To Die But Once by Jacqueline Winspear was one of Susan Woolf’s favourite lockdown books. The book opens in 1940 against the background  of the evacuation of British troops from Dunkirk.  Maisie Dobbs, the principal character tries to help a local pub landlord and his wife who are concerned about their son who has not been in touch for some time. Young Joe Coombes, a happy-go-lucky young man, who is not yet sixteen, has been working away from home—he is an apprentice to a painting and decorating company with a lucrative government contract, and the work requires a crew of painters to work away from home, and Joe is the youngest on the crew. His father tells Maisie that Joe had been acting strangely of late, and complaining of headaches. Could the lad have been enjoying his first taste of freedom a little too much? Or is there something more serious at the heart of his lack of contact.

Other elements of the story include ‘a well-known’ London family involved in organized crime (and one member who will not hesitate to resort to extreme violence), and Anna, an orphaned evacuee who is living with Maisie.  

Susan Woolf says ” the author is reliable and I like her central character, Maisie Dobbs. I always learn something about London in the early twentieth century. Unlike many authors, Jacqueline Winspear does not put in excessive details about meals and tea.”