Part of Maisie Dobbs, book 2
First published 2005
Spring 1930 finds Maisie Dobbs established in her Fitzroy Square office with assistant Billy Beale at her side. A year after launching her private investigation practice, she has earned respect from Scotland Yard's Detective Inspector Stratton. Now wealthy businessman Joseph Waite arrives with a familiar problem. His daughter has disappeared again, fleeing the privileged but restrictive life he built for her. Waite wants Maisie to locate the runaway heiress and return her home. As Maisie investigates the young woman's disappearance in Dulwich, she uncovers connections to a murder case that Stratton is working in Coulsden. The two cases intertwine in ways that reach back to the Great War, drawing on the battlefield experiences that shaped both Maisie's psychology training and her investigative methods. The search for one missing woman becomes something larger, touching the wounds that the war left on an entire generation.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, mystery, detective
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, suspenseful
Tropes: found-family, war-trauma
Setting: Fitzroy Square, Dulwich, Coulsden
Period: Spring 1930
309 pages · Paperback · Penguin