PARDONABLE LIES

TITLE: PARDONABLE LIES
AUTHOR: JACQUELINE WINSPEAR
Pages: 326
Date: 04/11/2007
Grade: 5+
Details: nr. 3 Maisie Dobbs Mystery
Library

"Truly, to tell lies is not honourable;
but when the truth entails tremendous ruin,
to speak dishonourably is pardonable."
Sophocles

Boy, do I love these books.
In this one, Maisie is asked by a prominent barrister to prove that his son did die during the war.
And an old friend of Maisie's asks her to discover how and where one of her brothers died.
These cases are deeply unsettling for Maisie since they force her to face her own disturbing memories of the war, as well as travel back to France, where her happiness was shattered.
To complicate matters further, someone seems determined to kill her, and the investigations, which do come together, threaten to destroy her relationship with her mentor and friend, Maurice Blanche.
These are highly intelligent, moving and well researched mysteries, and I hope Mrs. Winspear will continue to write them for a long time.
Two quotes:

"My child, when a mountain appears on the journey, we try to go to the left, then to the right; we try to find the easy way to navigate our way to the easier path. But the mountain is there to be crossed. It is on that pilgrimage, as we climb higher, that we are forced to shed the layers upon layers we have carried for so long. Then we find that our load is lighter and we have come to know something of ourselves in the perilous climb.
Do not seek to avoid the mountain, my child, for it has been placed there at a perfect time. It will only become larger if you seek to delay or draw back from the ascent."

"Coincidence is a messenger sent by Truth."