Reviews for Journey to Munich
Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.
Maisie Dobbs proves herself wily and fiercely determined again in this twelfth series entry, set in 1938, as she faces down another formidable enemy and some of her own personal demons. Happy with Maisie's previous successful mission (A Dangerous Place, 2015), British intelligence, again exercising its penchant for using civilian spies in the pre-WWII era, sends Maisie to retrieve Leon Donat, an elderly businessman accused of sedition, from Nazi clutches in Dachau. While Maisie's in Germany, an acquaintance hopes she will convince his daughter to leave her Nazi lover and return to England. In every way, things are a bit more complicated than anticipated, and our indomitable spy lands in a tight spot. A miasma of hatred, suspicion, and uncertainty pervades, and the inconsistencies in many characters' behavior highlight the fine moral line that, in wartime, is constantly shifting. A sense of melancholy and world-weariness makes this entry a little darker than others in the series. Readers who like this subtle mood shift may also enjoy Sarah R. Shaber's Louise Pearlie mysteries, and Rebecca Cantrell's Hannah Voguel novels.--Baker, Jen Copyright 2016 Booklist
Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Winspear's subpar 12th Maisie Dobbs novel (after 2015's A Dangerous Place) finds Maisie still struggling with a double tragedy. Her beloved husband, James, died during the test of an experimental fighter plane, and the shock of witnessing the accident caused Maisie to miscarry. Meanwhile, the British Secret Service taps her for a mission into Nazi Germany on the eve of the Anschluss in 1938. Engineer Leon Donat is being held in Dachau after being arrested for involvement in the production of an underground newspaper. The Germans agree to release Donat but only to a family member. Since his one surviving relative, his grown daughter, is seriously ill, Maisie is to impersonate her to gain Donat's freedom. As if that assignment isn't perilous enough, Maisie also agrees to look for a woman who has disappeared in Munich, the person who should have piloted the fighter instead of James. Maisie is unconvincing as an undercover operative, and the plot relies too heavily on contrivances. Agent: Amy Rennert, Amy Rennert Agency. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
On an undercover mission for the British Secret Service in Nazi Germany, Maisie Dobbs must face not only the horrors of the Third Reich, but very real reminders of her own tragic past. It's 1938, and Maisie is finally back in England following a stint as a nurse in Spain during the Spanish Civil War (A Dangerous Place, 2015). Her homeland still holds the ghosts of her former life with her late husband, James, who died in a plane crash. Distraction comes in the form of a summons from the British government and her old friend Robert MacFarlane, for whom she's done clandestine work in the past. This time, Maisie is asked to travel to Munich as Edwina Donat, the daughter of Leon Donat, a wealthy British industrialist and publisher who's been wrongfully imprisoned in Dachau. Donat is of great value to the British government, and the secret service has secured his release but only if his daughterthe real one is too illis the one to fetch him. Maisie can more than handle herself, even against the Fhrer and his omnipresent SS men, and after MacFarlane gives her a quick lesson in firearms, she's off. Complicating things is Elaine Otterburn, the woman Maisie blames for James' death. Convinced by the influential Otterburns to persuade the hard-partying Elaine to return home from Munich, Maisie discovers that Elaine may be entangled in something more dangerous than just drinking with the Gestapo. Winspear elegantly balances Maisie's emotional turmoil and dogged patriotism with the growing tensions of a Europe on the brink of war. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
