The Comfort of Ghosts

The Comfort of Ghosts was published a few days ago on June 4, 2024. It is the final installment of the Maisie Dobbs series. I thought the pace was a little slow for my taste but the story was enjoyable nonetheless.  

The publisher's summary:

London, 1945: Four adolescent orphans with a dark wartime history are squatting in a vacant Belgravia mansion—the owners having fled London under heavy Luftwaffe bombing. Psychologist and Investigator Maisie Dobbs visits the mansion on behalf of the owners and discovers that a demobilized soldier, gravely ill and reeling from his experiences overseas, has taken shelter with the group.

Maisie’s quest to bring comfort to the youngsters and the ailing soldier brings to light a decades-old mystery concerning Maisie’s first husband, James Compton, who was killed while piloting an experimental fighter aircraft. As Maisie unravels the threads of her dead husband’s life, she is forced to examine her own painful past and question beliefs she has always accepted as true.

The award-winning Maisie Dobbs series has garnered hundreds of thousands of followers, readers drawn to a woman who is of her time, yet familiar in ours—and who inspires with her resilience and capacity for endurance. This final assignment of her own choosing not only opens a new future for Maisie and her family, but serves as a fascinating portrayal of the challenges facing the people of Britain at the close of the Second World War.

It's a shame that I began reading the series with the final book because I liked it enough to want to read more. In fact, I most likely will at least read the first couple of books in the series. There are three mysteries that need to be resolved in the story: did a controversial landowner die by murder or suicide, what happened to the four teenage  squatters, and whether a decades-old adoption could be successfully traced. The pace was slow and I was tempted to skip pages. However, I would have missed key resolutions concerning character relationships had I done so. I am glad that I continued reading because the characters were charming examples of the typical Englishmen that I am used to seeing from British authors. I loved the British setting and learned alot about the post WWII life for the Londoners who basically had to rebuild many parts of their city.  Of course, those quirky characters say much about this country too.

A relaxing read. 3 out of 5 stars.