A Dangerous Place by Jacqueline Winspear

I probably was pre-disposed not to like this installment of the Maisie Dobbs series because I drove my Mom out to the St. Louis County Public Library to see the author and she had cancelled due to illness! Argh! (Belated note to self: always remember to call ahead and confirm that an event will take place as scheduled before driving more than 20 minutes away to attend said event! Duh!) Anyway, at the end of the last book Maisie had decided to close down her detective agency and travel to India.  I was looking forward to reading about Maisie's experiences but the new book sums up her time there in a few sentences and skips ahead to Gibraltar during the Spanish Civil War. Wait, what? Winspear tells us via letters written to Maisie by various friends and family that Maisie has experienced a catastrophic personal loss.  Maisie is so distraught that she cannot face returning to her home in England.  Gibraltar acts as a kind of limbo for Maisie as she struggles to regain her purpose and the will to go on. 308 pages.

Winter in Madrid by C. J. Sansome

This novel takes place in Spain in 1940. The country has been devastated by the civil war that lasted from 1936-1939. The war was won by Franco, of the Nationalist Party.  Although Franco received assistance during the war from Germany and Italy, he is remaining neutral in the war raging across Europe at this time, leading up to World War II. England was trying to ensure that he remained neutral.

The story centers on four central characters;  Harry Brett, who fought for England at the battle of Dunkirk and was wounded; Sandy Forsyth, who was a schoolmate of Brett’s in London and is now in Spain doing shady business deals with the regime; Bernie Piper, another schoolmate who became a Communist and fought on the Republican (losing) side during the Spanish civil war and disappeared, and Barbara Clare, a Red Cross worker in Madrid who met and fell in love with Bernie before he went to war.

Brett is recruited by English Intelligence to spy on Sandy, whose business deals may help Franco become independent of England and perhaps align with Hitler. When he gets to Madrid, he finds that Sandy is now living with Barbara. Meanwhile, Barbara has discovered that Bernie is not dead, as had been assumed, but is in a brutal prison camp. Brett is an uncomfortable spy, Sandy is a ruthless profiteer, and Barbara is trying to get Bernie out of the camp.

This is not a book I would have chosen to read. It is for my book club, and I always read them, although I do not always enjoy them. I did not enjoy this book.  None of the characters were very likeable, and war/espionage is not favorite subject. I did find the history fascinating, and found myself spending a lot of time looking up information on Spain and on World War II.

544 pages