This is my third book in the bestselling Maisie Dobbs series. She is a winning heroine; I love her gumption, especially for the era in which she is a detective, her investigative skills, and the plots of these terrific historical mysteries. In Pardonable Lies, Maisie is embroiled in three cases. First, proving 13-year-old Avril Jarvis innocent of first-degree murder in the death of her uncle. Second, verifying that Sir Cecil Lawton’s pilot son Ralph was killed in a plane crash during the Great War. Third, looking into the circumstances of the death of her college friend Priscilla Evernden Partridge’s brother during the war.
Maisie faces grave danger and emotional upheaval as she returns to France, where she served as a battlefield nurse. The plot of filled with tension, ah hah moments, rich characters, and long held secrets. Winspear’s attention to historical details is always impressive; I always feel like I am walking right beside her. Miss Dobbs isn’t very likeable, though; she’s aloof and cold. I’m hoping the next book in the series makes her more human. I didn’t care for the New Age babble and LGBT storyline.
Favorite quote: “My child, when a mountain appears on the journey, we try to go to the left, then to the right; we try to find the easy way to navigate our way back to the easier path.” He paused. “But the mountain is there to be crossed. It is on that pilgrimage, as we climb higher, that we are forced to shed the layers upon layers we have carried for so long. Then we find that our load is lighter, and we have come to know something of ourselves in the perilous climb.”― Jacqueline Winspear, Pardonable Lies
Have you read this book? How would you rate it? I rate it 4 stars.