Virtual Event: Jacqueline Winspear

Harvard Book Store's virtual event series welcomes beloved mystery writer JACQUELINE WINSPEAR—author of In This Grave Hour, Journey to Munich, and A Dangerous Place—for a discussion of the latest, highly anticipated installment of her acclaimed Maisie Dobbs series, The Consequences of Fear.

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About The Consequences of Fear

October 1941. While on a delivery, young Freddie Hackett, a message runner for a government office, witnesses an argument that ends in murder. Crouching in the doorway of a bombed-out house, Freddie waits until the coast is clear. But when he arrives at the delivery address, he’s shocked to come face to face with the killer.

Dismissed by the police when he attempts to report the crime, Freddie goes in search of a woman he once met when delivering a message: Maisie Dobbs. While Maisie believes the boy and wants to help, she must maintain extreme caution: she’s working secretly for the Special Operations Executive, assessing candidates for crucial work with the French resistance. Her two worlds collide when she spots the killer in a place she least expects. She soon realizes she’s been pulled into the orbit of a man who has his own reasons to kill—reasons that go back to the last war.

As Maisie becomes entangled in a power struggle between Britain’s intelligence efforts in France and the work of Free French agents operating across Europe, she must also contend with the lingering question of Freddie Hackett’s state of mind. What she uncovers could hold disastrous consequences for all involved in this compelling chapter of the “series that seems to get better with every entry” (Wall Street Journal).

Praise for The Consequences of Fear

“Over 16 novels spanning three decades, Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs has lived. In real life, her quiet bravery, compassion and dogged pursuit of the truth would have made her one of the Greatest Generation, a lesson in survival under the grimmest circumstances. The lessons are hard-won in The Consequences of Fear, set in the fall of 1941 but no less relevant today . . . Fans and newcomers to the series will root for Dobbs and the other well-drawn characters.” —Los Angeles Times

“Outstanding . . . Maisie and her loving family of supporting characters continue to evolve and grow in ways sure to win readers’ hearts. Winspear is writing at the top of her game.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Fast-paced . . . Winspear never sugarcoats the horrors of war, and alongside the camaraderie shown by these characters and the Londoners surrounding them deliver terrible truths that must be endured . . . also recommend it as a less-weighty read-alike for Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See.” —Booklist, starred review