A Sunlit Weapon

In the 17th title in Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs series (after Consequences of Fear), Maisie is newly married to American Mark Scott and they have formally adopted young Anna to create a blended family. The first strand of mystery comes from Officer Jo Hardy, a female pilot who ferries various aircraft in the war effort. She has a friend who crashed and died in an apparent accident while ferrying a Spitfire. Jo is convinced a mysterious male figure shot at her on an earlier flight in the same area. As Maisie investigates, she wades into murky waters when a U.S. serviceman is found bound and gagged and another person goes missing in the same spot as the crash. Things get muddier still because Mark is working on the security for Eleanor Roosevelt’s visit to the UK, and information Maisie reveals spells trouble for the first lady’s safety. On the home front, Maisie must decide how to handle her adopted daughter’s ill treatment at school. Is it just schoolyard bullies, or bad leadership?