All writers are in the entertainment business, award-winning author Jacqueline Winspear says.
"However, if reading my books inspires a person to look deeper into, say, a period of history or their own reactions to a certain set of circumstances, then that's icing on the cake," she says. "First and foremost, I am a storyteller, so I really just want people to enjoy and be engaged by the stories I write."
So far, so good for the native of Kent, England, who immigrated to the United States in 1990 and has a hit on her hands in her best selling "Maisie Dobbs" mystery series. It is set in the late 1920s and early 1930s with the roots of each story anchored in the World War I era of 1914-18.
Her first novel, "Maisie Dobbs," was a national best-seller, and each subsequent book has been an award nominee or winner, including an Edgar Allen Poe Award for best novel.
Winspear is back with her sixth in the series, "Among the Mad," which she will discuss in a 7 p.m. visit Friday to Oakmont Carnegie Library. It is sponsored by Mystery Lovers Bookshop, Oakmont.
Her books are used in schools and universities for courses ranging from women's studies to history to creative writing.
One military chaplain told her he recommends her novels to families of the bereaved, and the families of young men and women coming home from places such as Iraq and Afghanistan. "He said the books give a sense of what it's like to come home into society after such an experience," Winspear says.
"Along with many, many women of her time, Maisie went to war, she loved and lost and now has to make her way alone in the world, as did over 2 million women of her generation in Britain following the Great War." Enormous societal and political changes were wrought during and in the aftermath of the war, she reminds. Maisie takes on each case in her role of psychologist and investigator.
"Among the Mad" is about the madness of everyday life, and the deeper psychological wounds that come with a devastating experience, Winspear says.
"We are living in troubled times, and I believe readers are drawn to the historical mystery for several reasons," she says.
That includes the fact that a mystery represents an archetypal journey through chaos to resolution, so there is a sense that, even in the worst of times, "all can come well again," she says.
"If you add a difficult time in history to the mix, it increases that sense of relief at the end of the book -- after all, in the Great War some 18 million people around the world were killed; there was grief and pain on an immense scale, yet people came through it," Winspear says.
"People are still drawing comfort and inspiration from stories."
Additional Information:Jacqueline Winspear
When: 7 p.m. Friday
Where: Oakmont Carnegie Library, 700 Allegheny River Blvd., Oakmont
Admission: $5
Details: Tickets can be reserved at Mystery Lovers Bookshop, 412-828-4877 or www.mysterylovers.com
