennifer McCord
Summary of Among the Mad (Maisie Dobbs Mysteries)In the thrilling new novel by the New York Times bestselling author of An Incomplete Revenge, Maisie Dobbs must catch a madman before he commits murder on an unimaginable scale It?s Christmas Eve 1931. On the way to see a client, Maisie Dobbs witnesses a man commit suicide on a busy London street. The following day, the prime minister?s office receives a letter threatening a massive loss of life if certain demands are not met?and the writer mentions Maisie by name. After being questioned and cleared by Detective Chief Superintendent Robert MacFarlane of Scotland Yard?s elite Special Branch, she is drawn into MacFarlane?s personal fiefdom as a special adviser on the case. Meanwhile, Billy Beale, Maisie?s trusted assistant, is once again facing tragedy as his wife, who has never recovered from the death of their young daughter, slips further into melancholia?s abyss. Soon Maisie becomes involved in a race against time to find a man who proves he has the knowledge and will to inflict death and destruction on thousands of innocent people. And before this harrowing case is over, Maisie must navigate a darkness not encountered since she was a nurse in wards filled with shell-shocked men. In Among the Mad, Jacqueline Winspear combines a heart-stopping story with a rich evocation of a fascinating period to create her most compelling and satisfying novel yet. Jacqueline Winspear on Among the Mad
From the time I realized that in Maisie Dobbs I had a series character, I've wanted to explore further the phenomenon of the range of war neuroses known to the layperson as "shell shock," and how we see those whose behavior isn't always within the bounds of what we consider "normal." I also wanted to look again, through the lens of story and history, at the manner in which society treats wounded veterans, especially those whose wounds cannot be seen, but are of the mind and spirit. To do this, I drew as much upon personal experience as my research.
As many of my readers know, my grandfather suffered both physical wounds and shell shock in the Great War, and as a child I remember having to be quiet around him, so as not to excite or trouble an elderly man with terrible memories. Later, in my mid-teens, I attended a school where we were required to undertake community service one afternoon each week (and we had to attend school on Saturday mornings to make up for it!). So, on Wednesday afternoons, I joined a small group who visited a psychiatric hospital--to talk to the patients, make the tea, read to them and generally offer kindness and companionship. I can recall many of the patients, some who were obviously not able to live outside an institution, and others who inspired one to wonder why they were there at all--and when you found out, the reason was often shocking. I remember one patient I talked with each week, an astoundingly sharp, intelligent man. He had been a top-ranking surgeon, one who was regarded as almost without peer. He was also a madman, a murderer. I thought of him often while writing Among the Mad.
Last year, during my book tour, a military chaplain came to one of my events and stayed behind afterwards to talk to me. He told me that he recommended my books to the families of those who have suffered loss during the Iraq war, and especially to people who are trying to accommodate the special needs of a soldier suffering from what we today call Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD). He added that in reading a story where such losses are suffered in a time of war, yet separated by history, it facilitates a deeper understanding of what the returning veteran might be experiencing, and challenges involved in coming home from war.
The recent news that servicemen and woman wounded by PTSD will not be eligible for the Military Order of the Purple Heart--awarded to US military personnel who have been wounded or killed in a war zone--struck a chord. In Britain during and following the Great War there was much controversy about war neuroses, and many soldiers were denied a pension as a result of a clampdown on the diagnosis of shell shock. In my second novel, Birds of a Feather, one of the characters says, "That?s the trouble with war, it?s never over when it's over, it lives on inside the living." Such a sentiment is never more true than in the case of the man or woman who has served their country in a time of war, but who has to live with that war reverberating in their mind every single day for the rest of their lives. Maisie Dobbs is such a person, as is the person she is in a race to find in Among the Mad.
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