by Jacqueline Winspear, 2003
Maisie is a Private Detective after WWI in England. She was a nurse on the front lines in France during the war. As a young girl, she was the daughter of a costermonger, a vegetable-seller, from a horse-drawn cart. She works as a maid for the Compton’s, Lord Julian and Lady Rowan. They discover her reading in their library in the middle of the night and rather than fire her, they introduce her to Maurice Blanche and he becomes her teacher. She goes to Cambridge, then enlists as a nurse, after falling in love with Simon Lynch, a young doctor. Ten years after the war, we find Maisie solving a mystery about a place called The Retreat, for veterans to live and work who have terrible facial wounds from the war. Maisie discovers that the Retreat is fine except for 2 things: The owner, Major Jenkins, is mad and won’t allow the veterans to leave, and his cousin makes them sign away all their life’s savings. In the end we find that Maisie’s Simon is also badly wounded in the face and legs and is in a conservatory in London. She, finally, after 10 years, goes to visit him and asks for his forgiveness. He remains silent. Makes me want to read “All Quiet on the Western Front.” Also, War Horse was set in same time period and Maisie’s father, Frankie, saved Lady Compton’s horses from being taken for the war. Egg whites. (Why did I write ‘Egg Whites’ at the end of this book report?????)