Review: To Die But Once

To Die But Once by Jacqueline Winspear
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

A young man, son of Maisie's local pub landlord, complains of sick headaches and is acting strangely, finally not making his weekly call to his family. The father calls on Maisie to find out what has happened to his son, who is an apprentice painter and decorator for a local firm which has won a hush-hush contract painting fire-retardant on RAF buildings.

Elsewhere, it is the Spring of 1940, Billy's eldest son is part of the British Expeditionary Force in France and his youngest son wants to join the RAF as a mechanic; Priscilla's eldest son has joined the RAF as a pilot and her middle son is acting out. As the events of Dunkirk unfold, all the older generation are terrified of what their children will witness and the risk to their lives.

Again there are plots within plots, some of which I couldn't see how they were connected to each other, although it all made sense in the end. One plot I did see, but not the reason why.

A good story but I am rather tired of Maurice's wisdom being repeated ad nauseam and the insistence on revisiting the investigation when it has completed - it just seems like a plot device to explain all the things which weren't properly explained at the time. also Maisie's gone back to being a bit woo-woo, by which I mean she 'feels' the injuries suffered by the victims which leads her to draw conclusions - she might as well find a scrap of paper saying 'X dun it' because it is just as silly.

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