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A Lesson in Secrets
A Lesson in Secrets
A Lesson in Secrets
Audiobook10 hours

A Lesson in Secrets

Written by Jacqueline Winspear

Narrated by Orlagh Cassidy

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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About this audiobook

Private investigator Maisie Dobbs receives her first assignment from the British Secret Service in A Lesson in Secrets, the eighth book in Jacqueline Winspear’s award-winning mystery series. Sent to pose as a junior lecturer at a private college in Cambridge, she will monitor any activities “not in the interests of His Majesty’s government.” When the college’s pacifist founder is murdered, Maisie finds herself in the midst of sinister web of murder, scandal, and conspiracy, activities that point towards members of the ascendant Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei—the Nazi Party—on Britain’s shores. An instant classic, and sure to captivate long-time Maisie Dobbs fans as well as readers of Agatha Christie, Elizabeth George, and Alexander McCall Smith, A Lesson in Secrets is “a powerful and complex novel, one that will linger in memory as a testament to her talent and her humanity” (Richmond Times-Dispatch).
LanguageEnglish
PublisherHarperAudio
Release dateMar 22, 2011
ISBN9780062072764
A Lesson in Secrets
Author

Jacqueline Winspear

Jacqueline Winspear is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Consequences of Fear, The American Agent, and To Die but Once, as well as thirteen other bestselling Maisie Dobbs novels and The Care and Management of Lies, a Dayton Literary Peace Prize finalist. Jacqueline has also published two nonfiction books, What Would Maisie Do? and a memoir, This Time Next Year We’ll Be Laughing. Originally from the United Kingdom, she divides her time between California and the Pacific Northwest.

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Reviews for A Lesson in Secrets

Rating: 3.961658825039123 out of 5 stars
4/5

639 ratings62 reviews

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  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I enjoyed the continuing story MD but had a hard time with the narration. The narration was well paced and acted, but the accents were hard to hear. The English is OK, but the Scottish (via Ulster?)was very painful.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Maisie gets caught up in Secret Service stuff investigating a college in Cambridge and at the same time trying to work out what happened with Sandra, a girl she knew from service. Her work as a detective has become complicated by her mission and she's trying to do the best for herself and for others.When she agreed to work a college whose ostensible aims were peace the last thing she expected was to have to deal with the death of the head of the college, by violence. She uses her knowledge to help the investigation while still working on her mission to see if the college is working in the best interests of the country. You can see the rise of the Nazi party both in England and Germany being echoed here. Ominous rumblings.Maisie tries hard to please everyone, not sure that she's pleasing herself as often as she should. Her relationship with James Compton is also interesting to see and her doubts and worries are out there.I like this series, there are times when I want it to move faster but it's the Downton Abbey of Cosies.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Maisie Dobbs is an engaging character and, while this isn't the best I've read in this series, it is a solid and satisfying read. Maisie is asked to work undercover for the secret service at a college in Cambridge, attempting to ferret out any danger to the realm. While she is at it, she assists Scotland Yard in solving a murder or two and resolvs the personal problems of those around her much more satisfactorily than she is able to resolve her own. Fun.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Anther great entry in the Maisie Hobbs series. This book has Maisie branching out and working for the secret service in addition to her own private investigation practice. This book also moves forward the history of the series and there is now a great deal of talk about the rise of the Nazi party in Germany and beyond. I loved the background stories and the actual murder mystery of this episode. Highly recommended series.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I like the character development, rich imagery and the setting. The reader is very good for the book also.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Another great Maisie Dobbs mystery. If you like her, you'll like the book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I've always liked this series, but someone mentioned that they were bothered by Maisie's rather bloodless existence- there is an emotional coldness in these books that, while the plots are interesting and the characters varied, you can never feel truly engaged with Maisie or her problems.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    1932 and Maisie is recruited by the British Secret Service to apply and work as a lecturer at a private college in Cambridge to monitor various activities. But when a murder occurs she calls in her friends from Scotland Yard. While setting her assistant Billy on various different tasks.
    An enjoyable slow paced well-written mystery
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A lot has changed in Maisie’s life and the reader knows it will after reading the end of the previous book in the series. I enjoyed Maisie’s new role and the various other changes as they help keep the series feeling fresh. I also loved so much of what was going on with other main characters and liked meeting the many new, most temporary I think, characters in this book. I loved this book and the last book so much. The next book doesn’t look as good to me but I hope that I’m wrong about that and I’ll enjoy it just as much as the others or at least enjoy it. WWI is still one of the topics but WWII is definitely on the horizon. I believe I’ll prefer that and also hope to read more storylines not directly associated with any war. As usual I enjoy the English settings of London and County Kent and there was also a bit of Cambridge and other areas in this story. I love the settings and the history and the mystery but mostly I love the characters.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Masie is sent undercover to a ferret out the secrets of potential politically dangerous groups and a college that was founded on the precepts & belief of world peace.The founder, an author of a pacifist children's book, which has been censored by the British Government, is found murdered in his office, his neck snapped.His very efficient secretary disappears as does her personnel file.The few side stories were ok, but the underlying story of the murdered man was more interesting/ Maisie's back story was boring & I skimmed most of that.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I loved it. The plot was good and the characters were interesting. I am definitely going to read more of this series
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Too much war. Not so much fun to read anymore. Two more than full grown adults who can't decide what they want, seems far-fetched.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    My Title: Don't always judge a book by its cover – but Maisie, I still want an MG14/40!

    I actually came across this paperback book in a charity shop! The cover art design grabbed my attention. I was intrigued after reading the storyline on the back cover – so I bought it!
    This story is set in the summer of 1932. Maisie Dobbs, a psychologist investigator and former World War 1 nurse, takes an exciting change in her career, after accepting an undercover assignment directed by Scotland Yard's Special Branch and the Secret Service.

    Posing as a junior lecturer, Maisie is sent to a college in Cambridge to monitor any activities 'not in the interest of the Crown'. Fairly soon after taking up the assignment, the college's controversial pacifist founder and principal is murdered. Maisie soon discovers that the circumstances of his death appears to be linked to the suspicious comings and goings of faculty and students.

    Maisie is a likeable and interesting character. I liked the way she went about her business. I felt engaged with the book, although I have to say that I found the storyline a little slow, due mainly to the apparent complex nature of the investigation. I failed in my attempt to predict the murderer!

    There are several vulnerable characters in this story, and I liked the way Maisie showed her compassion and discretion, without affecting her role as a professional investigator. The story is extremely well written, but I would have liked a little more sense of drama, danger or suspense, at times!

    This is still an enjoyable read and my only decision now is – which novel to read next!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    3.5. I have enjoyed all the books in this series. I recommend them!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Still interesting as Maisie goes undercover (sort of). She keeps being picked up in cars for chats, and she always "alights the car". "alights" does not take an object. Maybe I'm doing the author a disservice and it's the reader who is misreading?
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Maisie is beginning to adjust to the loss of Maurice Blanche, and to her new wealth, but her life is still in transition. As she is weighing her relationship with James Compton, and trying to convince her father to move from his cottage into the dower house, she is approached by Special Branch to take on a job rather different from her usual: On behalf of Special Branch and the Secret Service, she is asked to take a position as the junior lecturer in moral philosophy at the College of St. Francis in Cambridge, to look for any evidence of activity "not in the interest of the British Crown." The concerns of Special Branch and the Secret Service center around the pacifism and suspected leftist politics of the founder of the college and the senior staff.

    Almost as soon as she has settled into her new position, the founder and principal of the college, Greville Liddicote, is murdered. Maisie is told to leave the murder investigation to Special Branch, and concentrate on her own assignment, but of course it's not that simple. Investigating the staff of the college inevitably means uncovering information relevant to the murder.

    As Maisie makes her inquiries and gets to know the school and its people, she finds that Liddicote has a startling past, but not nearly so relevant to the Secret Service as they imagine. Meanwhile, with the First World War that has so dominated the series starting to fade into the past, rumblings of future troubles are making themselves felt, and Maisie finds the enthusiasm among some associated with the college for National Socialism and the rise of Adolph Hitler in Germany more disturbing than she can make her handlers understand.

    This is a quiet book, with disturbing overtones of what lies ahead, for Maisie, for her friends, and for England.

    Recommended.

    I borrowed this book from a friend.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Maisie is recruited by the secret service and goes undercover as a professor at a small college. Questions about peace and war are explored since this college has as its aim the achievement of world peace. Ms. Winspear sets the stage for the coming conflict of WWII by taking a look at Nazi party sympathizers in Britain.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I've loved all of the Maisie Dobbs books up to this point but this one took me quite a while to get through. Still well-written but I think I prefer the books where Maisie and Billy work together in London instead of apart.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    This is my least favorite in the series so far. It was boring, to be quite honest. The plot in a nutshell: Maisie drives back and forth from London. Repeat. Scotland Yard police hang around, inconceivably not bothered by the fact that the person who found the body just up and disappeared. They don't care that the haven't interviewed one of the major suspects? Entirely unbelievable. Predictable Sandra side story. Maisie drives around some more. The end.

    I kept looking for some meat in the plot, but sadly, it wasn't to be found. I hope the next book returns to Winspear's usual standards.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Maisie is approached by the Secret Branch to work undercover at the university and report back anything that might be amiss. Her first few days on campus are turned upside down when the President of the university is murdered. Conflicted with trying to follow the orders of the Secret Branch, and to solve the murder with Scotland Yard, Maisie knows that her time is limited.

    Billy is holding down the fort at the office, when Sandra is arrested and then goes into hiding. Maisie is forced to leave the majority of the investigation into Sandra's disappearance.

    And where is James Compton? Maisie is conflicted and beginning to doubt their relationship because the stamp on the last letter indicated London and not Canada. Is there affair to be short lived?
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Enjoyable as always.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Maisie Dobbs is an independently wealthy young woman in 1930s London with a degree in psychology who works as an independent private investigator. In this book she is recruited by the English security services to work undercover at a Cambridge college looking for evidence of anti-government activity. She is quickly drawn into a murder investigation when the college principal is found dead in his office.Dobbs is a likeable character - intelligent, sensitive, supportive, kind - and displays believable skills in detection and deduction. Winspear writes about the period well and honestly and her supporting characters always feel fully rounded.Focused more on solving the mystery than on out-and-out action this is an absorbing and interesting book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Maisie begins working for the secret service in this one.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    2011, Harper Collins, Read by Orlagh CassidyPublisher’s Summary: from Audible.comIn the summer of 1932, Maisie Dobbs' career takes an exciting new turn when she accepts an undercover assignment directed by Scotland Yard's Special Branch and the Secret Service. Posing as a junior lecturer, she is sent to a private college in Cambridge to monitor any activities “not in the interests of His Majesty's government.” When the college's controversial pacifist founder and principal, Greville Liddicote, is murdered, Maisie must stand back as Detective Chief Superintendent Robert MacFarlane and Detective Chief Inspector Richard Stratton spearhead the investigation. She soon discovers, however, that the circumstances of Liddicote's death appear inextricably linked to the suspicious comings and goings of faculty and students under her surveillance.My Review: Following the death of Maurice Blanche in the last novel, Maisie steps into her beloved mentor’s shoes with her first foray into working with the British Secret Service. And our girl rocks it! (not that there was ever any doubt that she would). Hindsight being what it is, it is clear to readers that the activities being investigated at Cambridge as concerns the rising powers of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei – the Nazi Party– in Britain – foreshadow the coming of WWII. There’s much to celebrate, too, in A Lesson in Secrets. Maisie, who was surprised in the previous novel to find herself caring for a certain gentleman – is now deeply in love. And Billie and Doreen Beale will announce wonderful news at the end of the novel. Full credit here to Winspear whose characters have become so endeared to me. Highly recommended!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I was not as involved in this plot as with the earlier books. I had skipped a few in the series to borrow this one from the Philipsburgh library. Maybe that had an impact. However, I did appreciate learning about the rise of Naziism in London and how it proceeded. One can see war in the near future. I am eager to learn how it will affect Maisie. I was also interested to learn that she has fallen in love, that many Englishwomen during WWI participated in espionage activities, and that there were many pacifists among the British.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Maisie goes undercover at a college devoted to the precepts of Peace according to the Teachings of St Francis. She thoroughly enjoys the teaching and the students but is soon immersed in the violent undercurrents of Fascism that are rampant in the world prior to WW2. The college's founder is murdered and its investigation is declared out of bounds for Maisie. With barely a pause, dives into all the history and back stories unleashed by the murder.Always interesting with its connection with WW1, as the present characters take center stage; the black shadows of WW2 loom just over the horizon. Good read in an excellent series.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Maisie Dobbs, sent by England's Secret Service to a private college at Cambridge, poses as Philosophy teacher to discover if the international student body is a cover for espionage and disruption against the government. The murder of the college President and founder begins to unravel a well hidden secret, though not the one she was sent to uncover.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I have tried a Maisie Dobbs novel before, but really could not get into this. However, I loved A Lesson in Secrets. I think part of it had to do with the college setting. It was a wonderful blend of cozy, police procedural, and historical fiction.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The British Secret Service enlist Maisie's unique talents in this installment sending her to teach at a college that stresses pacifism. Before she is even settled in the head of the college is found dead Maisie is forced to walk a tight line between assignment for the Secret Service and the murder investigation. Maisie is also juggling her relationships with her assistant Billy (trying to get him to accept help for his young family), Sandra (a former servant for the Comptons who has been widowed my murder), and her own relationship with James Compton. The interactions are cleverly woven throughout the story.I'm ready for the next one!
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    This is my least favorite in the series so far. It was boring, to be quite honest. The plot in a nutshell: Maisie drives back and forth from London. Repeat. Scotland Yard police hang around, inconceivably not bothered by the fact that the person who found the body just up and disappeared. They don't care that the haven't interviewed one of the major suspects? Entirely unbelievable. Predictable Sandra side story. Maisie drives around some more. The end.

    I kept looking for some meat in the plot, but sadly, it wasn't to be found. I hope the next book returns to Winspear's usual standards.