Review: Among the Mad by Jacqueline Winspear

Among the Mad
Author: Jacqueline Winspear
Published: February 17, 2009
Genre: mystery
Hardcover: 303 pages
Source: borrowed from the library


My Rating: 3.5 stars


Synopsis (from GoodReads): It’s Christmas Eve 1931. On the way to see a client, Maisie Dobbs witnesses a man commit suicide on a busy London street. The following day, the prime minister’s office receives a letter threatening a massive loss of life if certain demands are not met—and the writer mentions Maisie by name. After being questioned and cleared by Detective Chief Superintendent Robert MacFarlane of Scotland Yard’s elite Special Branch, she is drawn into MacFarlane’s personal fiefdom as a special adviser on the case. Meanwhile, Billy Beale, Maisie’s trusted assistant, is once again facing tragedy as his wife, who has never recovered from the death of their young daughter, slips further into melancholia’s abyss. Soon Maisie becomes involved in a race against time to find a man who proves he has the knowledge and will to inflict death and destruction on thousands of innocent people. And before this harrowing case is over, Maisie must navigate a darkness not encountered since she was a nurse in wards filled with shell-shocked men.


My Thoughts: I really enjoy the Maisie Dobbs series and this book just made me love the series even more. Still centered around the after effects of World War I, Maisie must work with Scotland Yard to find a madman before he goes on a killing spree in London. I thought that this novel was her most engaging to date. Maybe that it was on a bigger scale than before, but there was something that really pulled me to this story. I loved the mystery of this one and the people that she got to work with at Scotland Yard. I also liked Billy's story in this novel. I liked the way that Winspear brought up the difficulty of losing a child and the impact that it can have on a family, especially around the holidays.  I felt like this whole novel was a great addition to this series and I hope that it grows from this one, with Maisie taking on bigger cases and not entirely focused on WWI.