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Summary and Reviews of Birds of a Feather by Jacqueline Winspear

Birds of a Feather by Jacqueline Winspear

Birds of a Feather

A Maisie Dobbs Mystery

by Jacqueline Winspear
  • BookBrowse Review:
  • Critics' Consensus (3):
  • Readers' Rating (4):
  • First Published:
  • Jun 1, 2004, 360 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Aug 2005, 320 pages
  • Rate this book

About This Book

Book Summary

Maisie is as intelligent and engaging a sleuth as one might desire: the period touches, from clothing to manners, are not only elegantly presented but unostentatious. 

Maisie Dobbs is back and this time she has been hired to find a wealthy grocery magnate's daughter who has fled from home. What seems a simple case at first becomes complicated when Maisie learns of the recent violent deaths of three of the heiress's old friends. Is there a connection between her mysterious disappearance and the murders? Who would kill such charming young women? As Maisie investigates, she discovers that the answers to all her questions lie in the unforgettable agony of The Great War.

Maisie parked outside the main gates leading to a red-brick neo-Georgian mansion that stood majestically in the landscaped grounds beyond an ornate wrought iron gate.

"D'you reckon someone'll come to open the gate?" asked Billy.

"Someone's coming now." Maisie pointed to a young man wearing plus fours, a tweed hacking jacket, woolen shirt and spruce green tie. He hurriedly opened an umbrella as he ran toward the entrance, and nodded to Maisie as he unlatched the gates and opened them. Maisie drove the car forward, stopping alongside the man.

"You must be Miss Dobbs, to see Mr. Waite at three o'clock."

"Yes, that's me."

"And your companion is . . . ?" The man bent forward to look at Billy in the passenger seat.

"My assistant, Mr. William Beale."

Billy was still dabbing his nose with Maisie's handkerchief.

"Right you are, M'um. Park in front of the main door please, and make sure you reverse into place, M'um, with the nose of your ...

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Reviews

BookBrowse Review

BookBrowse

It's the late 1920s and Maisie has set herself up as a 'Psychologist and Investigator' (according to her brass nameplate). She's been employed to find the only daughter of a wealthy and self-made businessman, so she sets out to find out as much as she can about the girl, including who her friends are - but the friends are all dead - recently dead, having been poisoned and bayoneted, and at each murder is a small, white feather. Readers familiar with the period may well have figured out much of the case ahead of Maisie but that's not really the point as the journey with Maisie is so enjoyable and absorbing...continued

Full Review (325 words)

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(Reviewed by BookBrowse Review Team).

Media Reviews

Booklist - GraceAnne DeCandido
Sinking into a novel this good is as satisfying as sinking into a good leather chair we know we are in for the duration, and it feels right.....Maisie, who has gone from being in service to a graduate of Girton at Cambridge, is as intelligent and engaging a sleuth as one might desire the period touches, from clothing to manners, are not only elegantly presented but unostentatious.

Publishers Weekly
The eponymous heroine of Winspear's promising debut, Maisie Dobbs, continues to beguile in this chilling, suspenseful sequel set in England a decade after the end of the Great War.

Reader Reviews

BeckyH

Birds of a Feather
A tight plot and likeable characters people this mystery set in post World War I England. Masie is a detective and a psychologist and uses both to solve interesting and informative crimes. This one is no different. Hired to find a runaway daughter,...   Read More
Cloggie Downunder

intriguing plot
Birds of a Feather is the second book in the Maisie Dobbs series by British-born American author, Jacqueline Winspear. Now in a new office in Fitzroy Square with Billy Beale as her permanent assistant, Maisie Dobbs is still under the generous ...   Read More
jojo

love this book
I have not quite finished the cd but love it and the reader. There is so much to ponder. I really like the slow paced but intriguing plot. One thing I love about this book is there is no bad language. Often, I have to take books back to the ...   Read More
Melissa

Hooked
I'm not sure I would enjoy this as much if I were "reading" it rather than listening to it as I am on audio book. It is a British author, which certainly gives it more flavor than the strictly American version I would be giving it in my own reading!...   Read More

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Beyond the Book



Jacqueline Winspear was born and raised in England. She emigrated to the United States in 1990, and while working in business and as a personal/professional coach, embarked upon a life-long dream to be a writer.

All three of her books to date, Maisie Dobbs, Birds of a Feather and Pardonable Lies (to be published in August) are set in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s, with the roots of each story tracing back to the 'Great War', 1914-1918.

Winspear's grandfather was severely ...

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Read-Alikes

Read-Alikes Full readalike results are for members only

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    The House at Riverton is a gorgeous debut novel set in England between the wars. It is the story of an aristocratic family, a house, a mysterious death and a way of life that vanished forever, told in flashback by a woman who witnessed it all and kept a secret for decades.

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