Leaving Everything Most Loved (Maisie Dobbs)
Months after Usha Pramal is murdered in London, Scotland Yard—having declared the crime a cold case—contracts with Maisie Dobbs for help. But the day before psychologist and investigator Maisie is to meet with Usha’s friend and fellow countrywoman Maya Patel, Maya is killed in the same manner as Usha. Maisie wonders who would have wanted to kill Usha, by all accounts an exceptionally beautiful, caring, and well-educated woman who comforted others with her touch and remedies. As Maisie looks into the status of Indian women in England, her own desire to travel deepens, leading to further conundrums involving both her would-be fiancé, James Compton, and her business. The cross-cultural theme adds another dimension to Winspear’s London of 1933, with its lingering traces of World War I and ominous rumblings of World War II. This tenth Maisie Dobbs mystery continues the series’ high quality, capturing a time and place and featuring a protagonist as compassionate as she is intuitive. A fine historical mystery with broad appeal. --Michele Leber