Private investigator Maisie Dobbs has come a long way from the gritty Lambeth streets of her childhood over the course of Jacqueline Winspear's previous eight novels. But when five former colleagues of her father's visit Maisie's office at the start of Elegy for Eddie, they bring her a case that hits close to home. Gentle Eddie Pettit, a little "slow" but a gifted handler of horses beloved by his neighbors, has been killed, and his friends believe it was no accident.
The case leads Maisie from the paper factory where Eddie died to the library of a press mogul whose newspapers may be reporting some facts and hiding others. London in 1933 is clinging to an uneasy peace, still bearing scars from the Great War. But Adolf Hitler has been named chancellor of Germany, and a politician named Winston Churchill is urging the nation to stay alert. As Maisie searches for Eddie's killer, she wonders who was manipulating this innocent man--and what sensitive information they were trying to hide.
Maisie never solves a case without also facing a personal issue; this time, she confronts the growing tension in her relationship with James Compton, whose family once employed her as a maid. Although class distinctions (and Maisie's fortunes) have shifted since the war, she struggles to balance her working-class roots with her more comfortable present and her desire to solve the problems of her loved ones.
Like its predecessors, Elegy for Eddie combines an intriguing mystery with richly detailed history, and a determined heroine seeking justice for her clients and peace for herself. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams