Review: A Sunlit Weapon (Maisie Dobbs #17) by Jacqueline Winspear. This latest installment in one of my favorite mystery series takes place in 1942. This is definitely a series you want to read in order, as Maisie's life and that of many other recurring characters continues to evolve and grow on the reader. We have seen her through WWI, the dangerous in-between period, and now are in 1942 and another devastating war. And as usual, there is so much good new historical material here to feed the hungry mind. In particular, we learn a lot about "ferry pilots", man of them women, whose job is was to ferry aircraft from one place to wherever they are needed within England (so not fighter pilots, but still risking life as an unarmed plane was highly vulnerable. Several threads make up the mystery; Maisie is hired by one of these ferry pilots, Jo Hardy, who was shot at from somebody on the ground, and whose friend Erica soon after dies from the same sort of attack. And was this also what happened to her fiancé, killed some months earlier in the same area when his plane inexplicably crashed? And then you have the visit of Eleanor Roosevelt to Great Britain and the suspected plot to assassinate her. These two threads intertwine, and as such draw together American and British military, Maisie and her American husband Mark. On the personal side, Maisie and Mark's adopter daughter Anna is suffering bullying attacks at school, and Billy (who needs to be promoted from his assistant position!) struggles with the knowledge of two sons in the war in different theaters, one currently a prisoner in the Pacific. Lovely descriptions of the Kent countryside, and plenty to pluck at your heart, including the reflections on the mistreatment of black servicemen by the American military.

on the bench near the entrances