Another winner from Jacqueline Winspear. Fans of her Maisie Dobbs series are sure to enjoy THE WHITE LADY and our new main character, Elinor. The writing is excellent and the plot -- a historical mystery, of course -- is super entertaining and moves along at a nice pace. Winspear demonstrates impressive knowledge about WWI and WWII. As a retired spy, Elinor is an intriguing character and we get to learn her backstory as well. I like how the alternating timelines eventually merge. Highly recommended for fans of historical mysteries.

I have enjoyed, recommended and given multiple Jacquline Winspear books over the past several years.

It is great we have a new series to enjoy. Maisie Dobbs will live on regardless if more books are written, her story is fully complete for the moment. However, our new character Elinor White will give Maisie a run for the money!

This first book gave us her back story and makes you wonder how the author will develop more stories for this survivor of two wars, as in the first book the weight of war was beginning to lift from her shoulders. I think she will aways be a spy, in one way or another, I’m looking forward to meeting and reading about her other wartime stories and how they entwine with her daily life.

She is smart, brave and a very likable character. And like Maisie her war time education started very early in her life, early as in she being just a child. A life which she has honorably given to the crown.

Looking forward to more. Excellent just excellent.

I just have one argument and that’s with the title. I think it should have incorporated the following quote…..

Every war is a war against the child.

-Eglantyne Jebb, 1876-1928
Founder of Save the Children, 1919, Jebb drafted the
Declaration of the Rights of the Child, 1924

Like Masie Dobbs, Winspear's new protagonist's story spans two world wars and deals with of the terrible trauma caused by them.
Elinor White is only 13, living in Belgium when she and her older sister become operatives for the resistance during WW1. After several successful clandestine missions their luck runs out and Elinor makes a split-second decision to save her sister. Her action will haunt her into adulthood. Again during WW2 her skills are needed but at the end of the war she is living in a small village, still haunted by war but content with her lot.
That changes when she sees a young family threatened with violence. The young husband has left London to escape his criminal family but they've found him and he fears for the safety of his wife and small daughter. Elinor uses her wartime skills and police contacts in an attempt to save the family.
In the process she discovers that people are not always what they seem and that even trusted colleagues have secrets.
This may be the first in a new series or it could be a stand alone. Either way, after a slow start, the story gains momentum and readers will quickly become invested in the outcome.

Jacqueline Winspear is one of the best writers of historical fiction practicing today. Her Maisie Dobbs series is pretty perfect, and this stand-alone effort is just as good as any of the Dobbs books.

The setting is somewhat familiar - Winspear’s strength is her capacious knowledge of the two World Wars and all aspects of the service that went into both. Here, we have a retired spy/assassin who is trying to build a life away from the service. Try as she might, she cannot avoid getting involved with other humans, another thing that is common on Winspear’s work. She has an uncanny way of writing characters who think they want to be alone but who end up forging important and long-lasting friendships.

The writing here is excellent, with good descriptive passages and well-delivered dialog. I’d expect nothing less from this author. Winspear’s fans won’t be disappointed.

Recommended.

A historic novel set in 1947 and the war. Elinor, quietly living in the countryside after the war, befriends her neighbors as she realizes they need help distancing themselves from their criminal family. A wonderful standalone from Winspear, this is a great read.

The White Lady was a wonderful read! I easily fell into the world of the book and didn't want to stop until the end. A must read for historical fiction fans!

It’s 1947 and Linni White (de Witt) has survived two world wars and now lives quietly in a small village in rural Britain. She keeps to herself. She’s haunted by her activities as a very young girl living in German occupied Belgium and as a British agent behind enemy lines in France. One day, she comes across the young Mackie family…Jim, Rose and their adorable little girl Susie. Jim is trying to breakaway from his London-based crime gang family but they want him back to help with their organized crime capers. Linni is sympathetic to their plight, perhaps because Susie reminds her of another little girl who died. She makes contact with an former colleague who she served with in France who now works at Scotland Yard. During her efforts to help the Macie’s, she relives secret WWII operations uncovers an wartime conspiracy and gets far too close to organized crime.
This is a complex and emotional story that it hard to put down.

"White Lady" by Jacqueline Winspear gave historical insight into the war effort that was displayed by ordinary people in extraordinary time. They gave their all for the cause and the consequences of those decisions. Well written and a very enjoyable read.

In 1947, Elinor White, the White Lady, is living a quiet life in rural England in a Grace and favor home granted to her by the government for her war service. Her past is anything but quiet, having served as a secret operative as a youngster in WWI Belgium and again as an adult during WWII. Both wars have left her emotionally shredded. In 1947, she feels compelled to become involved with a local family that needs protection. Her traumatic past comes barreling into the present. Told over time from WWI to 1947, the alternating time lines eventually merge and her full story is revealed in this very compelling read. Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for a prepub ecopy.

Peace is a nightmare for the White Lady.

Recruited by the resistance as a teenager in Belgium, she proved to be so good as a spy in World War 1 that her handlers called again in World War 2. Between the wars, she attended college and added to her store of languages. After the second war she cannot put the horrors behind her.

When her neighbors in the English countryside are threatened by gangsters, she has the skills needed to challenge the thugs. Turning to co-conspirators from the war for help, she finds reluctance on their part to involve a woman in an investigation or to confront criminals they consider a natural result of the war.

Mining her family history of involvement in both wars, British author Jacqueline Winspear has written a stand alone novel as suspenseful as any in her Maisie Dobbs series.

I love Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs series and was so excited to see a new book (new series?) from her. The White Lady was awesome. Set during both wars, it tells the tale of how Elinor White becomes a master spy after helping her family circumvent the Germans as a child. After retiring and tryting to mind her own business, Elinor gets caught up in a mystery invovling her neighbors and the London mafia. There were twists and turns, and you root for Elnior the whole way. Highly recommended.

Jacqueline Winspear is one of my favorite authors and Maisie Dobbs is one of my favorite fictional characters. I was skeptical of this standalone novel featuring a new character but I LOVED THIS! The book flashes backwards to Elinor's past as she grows up in WWI and to her present, where she is concerned about her new neighbors in the countryside. The story moves back and forth between her present life and what she did in both wars. I loved her character and was engrossed in her story.

Reminiscent of Winspear's heroine Maisie Dobbs, Elinor White has known the tragedy and heartbreak of two World Wars and has come out of her experiences emotionally wounded, but wise in the ways of predators of all sorts, on both sides of the law. Set in 1947 in a small English village, the plot follows Elinor as she uses her hard earend skills as an operator to protect a young family whose father is being pressured to rejoin his organized crime family. Elinor is particularly drawn to the couple's young daughter, for reasons that become heartbreakingly clear later in this intricately novel.

Like Maisie, the reader is drawn to Elinor for her courage, intelligence, and, ultimately, vulnerability. I hope to see her in future adventures.

Full Disclosure--NetGalley and the publisher provided me with a digital ARC of this book. This is my honest review.

This one is a great historical mystery! Fans of the Maisie Dobbs series will love it. Fans of The Alice Network will enjoy it and Charles Todd fans. It was a thrilling mystery with so much attention to detail. It was superb. I greatly enjoyed it and will be recommending it to my mystery book club!

Writing: 3/5 Plot: 4/5 Characters: 4/5

Elinor White has been trained to be a predator rather than prey which served her well during WWI when her home in Brussels was occupied by Nazis. It also served her well during WWII as she worked to protect her adopted country (England). But exercising those skills left their mark, and she finds herself torn between protecting those who can’t protect themselves and letting go of the violence that continues to haunt her.

A standalone (or possible new series beginning?) from the author of the Maisie Dobbs series, this book is kind of a mix between an historical novel and a mystery, with an emphasis on the former. It had a bit of a slow start but I was drawn in and found myself caring very much about the characters. I’m a big Winspear / Maisie Dobbs fan. I wouldn’t mind finding out more about Elinor White if this turns into a series…

The White Lady will be be on mind for a long time. A compelling and dramatic read that shines light onto the ambiguous dark corners of war and the force of individual personalities in making pawns of many of us - particularly children. Highly recommended.