Book Review: Pardonable Lies

Reviewed By: Catherine Thompson - RAM

Pardonable Lies     Amazon US TPB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada TPB Amazon Canada HC
Jacqueline Winspear
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Woman Main Character   Historical
Series: Maisie Dobbs # 3
Henry Holt; $30.95 hardcover; 343 pages

Sir Cecil Lawton’s wife Agnes believed to her dying day that their son Ralph, an RAF aviator in the Great War, didn’t die in a fiery crash as they had been told. In order to fulfil the promise she extracted from him on her deathbed, Sir Cecil turns to psychologist and investigator Maisie Dobbs, who herself served in France as a nurse. At the same time, Maisie involves herself in a police matter. Thirteen-year-old Avril Jarvis is charged with killing her uncle. Maisie can’t put her finger on it, but she’s certain the girl is innocent. She dispatches her assistant Billy Beale to Taunton to investigate Avril’s background and engages Sir Cecil, a barrister, on the girl’s behalf. Meanwhile, upon learning of the Lawton case, her dearest friend Priscilla Partridge asks Maisie to find her brother Peter Evernden’s final resting place while she’s in France.

With her mentor and teacher Maurice Blanche at her side, Maisie takes a physical and spiritual journey back to the scene of so much horror in order to solve the mysteries of the present.

Pardonable Lies is Winspear’s third Maisie Dobbs novel. This series is quickly gaining an audience and no small acclaim. While some of Winspear’s stylistic quirks irritated me (for example, her habit of employing Maisie’s name when a pronoun would have been sufficient), I can’t fault her creation. Maisie is an interesting character, a professional woman in a time when such people were few. She bears scars both physical and psychological from her service in the war, which seem to prevent her from forming meaningful relationships. If Winspear doesn’t fall victim to her own popularity, I expect great things from this series.

Catherine Thompson - RAM

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Catherine Thompson - RAM