Maisie Dobbs, by Jacqueline Winspear

This is the first book in the Maisie Dobbs mystery series set in 1930s England. It was recommended to me by a friend, and I'm so glad. It has a lot of things I love: historical setting, great characters, and an intriguing mystery. It's a quiet book, and kind of somber in some ways. The characters are still reeling emotionally from the first World War, and in this first book we are given some back story that took place during the war itself. Yet the story never became gruesome or maudlin; and overall, the tone wasn't depressing. The mystery itself had a classic British mystery feel to it, but I also liked the fact that the book was about more than the mystery and also about the characters themselves. So it was like two stories seamlessly woven into one. I'm looking forward to reading more about Maisie and Billy and Maurice and Lady Rowan. Bottom line, read this if you enjoy mystery or historical fiction.