This is third in the Maisie Dobbs series. It was my favorite so far, so I’m looking forward to continuing this series.
In Pardonable Lies, Maisie is working on three separate cases: helping 14-year-old Avril Jarvis, who’s been accused of murdering her stepfather, finding out more about her friend Priscilla’s brother, who disappeared during World War I, and working for Sir Cecil Lawton, who promised his wife on her deathbed that he would search for their son, who was also reported dead during WWI. At the same time, there are several attempts on Maisie’s life by persons unknown. Of course, by the end of the novel a few of these plots have intertwined.
So, there’s a lot happening in this book, and a few times it was hard to keep it all straight. But for the most part, it was easy to remember what was happening and keep the characters straight. A big part of that was due to how interesting I found the story.
What I’ve always liked best about the Maisie Dobbs books is the way they really bring to life the time period between the world wars. Sure, you learn about WWI in school and the numbers of people who died, but these books are so good at hammering home just how devastating the deaths were to the people left behind, many of whom (like Maisie) also have PTSD from their own time spent serving their country during the war. Pardonable Lies is no exception, and really is quite moving in its depiction of how WWI destroyed so many families.
In addition, the attempts on Maisie’s life were surprisingly suspenseful. While it was fairly easy to figure out the mysteries, I still really enjoyed this book and am looking forward to reading more in this series.
