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Book Note: Jacqueline Winspear, Elegy for Eddie

I read this book about 21-May-2016. This is the first time I've read this book. The book is copyright 2012. This note was last modified Tuesday, 24-May-2016 19:25:01 PDT.

This is book 9 of the "Maisie Dobbs" series.

This note contains spoilers for the book.

 

Despite the extensive nitpicking, there was enough in the first book that I tried a second. (Not "the" second, though; library availability plus too many publishers trying to keep the series order secret. The list in the front of this volume seems to be in order, but the other new series I'm poking at recently puts them in random order so far as I can see.)

This one deals with some people who weren't tarred as "premature anti-fascists" by history, Winston Churchill and some of his supporters; and with Maisie and James trying to find some sort of keel for their relationship; and the murder of a very kind but simple-minded man who was brilliant with horses.

Maisie, who had personal experience near the front in WWI, seeing casualties at one of the furthest-forward aid stations, is rather against the idea of war, but is also (with her psychological expertise) rather worried that Herr Hitler may not be basically harmless. Trying to deal with this is hard in a book for today's readers; we all know Hitler was not in fact harmless. Still, people willing to kill to avoid interference with their propaganda plans pretty much have to be going too far, even if they're trying to oppose Hitler.

Maybe there's more in intermediate books, but James and Maisie are behaving in public as husband and wife, and there don't seem to be any social consequences to worry about. The book is set in 1933, which interestingly puts it rather close (a few years before) Sayers' Gaudy Night and Busman's Honeymoon.

 


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David Dyer-Bennet