A Sunlit Weapon
The thrilling wartime mystery
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3.8 • 4 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
'Winspear pulls it off brilliantly' DAILY MAIL
October 1942. Jo Hardy, an Air Transport Auxiliary ferry pilot, is delivering a Spitfire to Biggin Hill Aerodrome, when she has the terrifying experience of coming under fire from the ground. Returning to the area on foot to find out who was trying to take her down, she discovers an African American soldier bound and gagged in an old barn. When another ferry pilot crashes and dies in the same part of Kent, Jo is convinced there's a connection between all three events and she wants desperately to help the soldier now in the custody of American military police.
Jo takes her suspicions to Maisie Dobbs and as the psychologist-investigator delves into the case, she discovers that the targeting of ferry pilots and the plight of the soldier are bound up with the visit to Britain by the First Lady of the United States, Eleanor Roosevelt. Maisie must work fast to uncover the link, to save the president's wife and a soldier caught in the crosshairs of those who would see them both dead.
'Fans and newcomers to the series will root for Dobbs' LOS ANGELES TIMES
'In A Sunlit Weapon, Maisie's pluck, intelligence and moral fortitude are on full display' WASHINGTON POST
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Agatha Award winner Winspear ups the ante for Maisie Dobbs in her suspenseful if flawed 17th mystery featuring the British psychologist/investigator (after 2021's The Consequences of Fear). In 1942, ferry pilot Jo Hardy consults Maisie after the plane she was flying over southeastern England was shot at by someone on the ground. The unidentified shooter was at a farm, and when Jo visits the scene, she finds a Black American private, Matthias Crittenden, bound and gagged in one of the buildings. Despite that condition, Crittenden is suspected of being involved in the disappearance of a fellow private and is taken into military custody. Maisie's probing uncovers some coded messages at the spot where Crittenden was held captive, which her husband, Mark Scott, an American political attaché, discloses relate to a German plot to kill Eleanor Roosevelt on her goodwill tour of Britain. Meanwhile, Dobbs must also address her adopted daughter Anna's disturbing clingy behavior. The plot has more than its fair share of contrivances, including one involving the headmistress of Anna's school that almost drags down the entire book. Series fans will find the characters' personal development gratifying.
