“A Dangerous Place” - Jacqueline Winspear

 (Maisie Dobbs book 11)

🧳 Initial chapters are filled with many life changes and unexpected turmoil in Maisie’s life - all recounted in the form of letters between Maisie, Priscilla, and Lady Rowan. It’s an efficient plot device to quickly catch the reader up to speed, but as it covers a lot of ground (including the will they/won’t they of a romance we’ve seen develop over several books) it feels like an afterthought; almost like several books worth of Maisie’s life condensed into a couple of chapters. But needs must, and I suppose in the grand arc of looming war framework, Winspear has things plotted out this way for a reason.

🧳 Maisie finds herself on the run from memories - not unlike the state we left her in at the end of book 10 - but without the hopefulness that permeated her need to travel outside England in that book. After a 2nd stint in Darjeeling, Maisie is returning home when she drawn to stay on in the politically unstable climate of Gibraltar, far too close to the civil war raging in Spain and soon after the Guernica attack on innocent civilians.

Winspear’s phenomenal research and reconstruction abilities are on full display as she immerses us in this fraught time period, showing us the impact of the turmoil in Spain on the already tense atmosphere of European politics. 

🧳 I will say that I found that the mystery itself in ADP came to a rather tepid conclusion, but I consider the historical detail of the Spanish Civil War and Maisie’s evolution to be worth the while. 11 books in, I’d say Maisie and her historical context and the mysteries she solves are of equal interest to readers who have known her since her childhood. This is true for me, at least.

🧳 I’ve said this before, but I love that we have seen Maisie evolve from her childhood as a maid at Ebury Place. Winspear doesn’t make her a perfect heroine. Having grown from poverty, crossed from the upstairs/downstairs boundaries, attended college, served in the Great War, etc. She is a complicated woman. And she has foibles and flaws - she can be an overbearing, insufferable do-gooder. This bubbles up from time-to-time in her desire to help everyone, however generous her intentions might be. Sometimes her judgement is clouded by her belief that she knows what is best. 

Case in point: convincing resistance workers to transport her to Madrid. This is shockingly obtuse behavior of one who has become so well travelled. She knows the risks posed by Nationalist, fascist (German, Italian) forces in Spain. The reader assumes she has a very good reason beyond idle curiosity to venture into the combat zone, yet she asks herself a preposterous question (“am I a liability?”) en route that I felt like slapping my forehead. Yes, Maisie, obviously you are putting yourself and others at great risk!

I know she’s been through a lot and likely is overstating her purpose of being in Spain. It seems like she’s once again running toward danger, and away from memories. In the grand scheme of the Spanish Civil War, her obstinacy and self-centeredness is irksome and the value of her presence versus the dangers to others and herself is suspect. 

Vallejo eventually calls her out, stating that she is mainly indulging a desire to put herself in a more dangerous position than she had encountered in Gibraltar. He tells her this is purely a selfish motive, if not self-destructive. Later, when Maisie muses about Babayoff being dangerous even with noble intentions, Vallejo cautions her of the parallels with her own actions. She lacks self-awareness.