The Comfort of Ghosts by Jacqueline Winspear

1945. In London, it feels as if the peace is harder than the war. Years of devastating Luftwaffe bombing has obliterated stretches of the city and left others abandoned. Against this backdrop, psychologist-investigator Maisie Dobbs is drawn into the plight of a group of adolescent orphans, along with a gravely ill demobbed soldier who are squatting in a Belgravia mansion.

Maisie's attempt to help brings to light a decades-old mystery concerning her first husband, James Compton, who was killed while flying an experimental fighter aircraft. The deeply personal investigation leads her to a ghostly figure who is grappling with the weight of his own conscience and the outcome of the part he played during the war.

This final instalment in the internationally bestselling series will challenge so much of what Maisie understands about her life and forces her to question what she has always accepted to be true.

Review

‘The Comfort of Ghosts’ is a triumphant finish to a beloved series. Yes, unfortunately, this is the final Maisie Dobbs book and I am seriously bereft that this is the end. This has been a very special series for me as I found it whilst I was attending university studying the interwar period and in particular women’s role in society. I feel as if I have grown alongside Maisie, suffered heartbreak and loss but found love and joy in life. In particular, I loved the more spiritual aspects of the book, the meditations that Maurice taught Maisie etc. It made their characters unique, nuanced and very relatable as I was brought up as a Buddhist.

A long way of saying I adore this series and in a way, I didn't want to pick this book up as I didn't want it to be over. But this book is one for the long-term fans, those who have been there from the start as its reflective air means we travel back through the strands of narrative that the author has weaved over the course of 18 books. Set right at the end of the Second World War when a lot of people will have been reminiscing over their lives before this conflict, the war that came before and shaped so many of their lives. Maisie is one of these and the book is more about how the past shapes us, moulds us and ultimately makes us stronger. Of course, there are mysteries to boot but this is a book that is definitely the equivalent of someone getting their affairs in order. And what an affair that has been!