Reviews with content warning for Suicide - Maisie Dobbs

The mystery was interesting and the characters were great; I just really didn’t care for the pacing or the way the plot unfolded. Basically, in the beginning of the book the main mystery is all lead up to, but when it finally gets to the thick of it all of a sudden we are going back into Maudie’s backstory. That parts, although interesting, takes up half the book. Then it gets back to the main mystery and it’s like whiplash. If the book had been written in chronological order it would have been far more enjoyable.

Historic Mystery, War Trauma, Good Character Development

Content Warnings

kristywebb's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

knit_the_resistance's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I'm so glad my mom recommended this series. I think I will enjoy listening to them in order. I thought it was an excellent reflection of the impact of WWI on the lives of young people in Great Britain and made a sad context for the mystery.

Content Warnings

kaleys23's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

Content Warnings

astropova's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Content Warnings

jeannine's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

What a start to a series. Not only do we have a fascinating investigation, there’s 100 pages of backstory that introduces Maisie and all of the relent characters. I didn’t expect to cry my eyes out over the personal part of the story. I’m so dehydrated that I need a glass of water!

The fast pace of the book had my flying through it - I finished in less than a day and am eager to gobble up the next installment.

Content Warnings

rachaelbunny's review

Go to review page

challenging emotional sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Well written but poorly edited. The first half of the book dragged so much that I nearly abandoned it. The chapters about how Lady Rowen met Monsieur Blanche or about Maisie’s childhood seemed overly drawn out. I understand why Winspear wrote them, but they should have been significantly trimmed in the editing process or had their information sprinkled throughout the story instead of taking multi-chapter breaks to have flashbacks unrelated to the plot.
I plan on reading the second in the series and I am hoping that it is better paced.

Content Warnings

library_kb's review

Go to review page

informative mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

I listened to this on audiobook, which was really well read. And, I did enjoy it, as long as I thought about parts of the book rather than the whole thing. I am unsure if I will continue on with the series, but I can see that some of my problems with this book will not show up in future books. My main problems with the book had to do with pacing and characterization. The pacing for this book really didn't work for me. I was really interested in the mystery set up at the beginning of the book, but then that was all put on pause for a very extended (like 40% of the book) flashback, which was interesting, but since I was waiting for the mystery to be solved, really slowed down the pace of the book for me. For me, I probably would have preferred the flashbacks to be interspersed with the present mystery. Similarly, I felt like the main character Maisie was kind of set up as a perfect character, brilliant, always knows the right thing to do/say, etc. Sometimes I felt like her perfection was overemphasized, and the depth of her characterization really always came from outside sources like her relationship with Simon. However, I could see that future books, which will need less setup on Maisie's background and can focus more on the mystery aspects. I did really enjoy the mystery (even if it wrapped up very quickly at the end, and used the explaining in retrospect trope that I don't love) and I really did enjoy the WWI historical aspects of the book, especially if I ignored the fact that there was an unsolved mystery still hanging over my head!

Content Warnings

More...