24 in ’24 Challenge – Book 5 “The Care and Management of Lies” by Jacqueline Winspear

I have been reading the series of detective novels by Jacqueline Winspear featuring Maisie Dobbs for some time (see my review of an early title in the series here). These books are set between the two world wars and it became obvious to me after I had read a few titles that the author was exploring the effect of WW1 on society and her characters, showing how things changed after the conflict and looking at what changed as WW2 loomed. The stories have morphed from pretty typical mysteries to something a bit deeper and I am enjoying watching the series evolve. The Care and Management of Lies is a stand-alone book set during WW1 but it also examines many of the same themes.

This is not a detective story but an historical novel about a sister and brother, Thea and Tom, and Thea’s friend Kezia who marries Tom. The wedding takes place just before the war and Kezia has to come to terms with a new life as a farmer’s wife while Thea becomes involved in the suffragette movement and protests against the conflict. The book is told from their differing points of view and also from the points of view of other characters.

There are a number of different stories within the book. I thought that the description of how Kezia became a farmer’s wife was excellent. I liked hearing about Thea’s role in driving ambulances and how she ends up not being afraid. I didn’t enjoy the story about Tom in the trenches as much and found what happened to him to be a bit overdramatic. All three of the main characters write to each other and all of them lie about how they feel and what is happening and create fictions in order not to worry the others – the reader, of course, knows what is really occurring and this shared urge to spare other pain is very touching. All the characters have to adjust to situations which are not ideal and which require them to change and adapt.

I don’t often read books that are solely historical fiction (although see here for another novel set in a country community and about the effect of WW1). I didn’t enjoy this novel as much as the author’s Maisie Dobbs stories. I don’t think that it was wholly successful. I do think, however, that it is worth reading and it is pleasant to read a novel set at this time which features women but is not a romance.