Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear

What many of my generation remember learning about the first World War could be summed up as –

1. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand helped to touch it off.

2. It occurred, roughly, during 1914 to 1918
3. Snoopy was a World War 1 flying ace who flew a Sopwith Camel biplane.

Okay, I didn’t know it was a Sopwith Camel until I looked it up.

I find myself of two minds about the Maisie Dobbs series.  There are many things to enjoy, but there are aspects that bothered me.  I would be reading along and suddenly something would happen that would throw me out of the story in consternation.

Let’s start with the historical context which is, I think, the strongest part of this book. 

Winspear’s paternal grandfather came back from WWI shell shocked, which might be referred to as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder today, and with serious leg wounds.  She said in one interview that he was removing shrapnel from his legs for the rest of his life.  His lungs were also damaged by gas.  Her maternal grandmother was a munitions worker in an arsenal, where she was partially blinded in an explosion that killed several of the girls she worked with. 

This is a topic which Winspear is deeply attached to and her writing shares her fascination with us.  It has led her to write 9 novels with the 10th on the way in March of this year.  

Now, who is Maisie Dobbs?  Maisie is, in some ways, an orphan because she lost her mother at a young age and then her father sent her into service, admittedly for her own good.  She is highly intelligent and even attended Girton College (Cambridge)  though women were not allowed to actually receive degrees at that time.  She is a former nurse, during WWI.  She is a private inquiry agent and a psychologist.  She is also a bit psychic, which some people may be able to enjoy but it really bothered me when it cropped up.

The first novel, Maisie Dobbs, takes us along as Maisie opens her own office for the first time, and she meets Billy Beale, a handyman who ends up helping her with her office and eventually cases.  He remembers her as the nurse at the casualty clearing station in France during the war 12 years before, who helped calm him while the doctor saved his leg and his gratitude is heartfelt.  As he continually tells her, “You need anything done, Miss, Billy Beale’s your man.”

I have read the complaint that at times, it seems as if there is too much detail in the accounts, every movement and every bit of clothing described.  I have felt that way myself, but as we see, that is the way Maisie was trained by her mentor, Maurice Blanche, to investigate. 

“During her apprenticeship with him, he had been insistent that nothing was to be left to memory, no stone to remain unturned, and no small observation uncataloged.  Everything, absolutely everything, right down to the color of the shoes the subject wore on the day in question, must be noted.  The weather must be described, the direction of the wind, the flowers in bloom, the food eaten.  Everything must be described and preserved.”

Maisie’s first case independent of her mentor and former employer, Maurice Blanche, arrives in the form of Christopher Davenham.  Davenham is concerned that his wife is having an affair. 

Maisie agrees to look into the situation, on the provision that when she presents her findings, they will discuss it.  She feels a responsibility for what the ramifications of any information she uncovers will have on the couple.  It is here we must remember that Maisie is not only a private enquiry agent, but also a psychologist.

Maisie sets out to follow the young wife, Celia. 

“Maisie copied the woman’s posture as she walked, and immediately felt her stomach clutch and a shiver go through her.  Then sadness descended, like a dark veil across her eyes.  Maisie knew that Celia Davenham was weeping as she walked, and that in her sadness she was searching for strength.”

I confess, this is a bit much for me.  I think that there is a lot to be said for observing someone’s posture, and even copying it might help a detective think about what state of mind or body would put someone in that posture, but this takes it a step beyond empathy or intuition, to have her “stomach clutch and a shiver” run through her.

You can hold a belief, you may even be correct, but the only way to know what a person is thinking and feeling is to ask them and then trust that they are telling you the truth and that they know their own mind.  Anything else is conjecture.  Just once I’d like Maisie to find out she’s wrong.  But of course, Maisie is nearly always right.

Maisie follows Celia to a cemetery in the town of Nether Green, where she places flowers and weeps over a grave with asingle name, Vincent, engraved on the headstone.

As Maisie learns more about Vincent and how he died, she pursues her own interest in his death.  Coincidentally, it seems James, the son of Lady Rowan and Lord Compton, is thinking about moving to The Retreat.

The book now shifts back in time to the Spring of 1910 and moves forward from there for 135 of the 295 pages of the book. It's rather unusual but, to my mind, the best part of the book.  She covers a great deal of time in those pages, ending in the Spring of 1917.

We are given a full look at Maisie's service ala the PBS series Upstairs Downstairs.

Maisie gets to visit her father on Sundays, her day off. On Wednesday's she is sent to the public library to get books for the cook and butler, as well as herself, but Maisie becomes fascinated by the books in the library at the house.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, Lady Rowan catches Maisie in the library reading early one morning after a late party. Maisie fears she is going to lose her job but Lady Rowan has other ideas.

Lady Rowan proposes to have Maurice Blanche tutor Maisie (though much of her studying will have to be self-directed, as she already has been.)

Eventually, Maisie is off to college and getting settled in her rooms when we are introduced to one of my favorite characters, who will become a friend of Maisie’s for years to come (throughout the series.)

“Suddenly the loud crash of a door swinging back on its hinges, followed by the double thump of two large leather suitcases landing one after the other on the floor of the room next door, heralded the arrival of her neighbor.  Amplified by the empty corridor, she heard a deep sigh followed by the sound of a foot kicking one of the cases… Maisie heard footsteps coming toward her room.  A fashionably dressed girl with dark chestnut hair stood in front of her, and held out her finely manicured hand.  “Priscilla Evernden.  Delighted to meet you – Maisie Dobss, isn’t it?  Wouldn’t happen to have a cigarette, would you?”

Priscilla eventually takes off to drive an ambulance in the war effort and Maisie decides to enlist for nursing service.

She is quickly sent to France and her experiences in training, travel, her post in a clearing station for wounded, and being courted by a doctor are all depicted sensitively and painfully at times.  

Then we are back in 1929, and to the mystery, delving right in with an explanation of how James is suffering from his war wounds and considering moving to The Retreat. 

It’s a bit of a long out take and while very enjoyable, has completely departed from the flow of inquiry in a mystery.  It’s like we’ve had a book within a book.  Frankly, the stronger of the two books for me.

I will say that the ending works for some but not for others.  Suffice it to say, it involves singing.

Maisie does bother me as a character a bit.  The character was created as a little too nice, a little too earnest – her only flaws come from her trying too hard and being too good.  I think this does get better in subsequent books but I have the feeling the author had trouble letting her character falter.

Is this a novel or a mystery?  If it is a mystery series, are they cozy or detective fiction?  What is the difference? 

I would say the first book is more a novel than a mystery.  Subsequent books provide the reader with a more strongly plotted mystery.

You would think these books would be detective fiction since the main protagonist is a private investigator but the clues are not all laid out for the reader.  There are too many leaps in the process that are put down to Maisie doing things in the background that the reader isn’t privy to or letting her make leaps in deduction based on information she learned in her past that we don’t have.  Simply too many coincidences and intuitions.  It falls much better into the “cozy” category, which generally means minimal references to sex, violence, foul language, drug usage, etc.

In summary, the Upstairs Downstairs type atmosphere is interesting and the author is at her best when writing eloquently about what people suffered during and because of “The Great War.” 

The mystery does get stronger in subsequent books, but it’s never the strongest part of the book. 

Read Maisie Dobbs for the history, the relationships and the light, cozy mystery.

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

Code Name Verity
by Elizabeth Wein

Wow.  I just finished Code Name Verity and I feel on the verge of crying again.  I feel wrung out, like I just lived part of this with them.

I did not cry through most of the book, until I got to the scene where the Frenchwoman treats one girl so kindly, and then again when the author is describing how the children saw a classmate being guillotined to death. It wasn't the fact of it, it was how she brought the reality home in a way that was easy to relate to.

“...what if it had been my old friend Beryl? Or Beryl's sister? Because that's what it's like, schoolmates being guillotined as spies. I didn't understand before – really didn't understand. Being a kid and worrying that a bomb might kill you is terrible. But being a kid and worrying that the police might cut your head off is something else entirely. I haven't words for it. Every fresh broken horror is something that I just didn't understand until I came here.”

Fresh broken horror. Yes, there are horrific things about this book, but they really happened to someone during that war. They are made fresh and immediate in the first person voice and that voice rings true. The first two- thirds of the book is told by one person and the last third is told by another.

It’s hard to know what to say about a book like this.  I don't want to give much away because I don't want to rob anyone of the experience that they would have in reading it, but I must tell you something to let you know how good it was.

It begins with Verity in a Gestapo prison, during World War II, having been caught as a spy.  She has been tortured and has agreed to give them information in exchange for her written confession and knowledge.  She is giving them the sets of wireless codes and you will have no idea what that means until you are three-quarters of the way through the book, but it’s important, so keep reading. 

This is a spy novel, remember that.  People are never who they seem.

Verity is very flippant at times, gallows humor.  “(About the paraffin, kerosene, whatever it is.  I do not really believe you have a liter of kerosene to waste on me.  Or do you get it on the black market?  How do you claim the expense?  1 lt. highly explosive fuel for execution of British spy.  Anyway, I will do my best to spare you the expense.)”

There's so much detail that brings the story to life, even ones that have been smudged. Everything was plausible, and it was clear the author did a great deal of research and that she loved her subject. It was fantastic, truly.

There are things that some reviewers said they just didn’t buy but when they elucidate, I hear them saying that it didn’t fit into their stereotypical view of what a Nazi was or how they acted, such as Von Linden letting Verity write out all this information.  If you accept that people are individuals, who were drawn into the Nazi war machine, then it begins to make much more sense.

The person who performed this book on CD (read just isn't strong enough a word) was exceptional. Even now, as I go back to read a passage or two at the beginning, I can hear Verity’s Scottish accent, light at times and stronger when she’s angry.

As a writer I felt I learned something about the craft in this book. How clearly the voice of the character, not the writer, comes through. That is what to strive for.

I don’t think I can recommend this book strongly enough.  Every book is not for every reader but this one was definitely for me.  I hope it is for you too.

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

Her Fearful Symmetry
By Audrey Niffenegger

Elspeth has been sending letters to Edie, her twin, in America every two weeks.  Edie has a mailbox where she receives the letters and then reads and burns them.  Finally, a letter arrives which says good-bye.  Elspeth is dying of cancer.

“Elspeth turned her face towards the door.  She wanted to call out, Robert, but her throat was suddenly full.  She felt as though her soul were attempting to climb out by way of her oesophagus.”

Edie is raising two daughters, Valentina and Julia, twins themselves.  In her will, Elspeth leaves the twins her flat but the bequest comes with strings.  Their parents cannot visit the flat, and the girls must live there for a year before selling.

The other people in the building next to Highgate Cemetery are dealing with changes as well.  Elspeth’s lover, Robert, lives in one of the flats.  He has never had to deal with losing someone. 

The other tenant, Martin, has an obsessive compulsive disorder and is agoraphobic.  His wife of 23 years, Marijke, has just left him to go back to her native land.  She would welcome him coming too but doesn’t expect he ever will.  He is too bound by his own mind.

“Check the gas.  Wash my hands.  Wash them very thoroughly, so there can be no mistake.  Use stronger soap.  Use bleach.  The floor is dirty.  Wash it.  Walk around the dirty part without touching it.  Use as few steps as possible. Spread towels over the floor to keep the contamination from spreading.  Wash the towels.  Again.  Again.”

As the twins arrive from America, Robert and Martin are getting through the days, dealing with their respective losses, but Elspeth has not completely left.  In fact, she is getting stronger.

The writing is pensive, elegant, involved.  Even a simple description of Marijke’s apartment is rife with meaning and emotion even as it gambols. 

“It had pitched ceilings, heavy beams, whitewashed walls.  Her futon occupied one corner; her clothes hung in another corner behind a curtain.  She had a table with two chairs, a tiny kitchen, a window that overlooked the little crooked street, a vase of freesias on the windowsill.  She had a comfortable chair and a lamp.  For more than a year now this room had been her haven, fortress, retreat, her triumphant, undiscoverable gambit in her marital game of hide-and-seek.  Standing there, clasping the earrings in her hand, Marijke saw her snug room as a lonely place.  Apartment.  A place to be apart.  She shook her head to change her thoughts and opened Martin’s letter.”

It is an unusual novel with some very lovely writing and some truly horrific incidents.  I was intrigued, transported and entertained.  I would recommend it.

The Online Identity Theft Prevention Kit

The Online Identity Theft Prevention Kit
From the Editors of Atlantic Publishing Company

Okay, this may not seem like much of a story, but I’ve been hearing a lot of stories lately about how people’s accounts were hacked and how difficult it was to get their money back.  This book is about making sure you don’t have your own tragedy. 

“There is some good news in all this: Identity thieves do not like hard targets.  The whole goal of stealing identities is to collect information as fast as possible to make as much money as possible.”

People think of identity theft as a thief stealing their social security number so that he or she can open accounts or do something in their name.  A seemingly more prevalent identity theft these days is stealing credit card or bank account information so that the thief can buy something using your money or credit.

Since more and more of our accounts are strictly or partially online, identity theft has gotten easier and more prevalent.  “If you have online accounts, these are most at risk for identity theft.  You do not even need to know a person’s name to steal this kind of money – all you need is a screen name and password.”

Most of us are far too lax in creating our online passwords and keeping our antivirus and spyware software up to date.  It's probably impossible to guard against everything but make it difficult for the thieves. The authors suggest creating a password that combines letters and numbers and ,if possible, special characters like exclamation points and asterisks.

This book covers the background of identity theft, different types and who and why they do it.  Though the title suggests it is mostly about online identity theft, it covers a great deal about offline identity theft too.

In fact, “victim information shows that over 25 percent of all identity theft victims know their attacker.”  It could be a friend, family member or co-worker.  Make sure your purses are locked up at work, ladies!  You don’t know what stresses your co-workers might be under that would make them do foolish things. 

The chapter on how identity can be stolen online is dense with information on what sensitive information thieves may be looking for online and the different ways they might go about procuring it – hacking, bots, backdoors, spyware, spam, phishing, spoofing, fake websites, common scams, and even common offline identity theft scams.

They even cover how to read your credit report, what to do if your identity has been stolen, what to do if it’s a family member who is responsible, and other resources to help you if you are a victim of identity theft.   

This book is a great resource for making yourself a harder target for identity thieves and it’s something all of us should pay attention to.

The Hunger Fix by Pam Peeke, MD, MPH, FACP

The Hunger Fix

By Pam Peeke, MD, MPH, FACP

Okay, I can’t give this book points for writing style.  It’s a little dramatized for my taste and Peeke also uses some ridiculously cute branding like calling an epiphany an epiphaME.  (Really?  I guess it’s still about having an epiphany, just a more annoying one.)  However, some of the information offered is very valuable and something I had not previously heard elsewhere.

Peeke’s contention is that “Food addiction is real… in your struggles with food, you may be tussling with an addiction that science has finally proved is every bit as powerful and painful as one to cocaine, heroin, alcohol, or nicotine.”

Some of the most valuable information comes in the beginning of the book, regarding how certain foods, like sugar and refined carbohydrates, affect our brain chemistry and gene expression.

“Chronic exposure to processed foods – science–fair projects packed with sky-high salt, unhealthy fat, and refined sugars – have tapped into our most basic instincts, turning our neurochemistry, our brain tissue, even our very gene expression against us.”

The simple way that junk food actually changes our brain chemistry is dramatic and enlightening, “these neurologically toxic False Fixes can quickly exhaust and wipe out half the population of your brain’s dopamine receptors, which in turn only increase your appetite for more and more of your favorite False Fix.”

There is good news though, that you can turn this change around.  “The Dopamine System Can Rebuild Itself – Your brain is capable of a broad range of reward responses.  Our job is to help you fine-tune your brain and find that optimal and satisfying level of pleasure, derived from your own natural reward system.”

One simple statement was very revealing about how junk food affects our bodies.  “The New York Times reported on a series of primate experiments that are being done to determine the root causes of obesity.  Interestingly, these studies have found that primates given access to high-fat chow don’t actually begin to gain excessive weight until they start drinking a fruit punch with high fructose corn syrup – in an amount that’s about equivalent to a human drinking one can of soda per day.  Then they start to consume about twice as any calories as a normal-weight monkey.”

Something she didn’t address but that I found interesting was how much protein to eat.  I found I was eating a great deal of protein from various sources with her eating plan and wondered if this was dangerous for my kidneys so I did a little research and found this very informative article from Livestrong.com – How Much Protein is Right for You? By Mike Roussell where he notes, “The U.S. Department of Agriculture, meanwhile, has a recommended dietary allowance (RDA) of 0.36 grams of protein per pound of body weight.”  (Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/556322-how-much-protein-is-right-for-you/#ixzz2H1afOvuB) 

Low and behold, that was exactly what I was eating now.  I would say it has cut down my cravings for refined carbohydrates tremendously.

Peeke does make some statements in this book that I take issue with.  Her contention that “If you’re a moderately active woman, the general daily range is from 1,200 to 1,600 calories, based on age and activity level” would not work for me. 

Another statement Peeke made was about one woman having bariatric surgery.  “Monique realizes that while this surgery did save her life, GI surgery is not brain surgery – she knows that she, like anyone striving to shed unwanted body fat, had to engage her mind to combat her typical compulsive and addictive eating habits.”  To me, that says that changing her eating habits and doing the mental work, not the surgery, is what changed her health, not the surgery itself.

Peeke offers a wide variety of tools for change.  She leads you through finding your focus through your epiphany and figuring out what your healthy hunger in life is.  Meditation, exercise, healthy satisfying foods and strengthening your ability to resist unhealthy fixes from junk food are all key aspects of the plan.  The food plan has some similarities in nature to Atkins, South Beach and Protein Power.  You eat whole foods with healthy protein and limiting refined carbohydrates, particularly later in the day.

The steps are fairly simple but taken together, are a strong plan for change.  For example, the simple four steps for a pantry makeover include “Toss out all False Fixes.”  “Scan for Sugars”– get rid of foods containing high fructose corn syrup, and anything with a sugar in the first three ingredients.  “Count your ingredients” and get rid of things with three or more ingredients you can’t pronounce or more than 10 ingredients total.  (I think some common sense is useful here, if your granola has more than ten ingredients because there are a variety of seeds included, it’s probably okay, as long as sugar isn’t one of the top three ingredients.)  Finally, “Minimize canned foods.”

There are some annoying things about the tone and style of this book and some things I just plain don’t agree with, but wading through them is well worth the useful information that I did find.  If you are looking for new information to help you improve your dietary choices, I would recommend this book.