The Care and Management of Lies by Jacqueline Winspear

The Care and Management of Lies
Author:  Jacqueline Winspear
Publication Date:  July 2014
Publisher:
Pages:
Source:  a complimentary copy was provided by the publisher and TLC book tours in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

The New York Times bestselling author of the Maisie Dobbs series turns her prodigious talents to this World War I standalone novel, a lyrical drama of love struggling to survive in a damaged, fractured world.

By July 1914, the ties between Kezia Marchant and Thea Brissenden, friends since girlhood, have become strained—by Thea’s passionate embrace of women’s suffrage, and by the imminent marriage of Kezia to Thea’s brother, Tom, who runs the family farm. When Kezia and Tom wed just a month before war is declared between Britain and Germany, Thea’s gift to Kezia is a book on household management—a veiled criticism of the bride’s prosaic life to come. Yet when Tom enlists to fight for his country and Thea is drawn reluctantly onto the battlefield, the farm becomes Kezia’s responsibility. Each must find a way to endure the ensuing cataclysm and turmoil.

As Tom marches to the front lines, and Kezia battles to keep her ordered life from unraveling, they hide their despair in letters and cards filled with stories woven to bring comfort. Even Tom’s fellow soldiers in the trenches enter and find solace in the dream world of Kezia’s mouth-watering, albeit imaginary meals. But will well-intended lies and self-deception be of use when they come face to face with the enemy?

Published to coincide with the centennial of the Great War, The Care and Management of Lies paints a poignant picture of love and friendship strained by the pain of separation and the brutal chaos of battle. Ultimately, it raises profound questions about conflict, belief, and love that echo in our own time.

My Thoughts:

I noticed that the author's name took top billing on this new historical fiction scheduled for release next month.  Her name will sell this book!  Jacqueline Winspear is the well-known best-selling author of the Maisie Dobbs mystery series.

Jacqueline Winspear has long wanted to write a novel set during the time of war.  The Care and Management of Lies brings that desire to fruition.  On the author's website you may read her letter to her readers about the inspiration for The Care and Management of Lies. (see the link included with the links below.)

100 years ago the First World War commenced and there have been and will be several memorials in honour of those who fought, survived, or gave their lives in the cause.  It was the first war, according to Winston Churchill, wherein man realized he could completely obliterate himself. This leaves an enormous impression upon this generation of today.

On this theme, the author transports the reader to a tumultuous time that had long term effect for good and bad on so many.  Kezia, Thea and Tom provide a viewpoint for the reader from their perspectives as Tom is enlisted leaving behind his new young wife Kezia.  Their letters of love during their separation share the longings, fears, and trials.  They are in turn heart-wrenching and touching.

Thea, Tom's sister and Kezia's best friend, becomes an ambulance driver on the war torn fields.  What she sees will surely haunt her for years to come.  This is also a time when women were found doing the work of men, as was Thea; and, at home, Kezia in charge of the farm. It was a burdensome task with little labour and shortage of food.  Kezia's letters embellished the situation as she wrote of meals one could only dream of.  It was her way of assuring her husband he need not worry about her but focus on coming home alive.  Little did she know, those letters would buoy up the spirits of the troupe of soldiers Tom would serve with as well. Little lies to assuage the soul.

Each of the three protagonists face tremendous trials and through the pages we see their growth.  The little secrets they keep to themselves are rather selfless in that they are done to protect those they love.  You can't help but admire the lengths to which each will go to offer that protection.

The Care and Management of Lies is rather slow to get going with a lot of detail about the period in which the story takes place.  It serves a purpose in setting the scene, allowing the reader to visualize the land and the times.  The narrative too, though, is rather slow-paced compared with what I usually read.  That said, Jacqueline Winspear tells herein a haunting tale of the horrors of war with a deft hand and sympathetic heart.  You won't soon forget the impact she leaves.

PS to Maisie Dobbs fans, she will reappear in a new series the spring of 2015!

 Goodreads. Purchase links are: Amazon, IndieBound, Barnes & Noble. 

author's website and Facebook page.  http://thecareandmanagementoflies.com/camol-welcome.php

Jacqueline Winspear is the author of the New York Times bestselling novels featuring Maisie Dobbs, a former World War I nurse turned investigator. Originally from the United Kingdom, Winspear now lives in California. Find out more about Jacqueline at her website, www.jacquelinewinspear.com, and find her on Facebook.

Leaving Everything Most Loved by Jacqueline Winpsear - review

Leaving Everything Most Loved
Author:  Jacqueline Winspear
Published:  April 2014
Publisher:  Harper Perennial
Pages:  368

Source:  A complimentary copy was provided by the publisher and TLC Book Tours in exchange for my honest review.

London, 1933. Two months after Usha Pramal’s body is discovered in the waters of a city canal, her brother, newly arrived in England, turns to Maisie Dobbs for help. Not only has Scotland Yard made no arrests, but evidence indicates they failed to conduct a full investigation. Usha had been staying at an ayah’s hostel, a refuge for Indian women. As Maisie learns, Usha was different from the hostel’s other residents. But with this discovery comes new danger, as a fellow lodger who was close to Usha is found murdered.

As Maisie is pulled deeper into an unfamiliar yet captivating subculture, her investigation becomes clouded by the unfinished business of a previous case, and by a growing desire to see more of the world. At the same time, her lover, James Compton, gives her an ultimatum she cannot ignore. Bringing a crucial chapter in the life and times of Maisie Dobbs to a close, Leaving Everything Most Loved signals a vital turning point in this remarkable series.

Here's a rather sad fact:  for all the mysteries I've devoured over the years, I had not yet read a Maisie Dobbs!!  So in reading Leaving Everything Most Loved, the tenth book in the series, I felt a bit out of the loop.  There were references to a previous case that lost me a bit and the inner turmoil Maisie experiences throughout the book in relation to her personal affairs would have meant more had I better known her character.  However, I quickly became wrapped up in the plot that Winspear so capably weaves.

The prelude begins with the shooting death of a woman who had immigrated from India.  We know nothing about her except that she has gotten a fine sum of money and is eagerly anticipating returning to her country of origin.  As she is embracing this long sought after desire as an almost certain event in the not so distant future, someone has other ideas and uses the red circle upon her forehead as a target.

Moving forward, Maisie is contemplating her own future. Though Maisie does not consider herself necessarily a praying person, she goes to a nun whom she trusts to help her put a proper perspective on her decision about going abroad.  The death of her mentor and friend seems to have left Maisie somewhat lost and she feels that she must follow his path through India to better know the man and in turn herself. After ten books behind her and numerous cases, she is now looking at her life in retrospect.  But losing someone close to  you can have that effect.

Then a case is brought to her by the brother of a deceased immigrant, the aforementioned woman who was shot, Maisie and her team get busy exploring the "why" and "whom".  Before long another case comes her way and the two seem to have ties to one another.  As Maisie and her team delve deeper they uncover a less savoury London, a London that is less than kind to its immigrants.  All the time she is investigating, Maisie must also decide how she is going to answer James' proposal for marriage.  If she responds in the affirmative, could it mean a move to Canada?  If she doesn't respond soon, James will move on without her.  He has, after all, given her a deadline.  Maisie's used to deadlines though.  There is no firmer a deadline than murder.

Overall Leaving Everything Most Loved is a well-written, somewhat leisurely paced mystery set in historical London which certainly has its charms.  Though I felt somewhat lost with a lack of background upon which to draw for characterization, I did enjoy this novel and will certainly like to go back to the first Maisie Dobbs, to where it all began, and read my way forward to this current mystery.  Leaving Everything Most Loved certainly can be read as a stand alone but I think the reader would benefit from knowing Maisie just a little better.  Perhaps it would help build a foundation for what currently seems a situation of indecisiveness as it pertains to the present and her future.  

Purchase Links

Amazon | Indie Bound | Barnes & Noble

Meet the author:

Jacqueline Winspear is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Leaving Everything Most Loved, Elegy for Eddie, A Lesson in Secrets, The Mapping of Love and Death, Among the Mad, and An Incomplete Revenge, as well as four other Maisie Dobbs novels. Originally from the United Kingdom, she now lives in California.

Find out more about Jacqueline at her website, www.jacquelinewinspear.com, and find her on Facebook.