In "Among the Mad" Maisie literally walks into her most dangerous case to date on Christmas Eve 1931, when a homeless and disabled WW1 veteran violently commits suicide right in front of her. This time she is most personally involved, and is pressed into working with Scotland Yard and British intelligence to try to prevent a terrorist from committing mass murder on the streets of London. She has only a week, and, as usual, reasons and intuits rings around the official men who patronize and disparage her approach to detecting. Per the formula for the series, the case is greatly helped along by the fact that, amazingly, Maisie knows or is put in touch with many of the key people of interest. Also, as per usual, the characters of Billy and his family provide the heart and soul that seem lacking in the deeply reserved Maisie. She is far from an unfeeling person, however, and at the end of the novel she seems to have reached the conclusion that she needs close connections and it's time to stop being so much alone. ( )

Among the Mad is a book about the men who have returned from war with not only on the bodies but in their brains. Maisie Dobbs is given the task to figure out who is sending threatening letters to people in government. The story is not a sensational thriller and it has no high and mighty attitude. It is just a story that is a story. Four stars were given to this book. ( )

Among the Mad by Jacqueline Winspear was published in 2009 and is Book #6 in the Maisie Dobbs Mystery series.
Maisie Dobbs is a female private investigator in London.
The time period is in the years following the Great War of 1914-1918.
With Book #6 we are…….
“Christmas Eve 1931. On the way to see a client, Maisie Dobbs witnesses a man commit suicide on a busy London street.”
Soon Maisie becomes involved in a race against time to find a man who proves he has the knowledge and will to inflict death and destruction on thousands of innocent people.
Ms. Winspear’s writing of this English historical period after the Great War is so interesting, so detailed, so suspenseful and so culturally (and historically) accurate that this series is a go-to series for me.
Very brilliant writing. ***** ( )

I’m still loving this series, but this serial killer twist on chemical warfare wasn’t my favorite. Number 5 in the series remains my favorite so far. Maisie and Billy work with higher-ups in the British government to track down a creepy letter writer. It reminded me of Agatha Christie’s ABC murders. I loved the side story with Maisie’s best friend, Priscilla, as she deals with some major life issues. ( )

Maisie Dobbs is seconded to the Special Branch of Scotland Yard, in a bid to locate and stop a madman who appears prepared to unleash chemical warfare in London. Maisie’s name was mentioned in letters the madman sent to various officials, but she has no idea who he might be; in the letters, the man complains that the wounded and shell-shocked survivors of the Great War have been abandoned, and he demands that this be rectified, a sentiment with which Maisie agrees. As the end of 1931 approaches, she and others at Scotland Yard and Military Intelligence must race against time to uncover the few clues before it’s too late. And if that is not enough, Maisie’s best friend Priscilla is suffering a crisis of her own that demands Maisie’s attention…. I have long believed that there is a qualitative difference between PTSD as the result of a single event and PTSD due to protracted, continuous or repeated traumas to the psyche, and this novel certainly brings those differences to the fore. The sixth of the Maisie Dobbs novels, this might be the darkest yet, centering as it does on the biggest horror of WWI, that of chemical warfare. At the same time, though, I have a feeling that one relationship new to this novel will continue far into Maisie’s life, on both a professional and personal basis; I’ll have to keep reading the series to find out if I’m right! As usual, recommended. ( )