The 12th book in Winspear's mystery series featuring Maisie Dobbs. This new book follows hard on the heels of its predecessor, A Dangerous Place (2015). In her long journey to come to terms with the grief of losing her husband and unborn child, Maisie has at last returned to England after a brief sojourn in Gibralter where she became involved in the Spanish Civil War, and spent time nursing wounded partisans.
Taking temporary refuge with her friend Priscilla and Priscilla's family in London, Maisie is trying to figure out what she is going to do with the rest of her life, when she is recruited by old acquaintances in the British Secret Service for a special undercover mission into Nazi Germany on the eve of the Anschluss in 1938. A wealthy businessman, Leon Donat, has been arrested and imprisoned in Dachau (already infamous), accused of being involved in the production of an underground newspaper opposed to the Nazi regime. Unbeknownst to Hitler and his henchmen, Donat is also a boffin --- a brilliant inventor --- and the British are desperate to get him back before the Germans realize the prize they are holding. After intensive negotiations and a substantial bribe from the British government, the SS have agreed to release Donat --- but will only do so if a family member comes to Munich to claim him. Donat's only surviving family is his daughter Edwina, and she is terminally ill. The Secret Service want Maisie to impersonate Edwina, travel to Munich, obtain Donat’s release, and bring him home.
Unfortunately even before Maisie can leave for Germany, this dangerous but straightforward assignment becomes seriously compromised,
The series began with Maisie as a young woman, volunteering to put her life on hold to go out to France as a nurse during World War I. It continued through the social, economic and political upheavals of the 1920s and 1930s as Maisie worked to establish herself in her chosen profession as a psychologist and private investigator. Now as the world seems headed into the darkness and destruction of yet another war, Maisie searches to find a new purpose for herself.
Click HERE to read the review from Kirkus Review.
Click HERE to read the review from USA Today.
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