Maisie is determined to ease the return to peacetime for those she encounters in need. It is almost impossible to review the book without spoilers for readers who have not read the series. In a departure from my usual effort to avoid spoilers this post will include spoilers but not of the resolution of murder.
Sir Julian Comption, her original employer as a maid 35 years earlier, who became her first father-in-law and lastly was her friend has died. Maisie and her family do their best to adjust to the loss.
Maisie’s American husband, Mark, continues to shuttle between the United States and England as he deals with sensitive diplomatic issues.
Her adopted daughter, Anna, is doing well.
Maisie’s greatest challenge is the son of Billy Beale, her trusted employee who is now her partner in the investigation business. “Young Billy” who wants to be called “Will” spent 4 years in a Japanese prisoner of war camp. He returns emaciated in body and deeply wounded in mind. Were it not for Maisie I doubt he would have lived more than a few weeks back in England. His father has endured the periodic demons of shell shock since the end of World War I.
Can Maisie find a way to help father and son?
Maisie takes up the cause of a quartet of teenagers who had been trained to be guerillas had Germany invaded England. Their war came to a troubled end that has them on the run.
The teenagers have seen the murder of an Honourable and officials “on high” have had the coroner list the death as “death by misadventure” and records have been taken away by “government order”.
Maisie is disturbed by the murder, the political nature of the Honourable’s life and the coverup. How far will those “on high” go to maintain secrecy?
She will protect the teenagers and calls upon her best friend, Priscilla Partridge, to assist her.
The teenagers, especially the girls, are very bright. The youngest, Grace, reminded me of Maisie as a teenage maid for the Comptons stealing downstairs to read in their library in the middle of the night.
Inevitably, in a book readers know is the last in the series, the murder has a lesser role. Its resolution felt somewhat contrived but is appropriate for the plot.
For the living characters two wars have left them seeking routine. I tell younger members of the office I will know you are maturing when you are content with a routine day.
After resolving the murder Maisie comes across love letters written by her deceased husband, James Compton, when he was a teenager to his first love, Enid, a maid who shared a room with Maisie. Enid died in a munitions factory explosion in 1914. The letters, written almost two decades before Maisie and James met, set Maisie off on a remarkable final case.
The world is weary from the two world wars. Maisie is tired in body and spirit. It is time for her to be Anna’s full time mother and Mark’s full time wife.
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I'm not surprised that exhaustion runs through the novel, Bill. Two wars left everything and everyone depleted. I've liked the way Winspear blends Maisie's personal life with the plot at hand. I've liked following the characters. While it's always hard when a fine series ends, I give Winspear credit, too, for knowing the right time to end it.
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