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    A Lesson in Secrets: Sleuth Maisie faces subterfuge and the legacy of the Great War
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    A Lesson in Secrets: Sleuth Maisie faces subterfuge and the legacy of the Great War
    Unavailable
    A Lesson in Secrets: Sleuth Maisie faces subterfuge and the legacy of the Great War
    Ebook359 pages6 hours

    A Lesson in Secrets: Sleuth Maisie faces subterfuge and the legacy of the Great War

    By Jacqueline Winspear

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    In the summer of 1932, Maisie Dobbs's career takes an exciting new turn when she accepts an undercover assignment directed by Scotland Yard's Special Branch and the Secret Service. Posing as a junior lecturer, she is sent to a private college in Cambridge to monitor any activities, "not in the interests of His Majesty's Government."
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAllison & Busby
    Release dateMar 26, 2012
    ISBN9780749040987
    Unavailable
    A Lesson in Secrets: Sleuth Maisie faces subterfuge and the legacy of the Great War
    Author

    Jacqueline Winspear

    Jacqueline Winspear is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Consequences of Fear, The American Agent, and To Die but Once, as well as thirteen other bestselling Maisie Dobbs novels and The Care and Management of Lies, a Dayton Literary Peace Prize finalist. Jacqueline has also published two nonfiction books, What Would Maisie Do? and a memoir, This Time Next Year We’ll Be Laughing. Originally from the United Kingdom, she divides her time between California and the Pacific Northwest.

    Read more from Jacqueline Winspear

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    Reviews for A Lesson in Secrets

    4/5

    521 ratings59 reviews

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    • 4/5
      My Title: Don't always judge a book by its cover – but Maisie, I still want an MG14/40!

      I actually came across this paperback book in a charity shop! The cover art design grabbed my attention. I was intrigued after reading the storyline on the back cover – so I bought it!
      This story is set in the summer of 1932. Maisie Dobbs, a psychologist investigator and former World War 1 nurse, takes an exciting change in her career, after accepting an undercover assignment directed by Scotland Yard's Special Branch and the Secret Service.

      Posing as a junior lecturer, Maisie is sent to a college in Cambridge to monitor any activities 'not in the interest of the Crown'. Fairly soon after taking up the assignment, the college's controversial pacifist founder and principal is murdered. Maisie soon discovers that the circumstances of his death appears to be linked to the suspicious comings and goings of faculty and students.

      Maisie is a likeable and interesting character. I liked the way she went about her business. I felt engaged with the book, although I have to say that I found the storyline a little slow, due mainly to the apparent complex nature of the investigation. I failed in my attempt to predict the murderer!

      There are several vulnerable characters in this story, and I liked the way Maisie showed her compassion and discretion, without affecting her role as a professional investigator. The story is extremely well written, but I would have liked a little more sense of drama, danger or suspense, at times!

      This is still an enjoyable read and my only decision now is – which novel to read next!
    • 3/5
      3.5. I have enjoyed all the books in this series. I recommend them!
    • 2/5
      This is my least favorite in the series so far. It was boring, to be quite honest. The plot in a nutshell: Maisie drives back and forth from London. Repeat. Scotland Yard police hang around, inconceivably not bothered by the fact that the person who found the body just up and disappeared. They don't care that the haven't interviewed one of the major suspects? Entirely unbelievable. Predictable Sandra side story. Maisie drives around some more. The end.

      I kept looking for some meat in the plot, but sadly, it wasn't to be found. I hope the next book returns to Winspear's usual standards.
    • 5/5
      Maisie is approached by the Secret Branch to work undercover at the university and report back anything that might be amiss. Her first few days on campus are turned upside down when the President of the university is murdered. Conflicted with trying to follow the orders of the Secret Branch, and to solve the murder with Scotland Yard, Maisie knows that her time is limited.

      Billy is holding down the fort at the office, when Sandra is arrested and then goes into hiding. Maisie is forced to leave the majority of the investigation into Sandra's disappearance.

      And where is James Compton? Maisie is conflicted and beginning to doubt their relationship because the stamp on the last letter indicated London and not Canada. Is there affair to be short lived?
    • 4/5
      Enjoyable as always.
    • 4/5
      Maisie Dobbs is an independently wealthy young woman in 1930s London with a degree in psychology who works as an independent private investigator. In this book she is recruited by the English security services to work undercover at a Cambridge college looking for evidence of anti-government activity. She is quickly drawn into a murder investigation when the college principal is found dead in his office.Dobbs is a likeable character - intelligent, sensitive, supportive, kind - and displays believable skills in detection and deduction. Winspear writes about the period well and honestly and her supporting characters always feel fully rounded.Focused more on solving the mystery than on out-and-out action this is an absorbing and interesting book.
    • 4/5
      Maisie begins working for the secret service in this one.
    • 3/5
      I dropped this down to a three because after the awesome of last book this wasn't as strong. The mystery was so so, the side story with British Intelligence was mostly to set up the next book, I think. Also there was this weird side story with James Compton that kinda went no where.
    • 4/5
      In the eighth book in the Maisie Dobbs series, A Lesson in Secrets, Maisie is working for the Secret Service at a pacifist college in Cambridge. The Secret Service is particularly suspicious of what they see as the country’s biggest threat: communism, while basically ignoring the rise of fascism and Nazism.This is a solid entry in this series, and one with a slightly different perspective for Maisie. 4 stars
    • 4/5
      This is a good read, but not as good as previous ones in the series. I'm looking forward to reading the next one and hope it is better.
    • 3/5
      Still interesting as Maisie goes undercover (sort of). She keeps being picked up in cars for chats, and she always "alights the car". "alights" does not take an object. Maybe I'm doing the author a disservice and it's the reader who is misreading?
    • 4/5
      Maisie is recruited by the secret service and goes undercover as a professor at a small college. Questions about peace and war are explored since this college has as its aim the achievement of world peace. Ms. Winspear sets the stage for the coming conflict of WWII by taking a look at Nazi party sympathizers in Britain.
    • 4/5
      Maisie is beginning to adjust to the loss of Maurice Blanche, and to her new wealth, but her life is still in transition. As she is weighing her relationship with James Compton, and trying to convince her father to move from his cottage into the dower house, she is approached by Special Branch to take on a job rather different from her usual: On behalf of Special Branch and the Secret Service, she is asked to take a position as the junior lecturer in moral philosophy at the College of St. Francis in Cambridge, to look for any evidence of activity "not in the interest of the British Crown." The concerns of Special Branch and the Secret Service center around the pacifism and suspected leftist politics of the founder of the college and the senior staff.

      Almost as soon as she has settled into her new position, the founder and principal of the college, Greville Liddicote, is murdered. Maisie is told to leave the murder investigation to Special Branch, and concentrate on her own assignment, but of course it's not that simple. Investigating the staff of the college inevitably means uncovering information relevant to the murder.

      As Maisie makes her inquiries and gets to know the school and its people, she finds that Liddicote has a startling past, but not nearly so relevant to the Secret Service as they imagine. Meanwhile, with the First World War that has so dominated the series starting to fade into the past, rumblings of future troubles are making themselves felt, and Maisie finds the enthusiasm among some associated with the college for National Socialism and the rise of Adolph Hitler in Germany more disturbing than she can make her handlers understand.

      This is a quiet book, with disturbing overtones of what lies ahead, for Maisie, for her friends, and for England.

      Recommended.

      I borrowed this book from a friend.
    • 2/5
      This is my least favorite in the series so far. It was boring, to be quite honest. The plot in a nutshell: Maisie drives back and forth from London. Repeat. Scotland Yard police hang around, inconceivably not bothered by the fact that the person who found the body just up and disappeared. They don't care that the haven't interviewed one of the major suspects? Entirely unbelievable. Predictable Sandra side story. Maisie drives around some more. The end.

      I kept looking for some meat in the plot, but sadly, it wasn't to be found. I hope the next book returns to Winspear's usual standards.
    • 4/5
      Taking place in 1932 and underscoring Hitler's rising popularity among certain crowds throughout Great Britain and Europe, this is a fine addition to the Maisie Dobbs series, as full of nuance and twists and turns as the earlier novels.
    • 5/5
      Another excellent Maisie Dobbs mystery. This time secrets of the realm. Concern over the rise of Hitler. Still seeing James but no wish to marry him. Maisie values her work more.
    • 4/5
      Another great Maisie Dobbs mystery. If you like her, you'll like the book.
    • 4/5
      Anther great entry in the Maisie Hobbs series. This book has Maisie branching out and working for the secret service in addition to her own private investigation practice. This book also moves forward the history of the series and there is now a great deal of talk about the rise of the Nazi party in Germany and beyond. I loved the background stories and the actual murder mystery of this episode. Highly recommended series.
    • 3/5
      I've loved all of the Maisie Dobbs books up to this point but this one took me quite a while to get through. Still well-written but I think I prefer the books where Maisie and Billy work together in London instead of apart.
    • 5/5
      Set in the years following WWI in England, the Masie Dobbs series employs a pervading sense of gloom felt as the people deal with the deaths of so many, disabled veterans, high unemployment, and the truly poor lower class. This series allows a ‘richer’ society to glimpse the difficulty of the time, and the amazing changes as one of the poor, Masie, begins to climb the ladder to a better life, albeit with the help of those above her and her brilliant mind. While some may argue that this was unusual for the time with the stability of the British class system, it is doubtful that anyone in any country climbed that ladder without help. That being said, Masie is very aware of her class, and even though her former mentor bequeathed her a fortune, she does not feel easy stepping into the middle class. The darkness from some of Winspear’s earlier Masie Dobbs novels lightens as Masie feels less pressure to count pennies, deepens her relationship with James Compton, and uses her fortune to help Billy Beale and his family. Darkness looms again on the horizon as Special Branch requests that Masie investigate a college founded to study peace. When Masie moves to the college to teach, a murder interrupts her original investigation plans. As usual, Masie moves slowly and discovers all the undercurrents by the end of the book.I have enjoyed each Masie Dobbs book, because I find this time particularly interesting, and all the characters have such depth. I find myself retaining the story, and returning to different parts to examine them further as an excellent story should.
    • 5/5
      Since I first received the third book in this series, Pardonable Lies, I’ve been hooked on this historical-fiction-mystery series. It’s set in a pretty fascinating time period — the early 1930s, just before the Second World War began. It details the rise in status of a young woman who is quite the investigator, who rises above both her station and her gender to become a rousing success in her field. The mysteries are fascinating, the characters are believable, and all in all the series is one that it’s very easy to get hooked on. I know I have become a bit addicted to the books in the last almost six years.Book eight finds Maisie Dobbs adjusting to her new life. She has just inherited a rather substantial fortune thanks to her mentor, the late Dr. Maurice Blanche. She has also inherited a fairly permanent assignment with the British government, working with His Majesty’s Secret Service to root out threats to the crown. Her first assignment is to go under cover at a Cambridge college to determine if there are any activities going on there that the government should be concerned about. Of course, this is a Maisie Dobbs book, so that assignment is immediately complicated — in this case, by the apparent murder of the school’s founder. Maisie is immediately involved in both her investigation for the government AND the investigation of the murder, because she sees the two as intimately related.In addition to this (as if it isn’t enough!), Maisie’s personal life is growing increasingly complex. Her budding relationship with James Compton is a bit stressed, with his trip to Canada lasting much longer than he had intended. Her father is courting, her assistant Billy is about to become a father again, and her new secretary is convinced that her husband’s death was more than just an accident. Can Maisie keep all of these plates spinning, or will everything come crashing down around her in chaos?Dedicated readers know the answer to that one; the truly fascinating part of these books is the HOW as much as anything.
    • 4/5
      This 8th installment of the Maisie Dobbs series presents a compelling murder mystery and, as always, digs deeper into the society and issues of the day. Here, Winspear examines the role of women in the underground during World War I, the role of women working in war intelligence both on the home front and on the Continent, and the role of the National Socialist Party and Fascism in England in the years between the World Wars. The most interesting aspect of this story, for me, was learning about the treatment of Pacifist in England during World War I. Maisie sets to work using her new found wealth to give back and help those in need, just as she was once helped herself, and her relationship with James Compton adds a small bit of romance. I highly recommend this book and the entire series; however, I will suggest reading them in order.
    • 3/5
      The great thing about this series is that time passes, and people change. The first book started after WWI, and now, in the latest, it's 1932, and Hitler is starting to be seen as a threat. Maisie, too, has changed from the grieving and shell shocked young woman of the first book.
    • 4/5
      Its 1932 and Maisie is asked by the Secret Service and Special Branch to become a junior lecturer in a private college in Cambridge in order to report back on any activities that might not be in British interests. As always the events and repercussions of WWI loom large, the college has been founded by the writer of a children's book which may or may not have caused both Allied and German soldiers in the trenches to mutiny. As her investigation continues, Maisie becomes concerned about the influences that the Nazi Party has in certain quarters of British Society. But Maisie also has personal concerns, she wants help her assistant, Billy Beale find a new home, as well as help a friend from service, Sandra, who is newly widowed. Winspear brings all the threads together in an unsentimental snapshot of British Society in the early 1930s, where the sorrows and pains of WII were slowly being replaced by concerns as to what the political upheavals in Germany might bring.
    • 5/5
      I want to be completely honest in why I had chosen this book from Netgalley. There were actually two main reasons. The first is because growing up, my mom always said that she rarely knew anyone with her name, Maisie. It was a name that was passed down in the family for generations. However, my mom refused to name any of us with it because she felt it was too old fashioned.The second reason is because I have actually been looking into this period of history as I work on my family tree. So it was nice to see a fictitious piece about England set between the two World Wars.Even though this was the eighth book in the series and the first one I have read, I did not feel lost at all. I absolutely fell in love with the writing style of Jacqueline Winspear.I felt myself being transported back in time as I read through the adventures of Maisie as she hunted down clues to help solve the murder. This was not one of those mysteries with chase scenes, shoot outs, or other such action. Instead, it was more of a cerebral mystery where you follow along as she uncovers the truth.Now my sister loves to read cozy mysteries, but she has never read any of hers yet. So of course, I had to tell her all about it. She has already bought the first few books. She is going to pass them on to me so that I can start reading through the series. In conjunction with the Wakela's World Disclosure Statement, I received a product in order to enable my review. No other compensation has been received. My statements are an honest account of my experience with the brand. The opinions stated here are mine alone.
    • 5/5
      I love the Maisie Dobbs mystery series. Unlike so many on bookstore shelves these days, it's intelligently written and historically accurate. This, the eighth volume in the series, finds us at 1932. Maisie's mentor, Dr. Maurice Blanche, has died leaving her his entire estate, so Maisie is now in a much more secure financial position. She uses her new wealth to buy a house for her assistant, Billy Beale and his pregnant wife, Doreen. She also assists a former servant, Sandra, after her husband is killed in a suspicious industrial accident.The main plot, however, involves a new assignment given to Maisie by the British Secret Service. She is to pose as a lecturer in Philosophy at the College of St. Francis - a new school in Cambridge founded by a famous (or infamous?) pacifist - and to see if any suspicious activities "not in the interest of the Crown" are occurring. When the head of the college dies, Maisie is drawn into yet another murder investigation.In her investigations, she does find suspicious activities - group of Nazi sympathizers. However, the government men seem more concerned about the possibility of Communists at the college.With this volume we pass from the aftermath of World War I to events that will lead to the next war. Maisie's personal life, also seems to be becoming more settled as her relationship with James Compton seems to be growing into something more permanent and even her father is developing a late in life romantic attachment. I'm eagerly looking forward to the next installment in Maisie's life.
    • 4/5
      We've followed Maisie from her days as a maid in Lady Rowan Compton's estate, through her schooling and tutelage under the brilliant Dr. Maurice Blanche, her WWI service as a nurse in France, opening up her own private investigations/psychologist office, and now working undercover for the British secret intelligence as a university instructor in the current novel.Maisie takes on the job working to discover if there are any terrorists at the University. She hesitates at first, but remembers her late mentor Maurice's words to her that she needs to be open to the unexpected. While at the school, the dean is murdered, and Maisie finds herself assisting the police in their investigation as well.The dean had written a famous children's book about soldiers putting their weapons down and refusing to fight. There were rumors that this book had caused a large mutiny in France during WWI, with British and German soldiers laying down their weapons. This book plays a big part in the mystery, one that is intriguing indeed.I liked how this novel not only took Maisie out of her comfort zone of work, but forced her to face personal challenges as well. Her friend Sandra lost her husband, and Maisie took Sandra into her home and offered her a job. Sandra uses her position with Maisie to investigate her husband's death. I would like to see Sandra stay on as part of Maisie's office staff.Maisie worries about her father's health, and his refusal to move in with her at Maurice's home frustrates her. It is ironic that Maisie is so in tuned with other people's secrets and feelings, yet her father is able to hide something big from her.Billy Beale, her faithful assistant, is stubborn as well. Maisie has offered Billy a downpayment on a new home, one that will change his family's life forever and for the better, but Billy is hesitant to accept. The men in Maisie's life are frustrating her.And then there is her boyfriend James Compton, son of her benefactor, Lady Rowan. He is supposed to be away on business in Toronto, but Maisie finds out he has been in London. Is their relationship in trouble?I always learn something of historical interest in these novels, and in this one, we learn that women played a big part in wartime intelligence. Over 10,000 women worked for the Secret Service in London during the war, reporting troop movements, sabotaging the German enemy, and consorting with the enemy to get information. I will definitely be looking for information on this subject.The rise of the German Socialist Party, the Nazis, is on the horizon, and we see the beginning of the debate between the Brits who, weary of the lingering WWI problems, do not to wish to get involved in Germany's issues, and those Brits who see the dangers of the Nazi Party and Hitler's rise. I can't wait to see where Winspear takes this in future books.I really enjoyed reading the Maisie Dobbs series; I like Maisie as a strong female character, one young ladies can look up to. Not only is Maisie interesting, but the secondary characters are as well, and Winspear introduces many new ones in each book, rather than just relying on the ones we already know.I've learned much about Britain following WWI, an era I was unfamiliar with. It seems that while the methods of war have changed over the decades, the effects of it on the people who fought it, and those who love them, remain the same.If you like historical fiction with a strong female protagonist, and cozy mysteries, I highly recommend the Maisie Dobbs series.
    • 5/5
      Once again Jaqueline Winspear has created a delightful mystery featuring Maisie Dobbs. In this seventh book, Maisie finds herself working both on her own cases and for His Majesty's government while simultaneously trying on the mantle of junior lecturer in philosophy at St Francis College in Cambridge. One of the more interesting aspects of this particular book has to do with information about the use of women in the British Secret Service during WWI. Winspear continues to people her book with familiar and new characters who are multi-leveled and well described. As with the other Maisie Dobbs mysteries, I would highly recommend it.
    • 5/5
      I have loved this series from the beginning. I enjoy the depiction of both sides of English society during the period between the two Great Wars with the bonus of also having an interesting mystery in each one. Maisie dobbs is a fascinating character and we have seen her learn and grow while dealing with the effects of WWI on her life. In this episode we see her expanding her horizons in several ways and we get a glimpse of the problems facing England near the end of the long “weekend” before the breakout of WWII. I am eagerly awaiting the next installment.
    • 4/5
      Maisie is one of my favorite heroines. This book has Maisie working for Britain's Secret Service and working as a teacher at one Cambridge's Colleges. She is to uncover any radical activity that would threaten the Crown. She's only there one day when the head of the college is murdered. Meanwhile back in London, a former house maid, Sandra, of Lady Rowan's shows up at Maisie's office looking for work after her husband has been murdered. Billy has to investigate that on his own while awaiting the birth of another baby and his wife's fragile health. I miss the struggling making-ends-meet Maisie now that she's well-to-do and being courted by Viscount James Compton. I was hoping that she would get together with Straton.