#BookReview A Sunlit Weapon by Jacqueline Winspear @AllisonandBusby

About the Book

October 1942. Jo Hardy, an Air Transport Auxilliary ferry pilot, is delivering a Spitfire to Biggin Hill Aerodrome, when she has the terrifying experience of coming under fire from the ground. In a bid to find out who was trying to take down her aircraft, she returns on foot to the area, and discovers an African American soldier bound and gagged in an old barn. A few days later another ferry pilot crashes and is killed in the same area of Kent.

Although the death has been attributed to ‘pilot error’ Jo believes there is a connection between all three events – and she wants desperately to help the soldier, who is now in the custody of American military police. Jo is advised to take her suspicions to Maisie Dobbs.

As the psychologist-investigator delves into the case, she discovers the attempt to take down ferry pilots and the plight of the black American soldier are inextricably linked with the visit to Britain by the First Lady of the United States, Eleanor Roosevelt. Maisie must work with speed to uncover the depth of connection, to save the life of the President’s wife and a soldier caught in the crosshairs of those who would see them both dead.

Format: Hardback (320 pages)         Publisher: Allison & Busby
Publication date: 22nd March 2022 Genre: Historical Fiction, Crime, Mystery

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My Review

A Sunlit Weapon is the seventeenth book in Jacqueline Winspear’s historical crime series featuring psychologist/private investigator Maisie Dobbs. I only discovered the series with the publication of The American Agent (book fifteen) but reading that, and the book that followed it, The Consequences of Fear, was enough to make me a firm fan.

For those new to the series, I believe A Sunlit Weapon can easily be enjoyed as a standalone. And,  although there are references to events in previous books, I don’t think that would preclude going back to read earlier books in the series (as I hope to do one day) in order to learn more about Maisie’s past. However, at this point we find her married to former US Department of Justice agent, Mark Scott, and dividing her time between her London office and the family home in Kent where she lives with her adopted daughter, Anna, her father and stepmother.

Fans of the series will be familiar with Maisie’s methodical approach to investigating the cases that come her way, often recalling the advice of her former mentor, Maurice Blanche, and carefully constructing her elaborate case maps. She possesses a keen eye for detail, has perfected the art of getting information through seemingly casual conversations, is not averse to telling a few white lies to elicit facts and is no stranger to intrepid exploration. Her background as a psychologist gives her an instinct for whether someone is telling the truth and often points her in the direction of a motive that might not be obvious to others.

Her current case sees Maisie searching for a connection between a series of rather disparate events. As she delves further, the picture becomes increasingly complex with new avenues of enquiry opening up all the time. Whenever faced with an obstacle, what motivates Maisie is a sense of responsibility towards her client and her innate sense of justice.

The war is a constant backdrop to events in which few families have been left unaffected whether that’s because of loved ones injured or killed, forced relocation or just the sheer mental strain of not knowing what tomorrow will bring. Will today be the day that dreaded telephone call or telegram arrives? As Maisie observes, ‘We’re all told we can take it, but I’m not sure we can’, wondering if in fact people have become used to death, used to absorbing the shock of loss.

One particularly interesting element of the book for me was the focus on women’s contribution to the war effort, whether as Air Transport Auxilliary ferry pilots or members of the Land Army.  As Maisie discovers not everyone approves of women taking up these roles, believing that it is not ‘women’s work’. Prejudice of another kind also runs through the book, some very close to home for Maisie, and other more institutional in nature.

As you’d expect, Maisie – with the help of her trusty assistant Billy and some string-pulling by her husband – is eventually able to put together the pieces of what turns out to be a very complicated picture. What she discovers is a chain of events which is the product of ‘manipulated minds’. Throw in some dramatic scenes, a portion of woolton pie and lashings of tea and you have another very entertaining addition to the series.

I received an advance review copy courtesy of Allison & Busby via NetGalley.

In three words: Entertaining, clever, fast-moving

Try something similar: Betty Church and the Suffolk Vampire by M.R.C. Kasasian

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About the Author

Jacqueline Winspear is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Consequences of Fear, The American Agent and To Die But Once, as well as thirteen other bestselling Maisie Dobbs novels and The Care and Management of Lies, a Dayton Literary Peace Prize finalist. Jacqueline has also published two nonfiction books, What Would Maisie Do?, and a memoir, This Time Next Year We’ll Be Laughing. Originally from the United States, she divides her time between California and the Pacific Northwest.

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