Leaving Everything Most Loved (Maisie Dobbs) Paperback – April 8, 2014

All the Maisie Dobbs books have been very, very good, and insightful. Each book stands alone, but it's been interesting to follow her life as the years go by. The first was before WW1, and this one is between WW1 and WW2.This newest book in the series is very intriguing. Detective Inspector Caldwell of the Scotland Yard murder squad, comes to Maisie with Mr Pramal, who has come to London to recover his sister's body, and wants Maisie to investigate her murder. As the police have made no progress in the two months since her body was found in a canal, he asked a friend for a reference, who suggested Daisie. Usha Pramal had been beautiful, a well educated woman who didn't want to marry, and had come to London from India with the family she had been with in India. She was also a healer of sorts who touched people to make them feel better. She left the family shortly after they arrived and went to live in a large home that took in Indian women who had no permanent job, but worked here and there to keep themselves. She had impressed people, and many expressed a great affection for her.Maisie went to the boarding house and asked to see Usha's room. The police had told the owners that they should not touch it. When there, Maisie found a bag of money hidden in the mattress and takes it for safety. She also sets up a meeting with a young woman who'd been friends with Usha. She didn't show up, and her body also was found in the canal that day!AS Maisie begins interviewing people who'd known Usha, she finds a lot of intertwining. One man went into a rant because Usha had given herbs to his wife which had stopped her debilitating headaches, claiming that she wasn't a doctor. Most were pleased with her help, and paid her. Some had known her well, and some just a little, but praised her.Maisie also has another case on hand, a sixteen year old boy who had run away, and seems to have been one of the boys who found the Ursa's body. Although the other boys gave Maisie his name, it was just the transfer of first and last name of the runaway, with 'son' added. She's been unable to find him.Maisie also has a personal problem. Her lover, James, wants to get married, but Maisie is considering going to India for a while, James is leaving for a time to help develop aircaft, as many are expecting another war. They decide that she will get in touch with him on a given date and say Yes, or No. If no, they will no longer be together at all.The book is complex, a wonderful read. It's one of those books you think that you'll read just a little more before you put it down, but you just keep reading. You are left satisfied, and hoping for another in the series. I recommend it highly. The hard back book is 338 pages long.

I have thoroughly enjoyed seeing WWI and the Between-the-wars eras through Winspear's Maisie Dobbs and company. I check many historical facts presented in the stories, but this one is just as much a journey for Winspear as it is Maisie. PTSD has always been a side effect from every war, with each generation handling it within societal constraints, and Winspear portrays it accurately and well. Will Winspear move Maisie and James and Priscilla's Toads into WWII? I feel the end of this novel is Winspear's journey to decide to carry them into the war, or leave them frozen in time, safe from greater heartbreaks.I personally feel this is the end of the Maisie Dobbs stories. James and Priscilla's boys and Billy's boys can not all escape the horrors of war that have lurked hidden in each Maisie story. These characters are so personal, a part of Winspear's grandparents' making--real or fictional, that the difficulty of making them face what we know is to come is a great and difficult challenge. Come what may, this is a series I have so thoroughly enjoyed being a mental traveler, and I am a richer person for having come along.

I wept for the last twenty pages, pieces rang true in my life, it will ring true in yours as well. I do not know how Jacqueline Winspear does this? Writing in wonderfully complex character driven stories that stay with you for a good long time. I cannot wait for the next one, and the one after that!

This was my first Jacqueline Winspear book and I’m eager to read others. The layered approach (murder, mystery, personal revelation) was enjoyable. I recommend the book for beach or the couch, with tea, iced or cold. Enjoy!

Partly mystery and partly novel, "Leaving Everything Most Loved" opens the way for English psychologist/sleuth Maisie Dobbs to move on in her life of helping others as she develops her own sense of who she is. She uses not only her reason but her intuition to solve the mystery of who killed the beautiful, young Indian girl, Usha Prama, whose cultural background led her to teach and heal.Since there are so few clues, Maisie begins by interviewing people who knew and worked with Usha. Maisie learned much about the girl from her brother, who had come from India to find out why Scotland Yard had made so little progress in her case. With her questions, she uncovers a web of relationships among the characters in this story that point her to the answers to Usha's death.As she becomes more deeply involved in Indian culture, she longs to travel to India. This would mean closing her investigation business and finding places for her employees. There is also the matter of her on-going relationship with James Compton and how to handle the pressure on her to marry him.Those who have followed Maisie's story from when she was a 13-year-old sent out to service by her father after the death of her mother know that she earned a chance at an education through her deep interest in learning, and later volunteered as a nurse in World War I.She misses her mentor, Maurice, whose death caused an emptiness in her heart even though he left her financially independent, and she wants to make her life more like his.There is unfinished business with a man who is working with James on dealing with the obvious stirrings of war from Germany. This is 1933, and Herr Hitler is going back on the promises that the Germans made following the First War.After James heads to Canada to build an air force, Maisie leaves on her journey to Bombay, with all the details attended to for closing this part of her life.Will she contact James with a yes or no answer to his proposal at the end of six months, as she has promised? Will she use her intelligence and understanding of human nature to aid her country in its coming fight with Axis forces in the late 30s and beyond? Will her unfinished business be brought to a successful conclusion?Although Maisie is a quiet, introspective person, she is also a woman of action. It would be hard to see her waiting out World War II in meditation.

Very well written, doesn't shy away from the contemporary social history, which gives her plots a more realistic edge than the average book set in this era. Maisie Dobbs is also a strong, resourceful and well rounded character, with whom it is easy to empathise. I enjoyed this one so much, I'm really looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

Colis conforme à description.

Maisie Dobbs never disappoints. I like the characters and they're well fleshed out. This was an intriguing mystery and held my interest to the end. I really like the use of words and descriptions to make the story come alive. And, I really really appreciate the grammatical construction and proper spelling. Everything flows as it should. If you like a good mystery and a well constructed story this is for you! Highly recommended.

I was heartbroken when I realised that was last of the Maisie Dobbs novels. I have read them all and I did read again, and again.Still not to be missed I was recommend all the Maisie Dobbs novels in turn and you'll be amazed at what she accomplished.and astounded by what she does as the mystery ends.

Just when one thought "Come on now, how far can this series go?" Winspear, AGAIN!, surprises, keeps us engaged and (incredibly!) wanting to know more . . .