Sue Feder/Macavity Award for Best Historical Mystery Award Nominee London, 1931. On the night before the opening of his new and much-anticipated exhibition at a famed Mayfair gallery, Nicholas Bassington-Hope falls to his death. The police declare it an accident, but the dead man's twin sister, Georgina, isn't convinced. When the authorities refuse to conduct further investigations, Georgina takes matters into her own hands, seeking out a fellow graduate from Girton College: Maisie Dobbs, psychologist and investigator. The case soon takes Maisie to the desolate beaches of Dungeness in Kent, as well as the sinister underbelly of the city's art world. She again uncovers the dark legacy of the Great War in a society struggling to recollect itself in difficult times. But to solve the mystery of the artist's death, she will have to remain steady as the forces behind his death come out of the shadows to silence her. Jacqueline Winspear delivers another vivid, thrilling, and utterly unique episode in the life of Maisie Dobbs.

光芒畢露的21世紀新紮推理女傑：賈桂琳．溫絲皮爾（Jacqueline Winspear）

纔發錶瞭處女作，就被美國推理作傢協會（亦即愛倫坡獎）提名為年度最佳作品，這樣的例子史上隻發生過兩次；最近的這一次則是發生在二○○四年，而這位一炮而紅且備受注意的新紮女作傢名叫賈桂琳．溫絲皮爾（Jacqueline Winspear）。

處女作叫好叫座

想當然而，溫絲皮爾也寫瞭小說。她的第一部小說《Maisie Dobbs》（就是這個係列）在二○○三年七月由SOHO齣版公司發行上市，結果未料反應是佳評如潮，贏得各界讚美，不僅一舉被愛倫坡獎和阿嘉莎獎雙雙提名年度最佳作品，而且獲選為美國圖書館協會的艾歷剋獎最佳作品，並入圍《紐約時報》年度好書、《齣版人周刊》的年度推理傑作；至於銷售成績方麵，這本處女作也是錶現不俗，在舊金山和洛杉磯兩地都登上瞭暢銷排行榜。