TLC Review: Leaving Everything Most Loved by Jacqueline Winspear

Title: Leaving Everything Most Loved 
Author: Jacqueline Winspear
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Harper
Publish Date: March 26, 2013
Source: TLC Book Tours

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "London, 1933. Two months after the body of an Indian woman named Usha Pramal is found in the brackish water of a South London canal, her brother, newly arrived in England, turns to Maisie Dobbs to find out the truth about her death. Not only has Scotland Yard made no arrests, evidence indicates that they failed to conduct a full and thorough investigation.

Before her death, Usha was staying at an ayah's hostel alongside Indian women whose British employers turned them out into the street--penniless and far from their homeland--when their services were no longer needed. As Maisie soon learns, Usha was different from the hostel's other lodgers. But with this discovery comes new danger: another Indian woman who had information about Usha is found murdered before she can talk to Maisie.

As Maisie is pulled deeper into an unfamiliar yet captivating subculture, her investigation becomes clouded by the unfinished business of a previous case as well as a growing desire to see more of the world, following in the footsteps of her former mentor, Maurice Blanche. And there is her lover, James Compton, who gives her an ultimatum she cannot ignore."

My Two Cents:

"Leaving Everything Most Loved" is the tenth book in the Maisie Dobbs series. Our heroine, Maisie, is now charged with solving the murder of an Indian immigrant, Usha. The story has the normal mystery at its core but has a little bit of a darker feeling to it overall. Maisie still wants to solve the crime but she is preoccupied with some of the things going on in her personal life that she has no idea how to deal with. This book shows a very vulnerable side to Maisie.

Although this is the tenth book in the series, this particular book works very nicely as a standalone book. In fact, I myself am going back to read many of the books in this series. It isn't hard to see why this series is so popular. I really liked how this particular book explored the thoughts and prejudices of the day. The victim of the crime in this book is an Indian immigrant. Although the British had been in India for ages, there was a lot of prejudice, especially when Indians came to England. And although they had fought on the same side, many Brits still saw the Indians as lesser. The historical detail really pulled me into the book.

Maisie also is coping with a lot in this book. She is trying to decide what she wants out of life and out of love. She spends a lot of the book seemingly adrift. The end of the book had a hint of what was to come for Maisie, which made me very excited to read the next book!

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