Elegy For Eddie by Jacqueline Winspear

I'm a little in love with the amazing Maisie Dobbs.

She's smart, thoughtful & reserved. She's a flawed character with a tragic past. She's strong, determined and above all, honest.
Integrity, honour and justice are traits that she tries to live by and work with.

Which can be challenging when you're a private investigator asked to check into the suspicious death of a childhood chum.

Each of Maisie's cases reveals a little more about her past and how this impacts on the way she manages her life and relationships now.

Elegy For Eddie  - book 9 in the series - is no different.

Maisie's war time experiences have had a huge impact on her. Her psychological training not only coming in handy to solve the crime, but to give her insight into her own actions and behaviours.

Part of the pleasure within this series, is the setting - between wars London.
This book is full of visits to Covent Garden in all its working class grittiness. Tea shops, costermongers, stables, factories, fog and the River Thames all feature regularly.

Having visited Covent Garden in more modern times it's hard to imagine the smells, the noise & the potential dangers that inhabited this area in times gone by. Winspear helps to bring it to life though thanks to the memories and stories told to her by her father.

Maisie Dobbs is a totally charming series. Easy to read, with no blood and gore or forensic science in sight!

I would happily recommend these books to young teen readers (as well as the usual adult target audience) who enjoy historical fiction wrapped up in gentle crime.

Elegy for Eddie counts as another book read from my TBR pile, Around the World challenge,  Eclectic Reader challenge (cosy crime) and for the What's in a Name Reading Challenge.