In 1941 London, Freddie Hackett, a young message runner for the government, hides in a bombed-out house as he witnesses a murder and is then shocked to encounter the killer when he does his next delivery. The police don't believe him, so he seeks out a woman to whom he once delivered a message: Maisie Dobbs, star of Winspear's long-running, New York Times best-selling series. With a 100,000-copy first printing.

October 1941 finds Maisie Dobbs continuing her espionage work while Great Britain is locked in a do-or-die fight against the Nazis. As she continues her secret work for spymaster Robbie MacFarlane while also running her detective business, Maisie's affair with Mark Scott, her American counterpart, has reached an inflection point. Maisie is a mother, a nurse, a veteran spy, and a psychologist who sees that young Freddie Hackett, one of many speedy boys running messages around London, is at his breaking point. His father is a drunk who beats him; his mother is desperate to protect Freddie and her daughter who has Down syndrome. Now the police have blown off Freddie's claim to have witnessed a murder. Since the killer turns out to be the recipient of the message he was on his way to deliver when he saw the crime, Freddie's in a position to give an excellent description of him. Maisie, who's found it harder and harder to vet people who may be sent off to work with the French Resistance, especially because so many of them will be tortured and killed by the Nazis, meets a French officer who fits Freddie's description of the killer while she's in Scotland reviewing a new group. But MacFarlane refuses to help her with the case because relations with the Free French require a delicate balance. Undeterred, Maisie uses her contacts to unveil a story of treachery and deceit dating back to the last war, knowing that all the balls she's desperately juggling will come crashing down if she makes a mistake. A fast-paced tale of mystery and spycraft whose exploration of inner doubts and fears makes it much more. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Maisie Dobbs is by now a beloved old friend to Winspear's loyal readers, who will welcome her sixteenth wartime adventure (after The American Agent, 2019). The fast-paced tale opens with runner Freddie--one of the boys employed to sprint through the streets of London with messages--witnessing a brutal murder. Maisie excels at creating family from acquaintances, and soon Freddie and his kin are part of her brood, lovingly tended as she continues her clandestine WWII work and on-the-side investigations into the killing and other knotty situations. Winspear never sugarcoats the horrors of war, and alongside the camaraderie shown by these characters and the Londoners surrounding them she delivers terrible truths that must be endured. There's romance here, too, with Maisie's handsome American beau, Mark Scott, dashing in and out of London on his own often-secret work. More than in previous books, Maisie is growing tired of the constant blows to her circle and the uncertainties of life in wartime, with Winspear successfully showing a more melancholy side to her steadfast heroine. Fans of the series will need no encouragement to try this, and they'll be thrilled with the ending; also recommend it as a less-weighty read-alike for Anthony Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See (2014).

Set in the fall of 1941, bestseller Winspear's outstanding 16th Maisie Dobbs novel (after 2019's The American Agent) initially focuses on fleet-footed 12-year-old Freddie Hackett, who earns a few bob a week running government messages across London. One night, while racing across the city to deliver a message, Freddie witnesses a murder, but no one believes him, even when a body matching his description of the victim is pulled from the Thames--until Maisie's compassion for his plight prompts her to begin an investigation. Forensically trained Maisie has been vetting prospective agents for the Special Operations Executive to assess young recruits' psychological fitness for dangerous overseas assignments, and in Freddie she recognizes what would now be called post-traumatic stress. Could his psychological state have led him to imagine the violent encounter? The body is eventually identified as a Frenchman, and later, when a French SOE recruit dies mysteriously, Maisie discovers a connection between the two victims that stretches back to the previous war. Maisie and her loving family of supporting characters continue to evolve and grow in ways sure to win readers' hearts. Winspear is writing at the top of her game. Agent: Amy Rennert, Amy Rennert Agency. (Mar.)