Maisie Dobbs entered domestic service in 1910 at thirteen, working for Lady Rowan Compton. When her remarkable intelligence is discovered by her employer, Maisie becomes the pupil of Maurice Blanche, a learned friend of the Comptons. In 1929, following an apprenticeship with Blanche, Maisie hangs out her shingle: "M. Dobbs, trade and personal investigations." She soon becomes enmeshed in a mystery surrounding The Retreat, a reclusive community of...

Fidelis Waldvogel, a German sniper during WWI, returns home to marry the pregnant widow of his best friend who was killed in action, and seeking a better life moves his family to North Dakota where he sets up a butcher shop, starts a singing club, and battles an attraction to the mysterious Delphine, a performer who has returned to Argus to care for her alcoholic father.

Left with an extraordinary sensitivity that allows him to determine the lies and deceptions of everyday life with a mere touch after the Great War, Bennett Grey lives a reclusive life until he is called in by the British government to find a terrorist.

"Constance Haverhill is without prospects. Her mother has just passed away, her brother is newly married, and now that the Great War is over, she has been asked to give up managing the estate she helped to run when the men all joined the army. It is suggested to her that she become a governess. But first, she will act as caretaker to Mrs. Fog, an old family friend who is convalescing at a seaside resort. Constance is soon swept up in the social whirl...