All 18+ Maisie Dobbs Books in Order by Jacqueline Winspear

If you’re looking for a list of Maisie Dobbs books in order, you’ve come to the right place.

Maisie Dobbs is a detective and psychologist who has been practicing for 10 years. She can’t take on cases that involve her family or those close to her, but she still manages to find herself in the middle of mysteries and murder investigations.

Maisie’s adventures are all based around pre-war England and Europe during the 1920s and 1930s.

Before we jump straight into the list of Maisie Dobbs books in order, let’s learn a little more about author Jacqueline Winspear and Maisie herself.

Who Is Maisie Dobbs?

Jacqueline Winspear is the author of the Maisie Dobbs series. Jacqueline Winspear grew up in England and later worked as a publishing consultant and a marketing communication consultant in the UK before moving to the United States. She currently lives in California and visits the United Kingdom regularly.

The story of Maisie Dobbs begins in 1920s Britain as she comes of age. Before long she is watching another era of war sweep the country as the devastation from the First World War is still being felt. In reading the Maisie Dobbs books in order you will experience the fear and tribulations of this iconic era.

Maisie is a young detective and psychologist who was trained by Dr. Maurice Blanche. He took her under his wing when she was still a teenager and she became an investigator after Dr. Maurice’s death.

Maisie Dobbs Books In Order Of Publication

To be sure you don’t miss any of the adventures and mysteries ahead, I have compiled a list that will help you keep track. The Maisie Dobbs books in order are as follows:

Maisie Dobbs (2003)
Birds of a Feather (2004)
Pardonable Lies (2005)
Messenger of Truth (2006)
An Incomplete Revenge (2008)
Among the Mad (2009)
The Mapping of Love and Death (2010)
A Lesson in Secrets (2011)
Elegy for Eddie (2012)
Leaving Everything Most Loved (2013)
A Dangerous Place (2015)
Journey to Munich (2016)
In This Grave Hour (2017)
To Die But Once (2018)
The American Agent (2019)
The Consequences of Fear (2021)
A Sunlit Weapon (2022)
The Comfort of Ghosts (Expected: June 4, 2024)

Maisie Dobbs Non-Fiction Books

“But Maisie Dobbs is a fictional character,” you say, “How can there be a Maisie Dobbs NON-fiction book?” Well, I’m glad you asked. You’ll just have to check it out for yourself and see.

What Would Maisie Do? (2019)

Summary of Maisie Dobbs Books In Order

Now that we’ve listed out the Maisie Dobbs books in order, let’s take a closer look at each book.

Maisie Dobbs

Maisie Dobbs, psychologist and investigator, began her working life at the age of thirteen as a servant in a Belgravia mansion. It was here she was discovered reading in the library by her employer, Lady Rowan Compton. Fearing dismissal, Maisie is shocked when she discovers that her thirst for education is to be supported by Lady Rowan and a family friend, Dr. Maurice Blanche.

But The Great War intervenes in Maisie’s plans, and soon after commencement of her studies at Girton College, Cambridge, Maisie enlists for nursing service overseas.

Years later, in 1929, having apprenticed to the renowned Maurice Blanche, a man revered for his work with Scotland Yard, Maisie sets up her own business. Her first assignment, a seemingly tedious inquiry involving a case of suspected infidelity, takes her not only on the trail of a killer, but back to the war she had tried so hard to forget.

Birds of a Feather

An eventful year has passed for Maisie Dobbs. Since starting a one-woman private investigation agency in 1929 London, she now has a professional office in Fitzroy Square and an assistant, the happy-go-lucky Billy Beale.

She has proven herself as a psychologist and investigator, and has even won over Detective Inspector Stratton of Scotland Yard’s Murder Squad. An admirable achievement for a woman who worked her way from servant to scholar to sleuth, and who also served as a battlefield nurse in the Great War.

It’s now the early spring of 1930. Stratton is investigating a murder case in Coulsden, while Maisie has been summoned to Dulwich to find a runaway heiress. The woman is the daughter of Joseph Waite, a wealthy self-made man who has lavished her with privilege but kept her in a gilded cage. His domineering ways have driven her off before, and now she’s bolted again.

Waite’s instructions are to find his daughter and bring her home. When Maisie looks into the disappearance she finds a chilling link to Stratton’s murder case, and to the terrible legacy of The Great War.

Pardonable Lies

A deathbed plea from his wife leads Sir Cecil Lawton to seek the aid of Maisie Dobbs. As Maisie soon learns, Agnes Lawton never accepted that her aviator son was killed in the Great War. It is a torment that led her not only to the edge of madness but to the doors of those who practice the dark arts and commune with the spirit world.

In accepting the assignment, Maisie finds her spiritual strength tested, as well as her regard for her mentor, Maurice Blanche. The mission also brings her together once again with her college friend Priscilla Evernden, who served in France and who lost three brothers to the war — one of whom, it turns out, had an intriguing connection to the missing Ralph Lawton.

Messenger of Truth

On the night before the opening of his new exhibition at a famed Mayfair gallery, Nicholas Bassington-Hope falls to his death. The police declare the fall an accident, but the dead man’s twin sister, Georgina, isn’t convinced.

When the authorities refuse to conduct further investigations and close the case, Georgina – a journalist and infamous figure in her own right – takes matters into her own hands, seeking out a fellow graduate from Girton College: Maisie Dobbs, psychologist and investigator.

The case soon takes Maisie to the desolate beaches of Dungeness in Kent, as well as the sinister underbelly of the city’s art world. And while navigating her way into the heart of the aristocratic yet bohemian Bassington-Hopes, Maisie is deeply troubled by the tragedy of another, quite different family in need.

An Incomplete Revenge

The country in the grip of economic malaise and Maisie Dobbs is worried about her business. She is relieved to accept an apparently straightforward assignment from an old friend. Maisie is to investigate certain matters concerning a potential land purchase.

Her inquiries take her to a picturesque village in Kent during the hop-picking season. However, beneath its pastoral surface she finds evidence that something is amiss.

Mysterious fires erupt in the village with alarming regularity, and a series of petty crimes suggests a darker criminal element at work. As Maisie discovers, the villagers are bitterly prejudiced against outsiders who flock to Kent at harvest time. Even more troubling, they seem possessed by the legacy of a wartime Zeppelin raid.

Maisie grows increasingly suspicious of a peculiar secrecy that shrouds the village, and ultimately she must draw on all her finely honed skills of detection to solve one of her most intriguing cases.

Among the Mad

It’s Christmas Eve 1931. On the way to see a client, Maisie Dobbs witnesses a man commit suicide on a busy London street. The following day, the prime minister’s office receives a letter threatening a massive loss of life if certain demands are not met—and the writer mentions Maisie by name.

After being questioned and cleared by Detective Chief Superintendent Robert MacFarlane, she becomes a special adviser on the case. Meanwhile, Billy Beale, Maisie’s trusted assistant, is once again facing tragedy. His wife, who has never recovered from the death of their young daughter, slips further into melancholia’s abyss.

Soon Maisie becomes involved in a race against time. She must find a man with the knowledge to inflict death and destruction on thousands of innocent people. And before this harrowing case is over, Maisie must navigate a darkness not encountered since she was a nurse in wards filled with shell-shocked men.

The Mapping of Love and Death

The story opens in August 1914 in the Santa Ynez Valley in California. Michael Clifton is the youngest son of an Englishman who emigrated to America in search of his fortune.

Michael has just purchased a tract of land he believes is rich with oil. Fate steps in when Michael learns Britain is going to war in Europe. In a moment of loyalty to his father’s homeland, he decides to travel to England to enlist for service.

In the spring of 1932, Michael’s remains are discovered in France. His wealthy parents hire Maisie Dobbs to find the woman who wrote a series of love letters discovered among Michael’s belongings.

The investigation takes Maisie from London’s most exclusive drawing rooms to its most downtrodden neighborhoods. But as she delves into what she discovers to be a long-hidden crime, the investigator realizes unearthing buried secrets can lead to present-day danger.

A Lesson in Secrets

In the summer of 1932, Maisie Dobbs’s career takes an exciting new turn when she accepts an undercover assignment. Posing as a junior lecturer, she is sent to a private college in Cambridge to monitor any suspicious activities.

When the college’s controversial pacifist founder and principal, Greville Liddicote, is murdered, Maisie is directed to stand back as Detective Chief Superintendent Robert MacFarlane and Detective Chief Inspector Richard Stratton spearhead the investigation. She soon discovers, however, that the circumstances of Liddicote’s death appear inextricably linked to the suspicious comings and goings of faculty and students under her surveillance.

To unravel this web, Maisie must discover shameful hidden truths about Britain’s conduct during the Great War. She will also face off against the rising powers of the Nazi Party in Britain.

As the storm clouds of World War II gather, this pivotal novel foreshadows new challenges and powerful enemies.

Elegy for Eddie

Maisie’s newest clients are the costermongers of Covent Garden. These men sell fruit and vegetables from horse-drawn carts on the streets of London. To the costers, Eddie Pettit was simply a gentle soul with a near-magical gift for working with horses.

When he is killed in a violent accident, the costers are skeptical about the cause of his death. Because her father had been a fellow costermonger, Maisie has known these men since childhood. She remembers Eddie fondly, so she is determined to help.

But it soon becomes clear that powerful political and financial forces are equally determined to prevent her from learning too much about Eddie’s death.

Maisie’s search for answers begins in the working-class streets of Lambeth but quickly leads her further afield. As Maisie uncovers lies and manipulation on a national scale, she must decide whether to risk all to see justice done.

Leaving Everything Most Loved

The year is 1933. Maisie Dobbs is contacted by an Indian gentleman who has come to England in the hopes of finding out who killed his sister two months ago. Scotland Yard failed to make any arrest in the case, and they might have failed to conduct a thorough investigation.

The case becomes even more challenging when another Indian woman is murdered just hours before a scheduled interview. Meanwhile, unfinished business from a previous case becomes a distraction, as does a new development in Maisie’s personal life.

Bringing a crucial chapter in the life and times of Maisie Dobbs to a close, Leaving Everything Most Loved marks a pivotal moment in this outstanding mystery series.

A Dangerous Place

In the four years since she left England, Maisie Dobbs has experienced love, contentment, and stability. As well as the deepest tragedy a woman can endure. Now, all she wants is the peace she believes she might find by returning to India.

But her sojourn in the hills of Darjeeling is cut short when her stepmother summons her home to England; her aging father Frankie Dobbs is not getting any younger.

On a ship bound for England, Maisie realizes she isn’t ready to return. Against the wishes of the captain, she disembarks in Gibraltar. The British garrison town is teeming with refugees fleeing a brutal civil war across the border in Spain.

Yet the danger is very real. Days after Maisie’s arrival, a photographer and member of Gibraltar’s Sephardic Jewish community, Sebastian Babayoff, is murdered. Maisie becomes entangled in the case, drawing the attention of the British Secret Service.

Under the suspicious eye of a British agent, Maisie is pulled deeper into political intrigue and renews an uneasy acquaintance. At a crossroads between her past and her future, Maisie must choose a direction. She knows that England is, for her, an equally dangerous place, but in quite a different way.

Journey to Munich

It’s early 1938, and Maisie Dobbs is back in England. On a fine yet chilly morning, she is intercepted by Brian Huntley and Robert MacFarlane of the Secret Service. The German government has agreed to release a British subject from prison. But only if he is handed over to a family member.

The man’s wife is bedridden and his daughter has been killed in an accident. So the Secret Service wants Maisie, who bears a striking resemblance to the daughter, to retrieve the man from Dachau.

The British government is not alone in its interest in Maisie’s travel plans. The man she holds responsible for her husband’s death has learned of her journey, and is also desperate for her help.

Traveling into the heart of Nazi Germany, Maisie encounters unexpected dangers – and finds herself questioning whether it’s time to return to the work she loved.

In This Grave Hour

As Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain broadcasts to the nation Britain’s declaration of war with Germany, a senior Secret Service agent breaks into Maisie Dobbs’ flat to await her return. Dr. Francesca Thomas has an urgent assignment for Maisie. Find the killer of a man who escaped occupied Belgium as a boy during the Great War.

Within days another former Belgian refugee is found murdered. And as Maisie delves deeper into the killings of the dispossessed from the “last war,” a new kind of refugee – an evacuee from London – appears in Maisie’s life.

The little girl billeted at Maisie’s home in Kent does not, or cannot, speak, and the authorities do not know who the child belongs to or who might have put her on the “Operation Pied Piper” evacuee train. They know only that her name is Anna.

As Maisie’s search for the killer escalates, the country braces for what is to come. Britain is approaching its gravest hour—and Maisie could be nearing a crossroads of her own.

To Die But Once

Following Britain’s declaration of war, Maisie Dobbs investigates the disappearance of a young apprentice working on a secretive government contract. Threat of invasion rises as news of the plight of thousands of soldiers stranded on the beaches of France is gradually revealed to the public. Simultaneously, another young man beloved by Maisie makes a terrible decision that will change his life forever.

Maisie’s investigation leads her from the countryside into the web of wartime opportunism exploited by one of the London underworld’s most powerful men. It is a case that serves as a reminder of the inextricable link between money and war. Yet when a final confrontation approaches, she must acknowledge the potential cost to her future and the risk of destroying a dream she wants very much to become reality.

The American Agent

When Catherine Saxon, an American correspondent reporting on the war in Europe, is found murdered in her London digs, news of her death is concealed by British authorities. Serving as a linchpin between Scotland Yard and the Secret Service, Robert MacFarlane pays a visit to Maisie Dobbs, seeking her help.

He is accompanied by an agent from the US Department of Justice. Mark Scott, the American who helped Maisie escape Hitler’s Munich in 1938. MacFarlane asks Maisie to work with Scott to uncover the truth about Saxon’s death.

As the Germans unleash the full terror of their blitzkrieg upon the British Isles, Maisie must balance the demands of solving this dangerous case with her need to protect Anna, the young evacuee she has grown to love and wants to adopt.

The Consequences Of Fear

September 1941. While on a delivery, Freddie Hackett, a message runner for a government office, witnesses an argument that ends in murder. Crouching in the doorway of a bombed-out house, Freddie waits until the coast is clear. But when he arrives at the delivery address, he’s shocked to come face to face with the killer.

Dismissed by the police when he attempts to report the crime, Freddie goes to a woman he once met: Maisie Dobbs. While Maisie believes the boy and wants to help, she must exercise extreme caution. She’s working secretly for the Special Operations Executive, assessing candidates for crucial work with the French resistance.

Her two worlds collide when she spots the killer in a place she least expects. She soon realizes this man has reasons to kill dating back to the last war.

As Maisie becomes entangled in a power struggle between Britain’s intelligence efforts in France and the work of Free French agents operating across Europe, she must also contend with the lingering question of Freddie Hackett’s state of mind. What she uncovers could hold disastrous consequences for all involved.

A Sunlit Weapon

Late September, 1942. Jo Hardy is delivering a Spitfire to Biggin Hill Aerodrome when she realizes someone is shooting at her aircraft. When she returns to the location on foot, she finds an American serviceman in a barn, tied up and gagged. Jo hurries away, but can’t shake the image of the serviceman from her mind.

When Jo recounts the story to several other women, she learns that Erica, another ferry pilot flying the same route, has been killed in a crash near Kent. Erica’s death is attributed to “pilot error,” but Jo is convinced there is a link between her experience and Erica’s. And that of Jo’s dead fiancé, who was killed over a year earlier under inexplicable circumstances in the same area.

At the suggestion of an Australian colleague, Jo takes her suspicions to Maisie Dobbs. Along with her she brings two pages of coded notes she found in the barn. If someone is trying to take down much-needed pilots, Maisie wants to find out why—and what happened to the bound American serviceman.

But before she can begin investigating, her new husband finds the documents and demands to know how she obtained them. The papers pertain to an upcoming diplomatic mission by Eleanor Roosevelt, and now the First Lady’s safety has been compromised.

To protect Eleanor’s life, and possibly the safety of all of London, Maisie must quickly uncover the connection between the pilot deaths, the mysterious American soldier, and the top-secret documents.

Conclusion

Many readers enjoy the Maisie Dobbs books in order because they feature an intelligent protagonist who solves crimes using her skills instead of relying on luck or violence to get her results like many other detectives.

Which one is your favorite?

Looking for more books in order?

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