The story: Maisie Dobbs is a private investigator in London in the time period between the world wars. In An Incomplete Revenge, an acquaintance hoping to buy some property in a small village asks her to investigate a series of mysterious fires in the village. The mystery is complicated by the fact that the town is full of non-residents who are there for hop-picking season–Londoners like Maisie’s assistant Billy and his family, as well as a group of Roma (be warned that in the book, Roma characters are almost always referred to by slurs which I’m sure was accurate for the time period. From a brief internet search it seems possible that this is not always considered a slur in the UK, but it certainly is here in the US). While investigating, Maisie, discovers an odd story about a Zeppelin raid that destroyed a house and killed an entire family in the village during WWI, so she starts looking into this as well.
Why I read it: I’ve been reading Maisie Dobbs off and on for years. She’s not my favorite fictional detective, but I love the setting of these books. Over the summer I read a fantastic book about WWI (To End All Wars by Adam Hochschild), which reignited my interest in this series.
How I felt about it: Definitely my favorite Maisie Dobbs so far. The resolution of the mystery was both sinister and heart wrenching, although like most Maisie Dobbs mysteries it’s telegraphed pretty hard throughout the book. I continue to love the setting of these books and the way Winspear shows how WWI reverberated throughout life years after it ended, so I will keep reading these.
