In this mystery, the psychologist/investigator, Miss Maisie Dobbs must dig deep into a village's long-buried
secrets. The adult son of Maisie's benefactors, Lord and Lady Compton, tycoon James Compton, wants to buy an
estate in the bucolic hamlet of Heronsdene, but is wary after a string
of mysterious fires. Maisie soon proves Compton's suspicions correct
when she encounters the shady current landowner and a vaguely menacing
band of Romas (Gypsies) in town for the seasonal harvest. The locals are also
curiously tight-lipped about Heronsdene's wartime tragedy, when a
zeppelin raid wiped out a family. Teasing out Heronsdene's secrets will
take all the intrepid former nurse's psychological skills and test her
ability to navigate between the Roma and gorja (non-Roma)
worlds. Winspear vividly evokes England between the wars, when the old
order crumbled and new horizons beckoned working women like her
appealing heroine.
352 pages
