An Incomplete Revenge

With the country in the grip of economic malaise, Maisie Dobbs is relieved to accept an apparently straightforward assignment to investigate a potential land purchase. Her inquiries take her to a picturesque village in Kent during the hop-picking season, but beneath its pastoral surface she finds evidence that something is amiss. Mysterious fires erupt in the village with alarming regularity, and a series of petty crimes suggest a darker criminal element at work. A peculiar secrecy shrouds the village, and ultimately Maisie must draw on her finely-honed skills of detection to solve one of her most intriguing cases yet.

In the fifth intallment of Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs series, we find Maisie being hired by an old friend to investigate a series of fires in a small community surrounding an estate that he wants to purchase.

Maisie thinking that this job will be straight forward she is surprised to discover the animosity between the locals, the traveling workers and the gypsy people. Not only does she have to figure the mystery of the fires but also has to deal with the death of a very special person in her life.

Just the like with the other books I was hooked right from the start. I absolutely love Maisie, I find her to be a strong, intelligent, independent woman in a time that it wasn't seen very much. Not only is she curios but she also cares for people and their problems and issues. And she tries to resolve the problems quickly and honestly.

I was baffled with the fires in this book. It truly had me going in circles, because it felt like more than just fires were going on. And the rest I just cannot go into detail because it can ruin the story for others. Let me just say that I was floored to realize what actually happen and the cause of the fires.

An Incomplete Revenge by Jacqueline Winspear (4/5) Historical Mystery; Published: Henry Holt and Co.(2/08); Series: # 5, Maisie Dobbs; 2009 100 + Reading Challenge (145);