In London in 1931, Maisie Dobbs and her assistant Billy Beale run a private investigation agency. It is an option for those who feel they have not been well-served by Scotland Yard, and that certainly describes their newest client, the beautiful Georgina.

While the common folk of England are tightening their belts in preparation for the grim realities of the coming Great Depression, Georgina's wealthy family, the Bassington-Hopes, are pursuing their artistic passions and stretching out the good times of the Twenties. Yet even the Bassington-Hopes are not untouched by sorrow: the older daughter Nolly lost her fiancé in the First World War. Brother Nicholas also fought in the First World War, and returned profoundly changed. Georgina herself, a renowned journalist, spent time in the trenches.

But the First World War ended years ago and the true nature of Georgina's problem concerns her brother Nicholas whose recent death has been ruled accidental. She believes that he was murdered, and wants to hire Maisie and Billy to look into it. Nicholas, a talented artist, had been preparing for an exhibit in a modern new gallery. Since he favored huge pieces and could be described as both secretive and a perfectionist, he insisted on putting together his own scaffolding and hanging his own art by himself after hours in the gallery. Somehow he fell off the scaffolding and broke his neck.

In a further strange twist, his art disappeared. Apparently Nicholas had been working on a huge triptych. His themes centered on the First World War. He also had a disturbing habit of painting, in great detail, the faces of people he knew onto the bodies involved in his compositions – without securing their consent to be his "models." Since his war art is already controversial, his sister wonders if maybe he provoked someone to kill him.

Maisie and Billy are glad to take her case even though they each have their own problems to worry about. Billy has several kids and a wife for whom he can barely provide as the economy takes a turn for the worse. His youngest daughter Lizzie's health is especially precarious. Maisie is well-off but feeling guilty about a handsome doctor she's been dating. He obviously has marriage on his mind, and she wonders how to let him down easy because she has no intention of giving up her career to become a doctor's wife.

Little do Maisie and Billy know that when they take this case, their list of suspects will grow to encompass Nicholas's trouble-making younger brother Harry, art-gallery owner Svenson, a rich American art collector, and several of Nicholas's artist/army veteran buddies who are involved in smuggling.

Messenger of Truth is the third book in the Maisie Dobbs series, but can be read as a stand-alone. The first book got nominated for an Agatha Award, and the second book won the Agatha Award. The Maisie Dobbs series already has a huge following among cozy-mystery fans. It's easy to see why: it flawlessly evokes all the subtle historical details of post-WWI England, creates a nostalgic atmosphere, and centers on the engaging theme of a woman building her career back before most women did such things.

In fact, it falls into an unusual and somewhat rare category for me: a competently-written book that I know many readers will enjoy, but one that I didn't personally like. I'm not sure why Messenger of Truth was such a slog for me because I wanted to like it, and I'm usually a fan of both historical mysteries and cozy mysteries. For me, Maisie came off as a bit too coolly manipulative to be likable. That's part of it.

Mostly, though, the writing style worked against me. Author Winspear is very talented, and must have had a good reason to choose a somewhat wordy, old-fashioned writing style: perhaps to increase that 1931 ambience. But it held me at a frustrating distance where I felt I was being told things about Maisie but never got to climb into her mind and see for myself. Consider a sentence like this from page 189:

"Now she was among people for whom such a conservative approach was anathema. Maisie felt her head spin with thoughts that plunged her from excitement to despair as she castigated herself for such self-absorption, when the troubles faced by the Beale family and thousands like them were so desperate."

Messenger of Truth can be found on Amazon through this link:

Messenger of Truth: A Maisie Dobbs Novel (Maisie Dobbs Novels)