Petey's Fiction Review

An Incomplete Revenge

by Jacqueline Winspear

The year is 1931, at the height of the hop season, when psychologist/investigator Maisie Dobbs journeys from London to the tiny Kent village known as Heronsdene. Her mission is to explore the histories of a particular piece of industrial property and the family that owns it, and report her findings to her client prior to his purchase of the property. As part of the discovery process, Maisie intends to interview as many of the villagers as possible.

When Maisie arrives in Heronsdene, she finds an eclectic mix of villagers and outsiders—Londoners and gypsies—taking part in the hop harvest. A good deal of animosity exists between the disparate groups; tension and distrust among them run high. Add to this the fires of suspicious origin that seem to occur every year at about this time, the theft of valuables from the Sandermere estate by person or persons unknown, the villagers’ reluctance to talk about the World War I Zeppelin bombing raid that left a family of three dead, and Maisie’s impression that something is “off” about the villagers, and the intrepid sleuth must use all of her considerable investigative skills to ferret out the stunning truth.

Winspear’s An Incomplete Revenge, the fifth novel in the Maisie Dobbs series, is rich with period detail, making it not just a delightfully entertaining read, but an educational one, too. Period fiction fans who prefer not to have their sensibilities offended by overt and gratuitous violence will enjoy it.

Jacqueline Winspear’s previous novels have won, collectively, numerous fiction awards. The author, a former citizen of the U.K., now makes her home in California. Visit her Web site at www.jacquelinewinspear.com

Review by Phil Hanson, for FSB Associates

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