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The Hidden Assassinsby: Robert Wilson |
Messenger of Truthby Jacqueline WinspearJacqueline Winspear has done it again – her Messenger of Truth once more records a story featuring her heroine, Maise Dobbs, set in London's bygone days of early last century. Ms. Winspear manages to convey the smog, fug, and soot of a city before the laws of chimney waste came into effect while simultaneously depicting the horrors of World War I. Jacqueline Winspear has produced an extremely realistic, gut-wrenching plot about a murdered artist who used his talent to portray his feelings about war. Messenger of Truth has a plot devoid of torture and all the usual gory trappings of murder while completely involving you in a story where justice comes in a different form.Georgina Bassington-Hope, of a rather odd family, comes to Maise Dobbs on the advice of both an abbess and Scotland Yard. Georgina wants Maisie to settle the matter of her brother Nick, an increasingly famous artist about to have an important viewing at a well-known gallery when he apparently fell from a scaffold where he was arranging the anchors for a large work and broke his neck. The police are treating it as an unfortunate accident. Georgina feels that Nick was pushed. Maise agrees to take on the job, although there's no proof at all. Her search leads her to Nick's friends, the Bassington-Hope family, and his former home. Nick had lived in two outdated railway carriages made into one, and while exploring them, Maisie is recipient to a suspicious view of a group of smugglers landing on a beach near the carriages. Then from several of Nick's notebook sketches, Maise is able to see that he was obsessed with his perception of the Great War. Nick had seen it first-hand, since he was in the front lines himself before being wounded, and subsequently ordered to produce recruiting posters – a job he hated. Gradually, Maisie is able to uncover the story behind the oldest Bassington-Hope daughter, Nolly, and her former husband who was killed in the war – the same unit to which Nick originally belonged. Maisie also finds that Nolly is the favorite daughter of her father, Piers. Eventually this leads to the discovery of who actually caused Nick's fall from the scaffold. Jacqueline Winspear continues to amaze me with her accurate depictions of both London and its environs in the 1930's as well as the effects of the first World War. Manliness and testosterone are placed in direct contrast to love and equality with sensitivity winning out – as I believe it should. Ms. Winspear commands complete proficiency in the area of emotion. Messenger of Truth is totally unlike the majority of murder-mystery books – and it has an ending that will wrench your heart. Alan Paul Curtis |
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