Wednesday, April 6, 2011

A Lesson in Secrets by Jacqueline Winspear

In the 8th book in the series, A Lesson in Secrets, Maisie is beginning to recuperate from the loss of her mentor and great friend, Maurice Blanche. He left Maisie most of his fortune, including his house outside of London, where Maisie grew up. Maisie is coming to terms with not only Maurice's death, but her new found prosperity.

In the book Maisie is recruited by Scotland Yard and the British Secret Service to go undercover at a small college in Cambridge. The College of St. Francis was established and run by Greville Liddicote, a former author of children's books and well known peace lover. One of Liddicote's books was banished in England during and after the war because it supposedly caused a mass desertion due to its pacifistic nature. And with the rise of the Nazi party in Germany causing much stir on the continent, the secret service and the Yard want to find out if there are any rumblings going on at the small college.

Pretending to be a philosophy professor Maisie ingratiates herself into campus life and finds that things are certainly not as they appear.

In A Lesson in Secrets, Maisie's relationship with James Compton grows. Though I wish Compton was in the story more, we were at least able to see Maisie's longing for Compton the longer he was away from her. Now Maisie must learn to have a serious relationship and a profession that at times can be dangerous.

As WWII looms in the all to near future, I'm looking forward to what Winspear will do with our fearless investigator. It can't come fast enough.

4 Stars

No comments:

Post a Comment