Mapping of love and death, by Jacqueline Winspear

The events of this seventh outing for Maisie Dobbs, a character who continues to grow and surprise in each book, begin in California where a young cartographer is laying claim to an oil rich area in California. His heritage is British however, and the day he is to file his papers, he learns of the outbreak of World War I and rushes off to England to join up. His British parentage, and his necessary skills at mapping, give him entre into the British forces. Sadly, he is posted missing in action. When his body turns up in 1931, his parents travel to England where they engage Maisie to find the English nurse mentioned in the diary found with his body. One of the better parts of this series is there is almost always a secondary plot, as engaging as the first, which may or may not intersect with the main one. By the end of this volume, Maisie’s life will take a very different direction. 338 pp