Journey to Munich

A Maisie Dobbs Novel

By: Jacqueline Winspear

Narrated by: Orlagh Cassidy

Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

Working with the British Secret Service on an undercover mission, Maisie Dobbs is sent to Hitler's Germany in this thrilling tale of danger and intrigue - the 12th novel in Jacqueline Winspear's New York Times best-selling "series that seems to get better with each entry" (The Wall Street Journal).

It's early 1938, and Maisie Dobbs is back in England. On a fine yet chilly morning, as she walks toward Fitzroy Square - a place of many memories - she is intercepted by Brian Huntley and Robert MacFarlane of the Secret Service. The German government has agreed to release a British subject from prison, but only if he is handed over to a family member. Because the man's wife is bedridden and his daughter has been killed in an accident, the Secret Service wants Maisie - who bears a striking resemblance to the daughter - to retrieve the man from Dachau, on the outskirts of Munich.

The British government is not alone in its interest in Maisie's travel plans. Her nemesis - the man she holds responsible for her husband's death - has learned of her journey and is also desperate for her help.

Traveling into the heart of Nazi Germany, Maisie encounters unexpected dangers - and finds herself questioning whether it's time to return to the work she loved. But the Secret Service may have other ideas....

©2016 Jacqueline Winspear (P)2016 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic reviews

"It's a knack to keep a long-running series fresh, and narrator Orlagh Cassidy definitely plays a significant role with her portraits of Maisie and her familiar friends and colleagues.... Cassidy's warm narration, with its clear emotional connection to the characters and events, makes this another winner." (AudioFile)

Very intense thriller!

Journey to Munich is Book 12 in the wonderful Maisie Dobbs series. The first 8 novels were nice, light mysteries with Maisie running her investigations agency. That began to change with Book 9 and changed completely with Book 10 as Maisie lost her husband and her baby to death. Books 10 - 12 are much darker, or at least not at all the light fare of Books 1 - 8.

This book has a very high level of suspense as Maisie goes to Nazi Germany before WWII to collect an elderly British citizen who is being held in a German prison. This is a great novel with a Maisie Dobbs who continues to struggle with her personal loses as she helps her country. As the novel ends Maisie has come to terms with her demons and with the help of Billy reopens her agency. I suspect that Book 13 will return to the light fare of the early books in the series.

The narrator is Orlagh Cassidy who I consider the very best narrator, along with Scott Brick, of audiobooks. Cassidy, born in DC and raised in the Northeast US, is a specialist in accents. In this book she reads with a perfect London UK accent. She is quite capable of regional British and American accents. When the part calls for it she does an incredibly realistic southern US accent. (Fake southern US accents are very irritating to this southerner!)

I strongly recommend Journey to Munich to everyone who likes the mystery/thriller genre or the historical fiction genre. If you have not read or listened to any Jacqueline Winspear novels, give one a try. All are wonderful.

She's Back

For those of us who had a lot of lingering questions about where this series was going-let me reassure you, you'll be rewarded with this latest entry into the world of Maisie Dobbs.

Journey to Munich did a great job of transitioning loyal readers back into Maisie's world. We meet some new characters and even get to see some of our favorites from the past.

All in all if you are a fan of Maisie Dobbs you will love this book.

Sent Maisie Back to the British Isles, Please

I've just finished listening to the latest Maisie Dobbs book, Journey to Munich. Not the best of a series, of which I've read or listened to every single book.

Maisie started (in book 1) as a girl in service in pre-WWI England. Several books along she is exposed to live shelling as a nurse in a frontline casualty clearing medical clinic. By the time of this book, the Nazis are poised take Austria and WWII is around the corner. While the mystery in each book is standalone, and there are no cliffhangers, I wouldn't recommending reading them in anyway other than in order. [For non-history buffs, WWII started in 1938 for Europeans (arguably 37), not in the last month of 1941!)

Maisie Dobbs is a woman with agency (plenty) who is sent to carry off a spy's task in Journey to Munich. Prior to embarking on her mission, she learns to shoot a revolver (pretty well it seems) and some self-defense.

PS Ms. Cassidy's narration became hard to hear in several places. This may be the producer's fault.

Maisie Meets the Third Reich

This is the twelfth book in the Maisie Dobbs series. The prior book and this one seem to do more with Maisie’s mourning the death of James, her husband in a plane accident.

Maisie takes on a job for the British Secret service. She is posing as the daughter of Leon Donat an engineer who the Nazi’s arrested for helping an underground newspaper in Munich. Donat is in Dachau Concentration Camp. The British government has paid for Donat’s release and Maisie is to get him and return him to England. When Maisie is taken to Dachau she finds the person the Nazis say is Donat it not. Maisie must now find him and get him out of Germany. Winspear weaves a mystery and suspense story with some action, but the building suspense had me on the edge of my seat.

What I like about Maisie is she is not the usual sexy, vivacious heroine; instead she is a prim, competent professional whose intelligence shows in her vocabulary and maybe she is just a bit moralistic. The suspense builds throughout the book. Winspear provides some information about Munich and the Nazis. I was getting tired of Maisie moping about the death of James and the miscarriage of their child. I am happy that the ending of the story has Maisie returning to her prior profession in her old office with Sandra and Billy. One of my favorite narrators Orlagh Cassidy narrates the series and she does her usually excellent job.

Walk in history.

I love the Maisie Dobbs books. They are well written with an attention to detail that takes you to that time. I felt the darkness and impending doom of that era. She lets you peak at the cruelty of the third reich without going into the horrible details. You feel the fear.
Maisie grows with each book. She grows as a person but also as an investigator. I think Journey to Munich is the best yet. I have waited forever for this to come out and it was worth it. The downside is now I have to wait for the next one.

Narration

Although the narrator has a lovely voice and captures well most characters, she misses Maisy. Too frequently Maisy, who is a very strong, bright and independent woman, actually seems to simper. The narrator should give a closer listen to how she reads Maisy and try to make her voice and intonation match the character as written.

Oh no, it's a series!

I was drawn to the story. Now I'll need to read them all. Gulp. There go my next 10 credits!

Orlagh Cassidy is a treasure!

Having read, and reread the first 6 or 7 books, I wasn't sure if a Maise Dobbs as wonderful as the one in my minds ear could be found. Orlagh Cassidy is so right for this character. It's joy to have forgotten what I used to hear in my own mind. Also, she does a GREAT American accent! So many of them come off as a combination of John Wayne and Jim Carey! Brava to both Ms Casdidy and Ms Winspear!

Sadder and Wiser and Now a Spy?

I knew it would take a lot to bring me back as an enthusiastic Maisie Dobbs fan. The first books in the series were so good, and (forgive me, Maisie!) the last few were so nearly bad.

There's hope for us again, I think, after "Journey to Munich". I'll reserve judgment on whether the series is really back on track (or whether there's even at this point a track to get back on!), but this addition to the series does offer something new and encouraging. Maisie is somewhat out of her element and knows it. Instead of retreating back into nursing, she takes a chance and looks to the future, even if it is the frightening future of Europe in the late 1930's.

Maisie's future (if the series has one) will now inevitably move toward the disaster of WWII. I, for one, am anxious to see how she and the other characters we have come to know and love will handle that.

Maisie in her country's service

loved it. In addition to the story, Winspear takes on the conflict between the horrible cost of war and the horrors of Nazi Germany. As Maisie travels to Germany to bring home to England a man imprisoned in Dachau, she also realizes how to continue to find purpose and even joy in her life.