American journalist and aspiring “warcaster” (a vivid word for a broadcaster from a war zone), Catherine Saxon, joins them on a night where they take two young children from a bombed home to hospital but can only mourn their mother and their aunt.
The next day Chief Superintendent Bobby McFarlane, whose role between Scotland Yard and British Intelligence is intentionally obscure, reaches out to her. Saxon has been murdered and the government wants Maisie to lead the investigation. Saxon’s father is an isolationist American senator and the government does not want him denouncing England because of his daughter’s death.
Maisie is to work with Mark Scott, an investigator with the American Department of Justice stationed at the American embassy. They met while she was on His Majesty’s Service in Journey to Munich where he saved her life.
Maisie goes to the morgue. There is not a cold clinical review of Catherine’s body. Maisie respectfully conducts her examination, as she learned from her mentor Maurice Blanche. He told her:
“I do my job as if the soul were looking on.“
Before leaving Maisie takes Catherine’s hand and says:
“Thank you,’ she whispered. “Thank you for speaking the truth about what you saw, as far as you could. Thank you for being brave in all those places where you traveled to tell stories of the people. You will not be forgotten, Catherine. And I will find out who took your life. Bless you, and may you know peace.”
Who could not wish for such an investigator as Maisie and such a gifted writer as Winspear to tell her story?
As she begins her investigation Maisie is dreading an interview which will determine if she can adopt Anna, the young orphaned London girl. Will love and a life of service be enough to counter the view that she is a “single” woman rather than a “widow”.
The mental strain of the nightly September bombings of London is intense.
People carry on. I was reminded of Harald Gilbers descriptions in Germania of Berlin residents coping with Allied bombing during the last 3 years of the war. For this post I could simply have substituted “London” for “Berlin”:
Returning to reality, what caught me off guard was how ordinary life continued in Berlin a year before the end of the war. Electricity, telephones, gas, water, trains all continued to be available. People went to work each day. They drank with friends, went to the cinema and enjoyed time in the parks of the city. Bombs would cause damage. Repairs would be made to infrastructure and bombed out Berliners would seek refuge with family and neighbours. I realized life had to continue but had not considered how much of life remained routine.
There is evidence of Catherine’s brother, Scotty, being not just isolationist but an American Nazi. Catherine was fervently anti-fascist. There are many in America unhappy with the positive press England is receiving as it withstands the Blitz.
Maisie finds herself drawn closer to Catherine from the shared experiences of loss they have experienced in wartime and in peacetime.
While personally modest Maisie cannot help but feel satisfaction at Scotland Yard choosing her to lead a sensitive murder investigation.
Maisie is confronted with the needs of her nation and the needs of her family and the needs of herself. Being in the midst of war challenges and clarifies what is important in life. She asks herself:
What right do I have to fall in love?
I shall leave her answer to be found by readers within the book.
Uncovering a murderer produces different reactions. For Maisie and myself there was a deep sadness over the killer of Catherine. Winspear managed to be respectful of the killed while understanding the pain of the killer.
Maisie tries after every case to provide some closure, even comfort, to each of the participants. In this book her greatest challenge is for herself.
The moment of resolution of her adoption application left me welling up with emotion.
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I'm glad this one lived up to the quality of the series, Bill. I've always liked it that Maisie is a caring, sensitive person who brings those qualities to the cases she's investigating. It sounds as though this one is well researched, too, so that there's an authentic sense of the time, place, and urgency of life.
ReplyDeleteMargot: Thanks for the comment. Maisie has had a full life through the series in addition to being a clever investigator. She has effectively used being caring and sensitive as an investigator.
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