This is not so much a crime story as Maisie – and Winspear – putting a series of sometimes not-too-well integrated issues together with a great deal of talk and pseudo-reflection which detract from a fairly simple plot any experienced reader should be able to solve. Together with a strong feminist streak, accentuated here by her assistant, the widowed Sandra, and one of the murdered women, plus the racist angle, an almost typecast ‘guru’ and social comment on inequality, this tends to detract from the plot. Maisie’s character has been balanced from the first somewhat uneasily between serious spirituality and traditional spiritualism. But before she leaves, she must solve the murders of a charismatic young Indian woman and her friend, crimes complicated by the endemic racism of 1930s Britain – and their involvement with a pseudo-church. I can’t see what she will learn on the sub-continent that will help her better the skills she already has in abundance, but there’s always been a strong hint of a spiritual dimension in her make-up and this likeable proto-feminist is clearly set to blaze the trail followed by a later generation of young women. Where does Maisie Dobbs go after this? Her tenth adventure closes with the ‘Sarf Lunnon’ girl-made-good through intelligence, hard work – and a little luck – heading for India to ‘find herself’ and settle the outstanding problems that overshadow her professional and private life.
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