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With the country in the grip of economic malaise, Maisie Dobbs is relieved to accept an apparently straightforward assignment to investigate a potential land purchase. Her inquiries take her to a picturesque village in Kent during the hop-picking season, but beneath its pastoral surface she finds evidence that something is amiss. Mysterious fires erupt in the village with alarming regularity, and a series of petty crimes suggest a darker criminal element at work. A peculiar secrecy shrouds the village, and ultimately Maisie must draw on her finely-honed skills of detection to solve one of her most intriguing cases yet.
"Those unfamiliar with the Maisie Dobbs series are best advised to start here and work their way backward. . . . An Incomplete Revenge shows Maisie at the top of her detecting form."--Newsday
"A smart, pragmatic private investigator and psychologist with extraordinary empathic sensitivity . . . Every page of this novel is dense with affectionately rendered period detail. Winspear deftly intertwines multiple story lines. The tale becomes increasingly gripping as the novel progresses toward a truly moving ending."--The Boston Globe
"Winspear’s lively and graceful prose, strong sense of time and place, and her ability to create believable and sympathetic characters make the book a joy to read."--The Denver Post
"A pleasure . . . This nuanced series explores England in the aftermath of World War I, when millions of women who lost their husbands, lovers, and sons were left to make their own ways. Maisie is one of that group, and her way is an appealing one."--The Times-Picayune (New Orleans)"A compelling and intriguing puzzle . . . inspear infuses this moving novel with wisdom, restrained emotion and, as is her custom, issues of morality."--Richmond Times-Dispatch
"Intriguing . . . Fascinating . . . Skillfully drawn."--The Washington Times
"One of the more robust entries in the historical mystery category."--The Seattle Times
“Often eloquent and deeply human."--The Providence Journal
Jacqueline Winspear is the author of four previous Maisie Dobbs novels. The Maisie Dobbs series has won the Agatha, Alex, and Macavity Awards. Originally from the United Kingdom, Winspear now lives in California.
PROLOGUE
Early September 1931
The old woman rested on the steps of her home, a caravan set apart from those of the rest of her family, her tribe. She pulled a clay pipe from her pocket, inspected the dregs of tobacco in the small barrel, shrugged, and struck a match against the rim of a water butt tied to the side of her traveling home. She lit the pipe with ease, clamping her ridged lips around the end of the long stem to draw vigor from the almost-spent contents.
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