“Journey to Munich”

Maisie Dobbs is a brave, adventurous British woman, who has just returned to England from war-torn Spain.  The year is 1938 and Maisie, working with the British secret service, has agreed to go on an undercover mission to Germany to rescue an imprisoned British citizen.

Maisie has quite a past.  Author Jacqueline Winspear has written twelve other Maisie Dobbs novels.  The author,therefore,  must bring first-time readers of the series, I am one of them, up to speed about what transpired in Maisie’s life before novel number thirteen.  And so much has happened. 

The author does her best to acquaint the reader with important information about what has happened in Maisie’s life.  The key event that impacts on Maisie and this story is that fact that Maisie has lost her husband and suffered a miscarriage.   She still carries the wounds from those events and is reluctant to act as an agent for the government.

For fans of this series,  “Journey to Munich” is a non-threatening suspense  story with a few twist and  turns that prove interesting.  Since this is my first Maisie Dobbs novel, I felt I was always playing catch-up trying to piece together bits and pieces of Maisie’s past.  The author does capture the fear and danger of Germany on the brink of war, but some of the plot points are too contrived.  Many of the characters were too stereotypical.

I would suggest to readers that before reading this latest novel, they read earlier ones to get a full understanding of what makes Maisie Dobbs tick.