Skip to main content

Messenger of Truth by Jacqueline Winspear: A review

Artist Nicholas Bassington-Hope is a lightning rod, attracting both passionate admiration from his supporters and passionate anger and even hate from his detractors. On the night before the opening of his exhibition at a famed Mayfair gallery, Bassington-Hope falls to his death from some scaffolding as he prepares to hang his masterpiece. He was alone at the time. Or was he? Was it really an accident or was it murder? The police rule an accident. His twin sister Georgina isn't so sure. 

On the advice of her former mentor at Girton College, Georgina enlists the aid of fellow Girton graduate Maisie Dobbs to investigate and discover the truth. As Maisie pursues her inquiries, she finds herself strongly attracted to the Bohemian lifestyle of the Bassington-Hope family, artists all, except for the eldest daughter Noelle, the practical one in the family.

At the same time, Maisie's personal life is in a shambles, as she struggles to find a civil way to break off a romantic relationship that she has come to realize isn't going anywhere and is one that she doesn't really want. She still has not completely mended the breach with her teacher and mentor Maurice Blanche, and to top it off, tragedy strikes when the daughter of her assistant Billy Beale is struck with deadly diphtheria. Then his two sons also get the disease. Maisie is beset with anxieties and concerns but still must struggle to focus on keeping faith with her client and giving her her best effort. 

But as she probes deeper into the mystery, she uncovers more and more concerning the secretive Nicholas and his circle of artist friends, as well as his younger brother who it seems may have been involved with some underworld characters and who Nicholas may have been attempting to extricate from his difficulties. Could those associations have led to his death?

Once again, Maisie's uncanny, almost supernatural, intuition guides her through the maze of information and clues and leads her to a solution that will eventually bring peace to her client, which is always Maisie's ultimate goal.

Jacqueline Winspear again, in her fourth Maisie Dobbs mystery, recreates the atmosphere of the early thirties in London; the desperation of jobless men trying to find a way to care for and feed their families, the anguish of parents with sick children and no money for doctors or medicine, and, above all, the haunted and sorrowful memories of those who served in and survived the Great War, many of them with injuries both physical and mental that will never heal. One feels the sadness and depression suffered by an entire society in that long ago period. Ms. Winspear has done her research on the period very well indeed.
Labels:

Comments

  1. SnapJuly 31, 2012 at 5:26 AM

    I love this series. Seems like I'm always waiting on one author or another to WRITE FASTER! :D :D :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dorothy BordersJuly 31, 2012 at 9:39 AM

      Isn't it annoying that they can't write as fast as we can read, Snap?

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Poetry Sunday: Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver

How about we share another Mary Oliver poem? After all, you can never have too many of those. In this one, the poet seems to acknowledge that it is often hard to simply live in and enjoy the moment, perhaps because we are afraid it can't last. She urges us to give in to that moment and fully experience the joy. Although "much can never be redeemed, still, life has some possibility left." Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is no...
19 comments
Read more

Poetry Sunday: Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney

My mother was a farm wife and a prodigious canner. She canned fruit and vegetables from the garden, even occasionally meat. But the best thing that she canned, in my opinion, was blackberry jam. Even as I type those words my mouth waters!  Of course, before she could make that jam, somebody had to pick the blackberries. And that somebody was quite often named Dorothy. I think Seamus Heaney might have spent some time among the briars plucking those delicious black fruits as well, so he would have known that "Once off the bush the fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour." They don't keep; you have to get that jam made in a hurry! Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney Late August, given heavy rain and sun For a full week, the blackberries would ripen. At first, just one, a glossy purple clot Among others, red, green, hard as a knot. You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust ...
6 comments
Read more

Poetry Sunday: Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman

You probably remember poet Amanda Gorman from her appearance at the inauguration of President Biden. She read her poem "The Hill We Climb" on that occasion. After the senseless slaughter in Uvalde this week, she was inspired to write another poem which was published in The New York Times. It seemed perfect for the occasion and so I stole it in order to feature it here, just in case you didn't get a chance to read it in the Times . Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman Everything hurts, Our hearts shadowed and strange, Minds made muddied and mute. We carry tragedy, terrifying and true. And yet none of it is new; We knew it as home, As horror, As heritage. Even our children Cannot be children, Cannot be. Everything hurts. It’s a hard time to be alive, And even harder to stay that way. We’re burdened to live out these days, While at the same time, blessed to outlive them. This alarm is how we know We must be altered — That we must differ or die, That we must triumph or try. ...
24 comments
Read more