6553733I’ve talked about my binge-reading of the Maisie Dobbs mysteries here so won’t go into the details again, but I will say that I have read and enjoyed all of the novels in the series (and we are now on volume 10 and a little gap in the story) and they are just lovely books to read. I love Maisie as a character and one of the most enjoyable things is the development of her story over time informed by the cases she’s investigating, all harking back to her experiences in WWI. So when you read this and next three mini-reviews please keep this in mind as I want to avoid repeating myself. 🙂

And Lee Child is a massive fan apparently, so there you go.

What year are we in? 1932

What’s Maisie’s case?

In The Mapping of Love and Death, the remains of an American of English heritage who joined the British Army as a cartographer have been found and there are questions about how he actually died. Maisie is asked by his parents to look into the matter, and in particular to find the young English nurse with whom he fell in love.

What did I learn that I didn’t know before?

All the stuff about the work of cartographers in WWI was fascinating, and I also learned a little bit about the early days of documentary film-making.

What’s happening in Maisie’s personal life?

A key figure  is coming to the end of his life, but love is on the horizon.

Did I enjoy it?

Absolutely, the story of the young soldier far from home and finding love and how the consequences of that all spilled over into the present was very affecting, and I was glad the ending didn’t tie everything up into a neat bow.