Jacqueline Winspear – The Consequences of Fear (Virtual Event)

As Europe buckles under Nazi occupation, Maisie Dobbs investigates a possible murder that threatens devastating repercussions for Britain’s war efforts in this latest installment in the New York Times bestselling mystery series.

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).

Jacqueline Winspear is author of the New York Times bestsellers A Lesson in Secrets, The Mapping of Love and Death, Among the Mad, An Incomplete Revenge, Leaving Everything Most Loved, Journey to Munich, In This Grave Hour, To Die But Once, and her latest in the Maisie Dobbs series, The Conseqeunces of Fear; as well as What Would Maisie Do?, a non-fiction book based upon the series; and her memoir, This Time Next Year We’ll Be Laughing. In addition, her recent published essays include “Writing About War,” for which she interviewed writers including Kate Atkinson, Rhys Bowen, Jeff Shaara, and Adam Hochschild, exploring the impact of writing about war on the author; and “Women On Fire,” about women working in wildfire management. Her essay on writing the historical mystery will appear in the upcoming anthology/handbook from Mystery Writers of America, How To Write A Mystery, edited by Lee Child (April 2021). Winspear has won numerous awards for her work, including the Agatha, Alex, and Macavity awards for Maisie Dobbs, which was also nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Novel and was a New York Times Notable Book.