A lesson in secrets, by Jacqueline Winspear

 Maisie Dobbs’ mentor, the psychologist and secret service agent, Maurice Blanche, has recently died, leaving Maisie comfortably well-off for the first time in her life. She also has a new love interest, the son of her former employers when she was in service, James Compton. More relevant to her working life, Maurice has recommended her for more hush-hush work than her usual investigations. Scotland Yard’s Special Branch has asked her to embed herself in a newly-founded college at Cambridge which is dedicated to peace studies. Her background from her college years makes her a good fit as a lecturer there. Pacifist Greville Liddecote established the school with the proceeds of a controversial children’s book he wrote. It may have caused a mutiny during the First World War. Called “The peaceful little warriors,” it is about children going off to the front to bring back their warring fathers. Deeply touched by its message, some soldiers on both sides defected and laid down their arms. British soldiers were shot by their own troops if they did this. Shortly after she arrives, Liddecote dies in his office under mysterious circumstances, which involves Maisie in the regular police as well as the secret branch. In many respects, however, Maisie is more concerned about the growth of support for fascism, and Hitler, among some of the impressionable students, more so than the Yard in fact. Written in 2011, I was struck by this passage, so relevant to our times – spoken by a wise retired professor she interviews during her investigations: “They’ve [the Nazi Party and Hitler] garnered considerable support in Germany and they’re very well organized in groups in other countries to ensure that German citizens abroad are brought into the fold. Wouldn’t surprise me if Headley [a controversial former student] isn’t a Fascist – mind you, the corridors of power are littered with Fascist leanings; anything to save the upper classes through disenfranchisement of the common man while allowing the common man to think you’re on his side.” 322 pp.