Maisie Dobbs (Maisie Dobbs #1 of 18) [B0536]

2014 PB. Agatha Award Winner for Best First Novel. Maisie Dobbs got her start as a maid in an aristocratic London household when she was thirteen. Her employer, suffragette Lady Rowan Compton, soon became her patron, taking the remarkably bright youngster under her wing. Lady Rowan's friend, Maurice Blanche, often retained as an investigator by the European elite, recognized Maisie's intuitive gifts and helped her earn admission to the prestigious Girton College in Cambridge, where Maisie planned to complete her education. The outbreak of war changed everything. Maisie trained as a nurse, then left for France to serve at the Front, where she found-and lost-an important part of herself. Ten years after the Armistice, in the spring of 1929, Maisie sets out on her own as a private investigator, one who has learned that coincidences are meaningful, and truth elusive. Her very first case involves suspected infidelity but reveals something very different. In the aftermath of the Great War, a former officer has founded a working farm known as The Retreat, that acts as a convalescent refuge for ex-soldiers too shattered to resume normal life. When Fate brings Maisie a second case involving The Retreat, she must finally confront the ghost that has haunted her for over a decade.

From recent Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "I've been interested in starting this series for some time now and was told it would be better to start at the beginning, as the reader is given an insight into the life of Maisie Dobbs from childhood to early twenties as well as information on the brutality of the First World War and the suffering of those that returned from the trenches. It also includes a crime that is committed but this is really an introduction to the startup of Maisie's private detective agency. It was an easy read which was what I was looking for at this moment in time and I really enjoyed it so I will be continuing on my journey with Maisie Dobbs in the near future."; "Thoroughly enjoyed this cozy British mystery. The ending absolutely broke my heart and I didn't see that coming! I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the books in the series."