The combination of straight thriller and psychological drama did not quite work for me, though it’s hard to put my finger on why. When she’s asked to help British intelligence for not-terribly-clear reasons, Maisie also has to come to terms with a person who betrayed her in the past, an act that led to an unbearable personal tragedy. That was one obstacle to my enjoyment of the story the other was the curiously convoluted plot. For longtime followers of the story, this might awaken pleasurable memories of well-known characters and incidents, but without that context I found such passages somewhat dry and repetitive. Around the edges, though, there is a good deal of exposition about Maisie’s past experiences and acquaintances, which, while giving necessary information for new readers, tended to stall the action. The heart of the story, in which Maisie travels to Munich on the eve of the second World War to try to rescue a captured inventor, works on its own as a chilling glimpse into Hitler’s regime.
(I had read the first book, Maisie Dobbs, but that was such a long time ago that I barely remember it.) Would it work as a standalone, or would it be too dependent on former episodes? A bit of both, I would say. To help answer this question, I purposely avoided reading earlier books in the series before starting Journey to Munich. If you haven’t gotten into it yet, you might wonder whether you can jump in so late in the game.
If you’ve been reading the series all along, you will probably know already that you want to read this one.
Journey to Munich is the twelfth entry in the bestselling Maisie Dobbs series, which follows a former London parlourmaid through her career as a private investigator and beyond. Jacqueline Winspear, Journey to Munich (Harper, 2016) But the Secret Service may have other ideas. Traveling into the heart of Nazi Germany, Maisie encounters unexpected dangers - and finds herself questioning whether it's time to return to the work she loved. Her nemesis - the man she holds responsible for her husband's death - has learned of her journey, and is also desperate for her help. The British government is not alone in its interest in Maisie's travel plans. Because the man's wife is bedridden and his daughter has been killed in an accident, the Secret Service wants Maisie - who bears a striking resemblance to the daughter - to retrieve the man from Dachau, on the outskirts of Munich. The German government has agreed to release a British subject from prison, but only if he is handed over to a family member. On a fine yet chilly morning, as she walks towards Fitzroy Square - a place of many memories - she is intercepted by Brian Huntley and Robert MacFarlane of the Secret Service. It's early 1938, and Maisie Dobbs is back in England.
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