Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

My Favorite Maisie Dobbs So Far

An Incomplete Revenge by Jacqueline Winspear

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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 […]

Another dose of comfort reading

A Sunlit Weapon by Jacqueline Winspear

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“You only have to visit a battlefield long after a war has ended, to know that places are never quite the same following a tragedy.” I got seriously into Jacqueline Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs books during the darkest days of lockdown, and now, alas, I am hooked, even though at 17 installments in the series, it’s not quite as fresh as it was. But I like Maisie and her desire to do right by the survivors as she investigates the murders: this series takes seriously the […]

“The mountain is there to be crossed.”

Pardonable Lies by Jacqueline Winspear

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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 […]

Pretty Enjoyable

Birds of a Feather by Jacqueline Winspear

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Series: Maisie Dobbs. I read Book 1 in 2016 (and reviewed it). What I remembered about this series prior to reading this book: Absolutely nothing. I thought I remembered that these took place after World War II, but that was actually incorrect–so, nothing. Why I stopped reading the series: Clearly, the first book didn’t make much of an impression on me. I thought that was the only reason, but then halfway through Birds of a Feather I went back and read my review of the […]

“Don’t you hear the bugle call?”

Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear

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Maisie Dobbs was part of my early effort to read lighter fare in order to forget the pandemic (I read this back at the end of March) and it was more or less successful. Over all I liked the book and the main character and I’ll definitely read the next in the series. Though I admit the pacing of this first book is a bit off which happens frequently when you’re dealing with the initial book in the series. Setting the stage and giving the […]

A kinder book for a harder time

Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear

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If I had known quarantine was coming, I would have made some different choices. For one, I would not have ordered Hilary Mantel’s The Mirror and the Light as my spring break read, since my focus would be far too fractured to get myself back into that Thomas Cromwell and the Tudors mindset. For another, I would not have assigned Dante’s Inferno and Purgatorio to my intro students as our major readings for the back half of the semester. I went into lockdown and immediately recorded ten lectures […]



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