Fiction Pick of the Week: Among the Mad

Among the Mad by Jacqueline Winspear (2009)

This installment in the Post-World War I mystery series finds female psychologist and investigator Maisie Dobbs witnessing a suicide on the streets of London. After being questioned by Scotland Yard, she’s recalled a few days later when her name is mentioned in a letter threatening escalating acts of terror if the government doesn’t extend help to veterans psychologically damaged during the war. Maisie faces her greatest challenge yet as she assists Scotland Yard in the investigation and comes face to face with the plight of those victimized by shell-shock (what we now call Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). At the same time, a friend is experiencing depression, and Maisie intervenes to save her from the outdated and barbaric treatments often prescribed in the early 1930s.

Jacqueline Winspear’s exhaustive research brings the period to life, and along with delivering a good, complex plot and richly drawn characters, she sheds light on issues we still struggle with today. Each of her novels focuses on a particular aspect of the aftermath of war (the changing role of women, poverty and unemployment in the wake of conflict, or the impact on family members left behind), an approach that will appeal to fans of the Second World War television series Foyle’s War or the mysteries of Charles Todd.