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This is what it says in our catalog about Among the Mad: "In the thrilling new novel by theNew 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."

I am a follower of Winspear's series about Maisie Dobbs, an ex-housemaid who has been encouraged to develop her extraordinary gifts of observation and start her own private detective agency. I thought this last book was easily the best of the series. Winspear has ironed out some of the kinks in her writing so that conversations and characterization now seem much more natural. Maisie's position as a classless person in a class-ridden society allows her to go among all sorts of people during her investigations. In this book it seems unforced and perfectly believable, perhaps because the time is now 1931 and class divisions are dissolving a bit following the Great War.

Though it is now some 13 years after the First World War, Maisie is still struggling with post traumatic stress. As a nurse she witnessed terrible wounds to both body and mind and also sustained a personal tragedy. As in the other books in the series, there is a theme of the enduring harm war does in both seen and unseen ways. Maisie, however, is beginning to feel that she at last can move on with her life. I can't wait for the next book to see what the 1930's have in store for Maisie!

Labels: Among the Mad, female investigators - fiction, Jacqueline Winspear, Maisie Dobbs, post traumatic stress - fiction, WW I - fiction