I'm sad this is the last Maisie Dobbs book. I have enjoyed the series over the years and seeing Maisie and all her friends and family evolve and grow over the years.
In this final instalment WW2 is over and the peace looks like it is going to be as hard as the war.
Maisie is tasked with resolving a issue of squatters who have set up home in the Compton's London home. She discovers four terrified children hiding out. With them is a recently demobbed shell shocked soldier. Maisie sets her mind to finding out what the children are frightened of and who the young man is.
She unearths a death no one is talking about and the Beale's eldest son Will is living with the consequences of of being a POW in a Japanese camp and on the Burma railway. All the strings start to come together and a resolution is found to get both the squatters and Will taking small steps to adapt to peace time living. There is one final twist from Maisies past and that of her first husband, James which brings a new strand to the family.
A satisfying conclusion to an enjoyable series.

Book 17, A Sunlit Weapon, saw Maisie in the thick of World War II, beginning in October 1942. The Comfort of Ghosts skips ahead a few years to 1945, just after the end of the war. As much as we would have loved to see a few more books squeezed into the wartime years, it feels right to see the series ending just as the UK begins picking up the pieces after the war.

The mystery begins when four adolescent orphans, each bearing the scars of a dark wartime history, are found squatting in a vacant Belgravia mansion whose owners had fled during The Blitz. As a psychologist and investigator, Maisie visits the mansion on behalf of the owners and discovers a gravely ill demobilized soldier who's still reeling from his harrowing experiences in a Japanese POW camp. Her efforts to help them will ultimately lead her back to an unsolved mystery from her own past, leading her to question many things she thought she knew.

This fitting finale to the series not only opens new horizons for Maisie and her family but also encapsulates the struggles of the era as the entire nation worked to restore those things that war destroyed. It's everything one would want from a Maisie Dobbs novel, but it's also bittersweet knowing this is likely the final installment.

Overall, it's a wonderful read. It highlights her intelligence and kindness, it gives us closure for the characters we've come to know and love, and it hints at where her life will go in the future. If you have to end a much-loved series, this is the way to do it.

This feels like the end of an era. The last Maisie Dobbs book. I have read all the the books and have come to see Maisie as a friend. I will miss her wisdom. The stories have always been highly original and well crafted/descriptive. This last story is well researched and beautifully written as always. I hope the author continues to write, perhaps with a new character?

The final book in the series. It's been an enjoyable series, with some of the books better than others. This final book feels very much like a review of Maisie's life and friends - a farewell tour. The mystery element is rather light and solved very early on in the book. I miss the efficient and organised way in which Maisie always dealt with her previous investigations. The final part of the book was rather contrived and didn't really add anything to the story. It felt as though Jacqueline Winspear had run out of steam and was just padding out the story. Overall a reasonably entertaining read but at times a bit self-indulgent.