The Mysterious Readers Book Group will discuss two Maisie Dobbs books by Jacqueline Winspear: In This Grave Hour and Journey to Munich (Harper, $15.99 each).
In This Grave Hour begins on September 3rd, 1939. At the moment Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain broadcasts to the nation Britain's declaration of war with Germany, a senior Secret Service agent breaks into Maisie Dobbs's flat to await her return. Dr. Francesca Thomas has an urgent assignment for Maisie: to find the killer of a man who escaped occupied Belgium as a boy, some twenty-three years earlier during the Great War. While Maisie's search for the killer escalates, Britain is approaching its gravest hour--and Maisie could be nearing a crossroads of her own.
In Journey to Munich, it's early 1938, and Maisie Dobbs is intercepted by Brian Huntley and Robert MacFarlane of the Secret Service. The German government has agreed to release a British subject from prison, but only if he is handed over to a family member. Because the man's wife is bedridden and his daughter has been killed in an accident, the Secret Service wants Maisie--who bears a striking resemblance to the daughter--to retrieve the man from Dachau, on the outskirts of Munich.