The Maisie Dobbs mystery series, set in England between WWI and WWII, remains my favorite mystery series when I want something smart and readable. Again, this book in the series is more about the wider picture of what is brewing in Germany and England's reaction to it at the highest level than about the "mystery". Winspear does such a good job of creating a plot point mystery that both forwards international action and creates a way to delve into Maisie's complex character.

Loved it and I'll continue with the series. It's been a long time since I found a series that I stuck with through nine books. ( )

I enjoyed this 8th book in the Maisie Dobbs series, but it was quite different than the books before this one. First of all, there really wasn't a murder, but we had to read almost the whole book to get to that revelation. Secondly, Maisie seems very uncertain and lost at times in this book. There are problems in her work life and in her personal life which don't really get resolved. Thirdly, the end was left open and the lead-in to the next book kind of pointed out to me that I probably wlil not continue with the series. Maisie is too headstrong and sanctimonious for me, and I find this takes away from the suspense of the story. I like Jacqueline Winspear's secondary characters, both the regulars and the new, better than the heroine herself. The book is set in early April 1933 and Maisie's new clients are friends and acquaintances from her girlhood. They are costermongers and they used to work with Maisie's father. They come to Maisie to ask her to look into the death of a man from her old neighbourhood. Eddie was a big and simple man, a gentle giant so to speak, and the costermongers are afraid that the death that was ruled an accident was not that, but a murder. As Maisie investigates, she crosses paths with some very powerful and influential people. As a background to the story there are hints and insinuations of the terrible war that is to come. I found the book mostly engrossing and I too wanted to find out what happened to Eddie, but at times the story dragged a bit with Maisie's personal baggage. I find that she is better tolerated in smaller doses. I am not sure if I will continue the series as I think Maisie's angst and uncertainly is to be repeated in future books.. ( )

Elegy for Eddie is written by Jacqueline Winspear. It is Book #9 of the Maisie Dobbs series.
This particular title is a very personal case for Maisie Dobbs.
“It is the twisting investigation into the brutal killing of a street peddler that will take Maisie from the working-class neighborhoods of her childhood into London’s highest circles of power.”
The book is very emotional, very descriptive of both people and places, very historical and cultural. Even though these books are very emotional and highly charged, I always feel a sense of calm as I read them.
Brilliant writing *****
I was confused by the title Elegy for Eddie, I thought maybe that elegy was a British spelling for eulogy, but I was incorrect.
Elegy - a poem of serious reflection, typically a lament for the dead.
Eulogy - a speech at a funeral ( )

When a man from Maisie’s childhood is killed in an industrial accident, his friends band together to ask Maisie to look into the death; the man had been considered “simple,” but was dearly loved by many in the neighbourhood and known for his gentle touch with horses. Before too long, Maisie finds herself embroiled not only in old neighbourhood feuds, but in modern politics and the increasing worries about what might come from Germany’s new chancellor, not to mention her relationship with James Compton and where it may be heading…. I enjoyed the depictions of working-class and working poor neighbourhoods in this novel, the ninth in the Maisie Dobbs series, and I especially liked the way the world of work, which had heretofore relied upon horses for labour and transportation, is slowly being transformed by the increasing use of automobiles (and the attendant environmental changes that causes). I was less enamoured of the political aspects of the story, primarily because I am quite averse to stories involving the Second World War; even though this story takes place in 1933, long before that conflict, the seeds were being sewn during this period and so those politics were inescapable if this novel was to be true to its time period. That aside, it’s another good entry in this series; recommended. ( )

April 1933 has arrived and old friends from Maisie's children approach her to investigate the death of a friend. But where will her investigate lead and to whom.
A somewhat slow paced story but still an enjoyable one ( )