3 1/2 ⭐️s. I’ve read all of Winspear’s Maize Dobbs books and a few of her other books. I like the departure from the Maize books yet staying with the WWI and WWII themes. Winspear masterfully weaves the present day post WWII tale with the background of the main characters building from WWI and WWII Belgium into the present. Elinor White, aka Elinor De Witt, is Belgium born with an English mother. She is 14 yo when Germany occupies Belgium and she and her older sister are recruited to be part of what we would call the underground. She proves to be adept at her mission but narrowly escapes to England after a last foray, she is then recruited to go back to Belgium during WWII go run her own resistance line. In present she steps in to protect her new young neighbors from the husbands criminal family and to defeat her own demons so she can move on with her life. I liked that The White Lady doesn’t have the descriptions of clothes that are so present in the Maize books and I liked the character being a different kind of strong. I think Winspear’s strength is, in part, her ability to write in series form. Not sure this one will be the start of a new series.

***Big fan of Jacqueline Winspear, have read all her books both fiction and nonfiction

Elinor White, née DeWitt, is vigilant about living a quiet life in post WWII England. Her war experiences began as a 12 year old in Belgium. She reluctantly comes to serve the Crown during WWII in the SOE. In 1947 when she becomes attached (in spite of herself) to a neighbor’s child whose family is being threatened, she gets involved, and her war comes back to her.

Winspear is such a special author in her ability to portray the effects of war on the mind, heart, and soul. I appreciate the way she approaches the after effects of war on the psyche I hope this is the start of a new series. I’d like to see Elinor DeWitt continue to grow.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this arc in exchange for an honest review.

3.75 stars

A Winspear standalone, as always well-researched and delving into some of the emotional and psychological after-effects of war.

Elinor White is a survivor of both World Wars. A Belgian, she was just a girl during the Great War, but learned deadly and disturbing skills to protect her and her mother after their father dies. She stays involved in the Resistance and becomes a teacher after the War. But tragedy strikes her family again and with nothing emotionally to lose, she gets re-recruited after the Blitz.

Her searing experiences almost lead her to suicide but she survives and leads a careful and isolated life in the quiet countryside. Until new neighbors require her particular kind of help. Her choice to try and save them links a haunting wartime episode to the world of London organized crime and high level corruption.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I think I expected too much. I tried not to compare to the Maudie books. Still good story and writing.

Typical of Jacqueline Winspear’s novels, The White Lady focuses on the role of women who worked for the Allies during World War II. And typical of Winspear’s writing, the story moves along, in this case moving back and forth among three pivotal times: WWI, WWII, and the immediate post-War II period. The parts that focus on Elinor’s roles are fascinating and held my interest. However, the story’s resolution is told through a clumsy device (it being related by a fellow WWII participant in a covert operation in Belgium, overseen by a character we had been led to believe was thoroughly malevolent. The resolution relies in large part on coincidences that were too flimsy for me to find credible. Most of Winspear’s fans will devour this fast-reading novel. The rest of us will await her next novel in hope that it surpasses this one.

Elinor White lives in a quiet village and keeps to herself, until the young neighbor family finds themselves in a tight spot. Through many flashbacks, we learn that Elinor worked as a spy during both WWI and WWII. Loved seeing a retired, female spy!

The White Lady by Jacqueline Winspear earns a strong 4.5 stars, which I will round up to 5 stars. This standalone novel of historical fiction and suspense ranks up there with the author's Maisie Dobbs series.

The main action takes place after WWII, but there are flashbacks to WWI when Elinor was a child and met the original "White Lady." She experiences trauma during both wars and some pieces of her past come to light as she tries to heal from the events that have shaped her.

I loved the character of Elinor and how she evolved throughout the book. Although her character was well-developed, I would love to see her in a series as she navigates more mysteries.

My half-star deduction is due to the abrupt way the ending came about. Still, this is one of my favorites so far this year.

I will recommend this to readers who like suspenseful historical fiction.

Thank you to the publisher, Harper and NetGalley for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Excellent stand alone story from Winspear spanning both world wars. Elinor White, her mother and sister get involved with the resistance in Belgium in WWI and eventually have to relocate to England
where WWII has now caught up with her. A moving story about family, trauma and how you can never quite escape your past. Very good.

Jacqueline Winspear’s The White Lady spans two wars. Despite this epic scope, the book has the feel of an intimate character study. Luckily, the character at the center of the novel, Elinor White, is well worth a look. As a little girl in Belgium with an British mother and a Belgian father, the book opens as the war begins and little Lini’s father is gone. Somehow, even as a 10 year old, Elinor knows she will never see her father again, so she, her mother, and her older sister, Ceci, form a tight unit, a unit that becomes much tighter during the German occupation of their little village. When a strange woman asks them to help out, the two girls become a part of the resistance.

Winspear’s careful laying of the groundwork of recruiting resistance fighters and putting them to work was an unusual detail, one I haven’t seen in the war novels I’ve read. It’s fascinating to see how Elinor takes to the work. She's able to push down her emotions and function - as she is taught – as a predator, with a healthy dose of fear. Ceci doesn’t take to it quite as readily, and one of the puzzles of the book are the two different paths the girls eventually take.

As the book goes back and forth timeline wise, we also encounter Elinor – now a seasoned agent – during WWII, as well as just post war, as London is struggling with gangs. The gangs were another unusual detail, and the only recent literary echo is in Allison Montclair’s excellent series set just post war. Elinor is drawn back into “the life” as she sees it affecting her neighbors, a hardworking mother and father with a sweet little girl. Elinor especially takes to the little girl and there’s a secret there as well, one that’s not unraveled until the end of the novel.

One of the things that really makes this novel stand out is the author’s portrait of Elinor. We see Elinor as a young girl, a sponge, learning the lessons of war from an expert. We see her as an accomplished adult, fulfilling her task of organizing resistance in WWII Belgium. And we see her later, as a traumatized adult, sorting through the ways she’s learned to live with the things she’s done.

The other thread that caught me was the underestimation of women. It starts with Elinor as a young girl – no one would expect her to do the things she does. It’s the women in the marketplace, fighting for a place in the breadline. It’s a secretary. It’s the sister of the gang leader. The true message of this novel might be: don’t underestimate women. And Winspear provides the reader with concrete examples of why you shouldn’t.

And of course, there’s Winspear’s trademark lovely prose, the kind of prose that leads to often reading with a lump in your throat. This is another indelible character from Jacqueline Winspear’s talented pen.

Jacqueline Winspear, author of the excellent Maisie Dobbs series has a new heroine in this riveting story that encompasses WWI occupied Belgium, war torn London and postwar England. Elinor White was a child living in a small Belgian village when the German army occupied Belgium. She and her sister were recruited as spies/saboteurs until they were forced to escape to their mother's home in London. In WWII, Elinor is reluctantly called again to serve, this time with widespread after effects. Her heroism gives her a medal and a quiet "grace and favour" property in Kent where she is spending the postwar years. While there a neighbour with a young child is in trouble and Elinor enters into the world of London organized crime. Her explorations also leads to a discovery about her own past, with a very satisfying ending. Highly recommended.

The White Lady
by Jacqueline Winspear
Pub Date: March 21, 2023
Harper Collins
Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.
The White Lady introduces yet another extraordinary heroine from Jacqueline Winspear, creator of the best-selling Maisie Dobbs series. This heart-stopping novel, set in Post WWII Britain in 1947, follows the coming of age and maturity of former wartime operative Elinor White—veteran of two wars, trained killer, protective of her anonymity—when she is drawn back into the world of menace she has been desperate to leave behind.
I loved her character and was engrossed in this story!
This will resonate with book club readers!
5 stars

A new stand alone from the creator of Maisie Dobbs, feels familiar and new at the same time. Moving back and forth from Elinor’s childhood in Belgium during WWI to 1947 England we learn of Elinor’s spy work as a child and as an adult in two world wars. As we learn about Elinor, she finds herself working to save a young family from their Italian crime extended family. Readers will come to care for Elinor and the young family she protects while craving more info about the secrets Elinor holds about herself. Sure to be a hit with book groups and everyone craving more world war related mysteries.

I don't think that I've read anything else by Jacqueline Winspear, though perhaps a Maisie Dobbs at some point? The synopsis of this was really intriguing to me but I didn't end up loving it. Miss White is a somewhat mysterious figure living in a small village in England and she becomes involved with her neighbors, a young family trying to detach from the husband's family in London. His family basically runs and organized crime ring, and they're trying to bring him back in (and aren't being very kind about it). Miss White, who has experience as a spy in Belgium dating back to her early teen years, tries to leverage her connections in London to keep the family safe, but as she gets more and more involved, she starts to learn some things about her past and her former colleagues in the SOE branch during the second World War. I liked the alternating chapters between Miss White's past (spanning from the 1910s to the late 1940s) and the present storyline (1947, I think), but I felt like the whole thing was building to a big climax that just didn't pay off for me. I may just have been in the wrong mood for this, because it was definitely well-written and had really interesting historical detail, the plot just didn't come together quite how I wanted it to.

This is another wartime novel that reflects on the aftermath of war along with the tension created by spying and living among the enemy. It is well written and uses flashbacks to fill in background about the mysterious "White lady" of the title. I enjoyed the slow development of the White Lady character. The use of present time juxtaposed with the events that occurred in the past to influence the current day was extremely well-done. Readers of Winspear's other novels will be enthusiastic about this new one.

The author has frequently alluded to the intelligence work done by women in the First and Second World Wars in her Maisie Dobbs series. In this novel, she focuses on the journey of one woman who works in intelligence in both wars and how its effects carry on into her post-WWII life. There is an investigation that creates a framework for the plot but for the most part, it is a narrative about Elinor White, a Belgian-British woman who lives alone in a secluded cottage in Kent, moving back and forth in time between her present and her past while she tries to help her neighbors extricate themselves from unwanted family obligations in London.

The story moves along at a good pace with suspense and clues related to the investigation but the resolution left me a little flat. Elinor's efforts are not what brings her self-imposed mission to a successful conclusion and the ends are tied up rather swiftly. She is advised in the end to focus on relaxing and putting her past behind her. I would recommend this for fans of the author but wouldn't recommend it for newcomers as they might not like it well enough to read her other works.

A hyper-vigilant recluse living in rural England in post-War England gradually gets to know the couple with a small child living nearby and can't help but become protective when the man's criminal family members threaten them to induce him to participate in a job he has refused. It's clear she's highly competent and quite capable of violence if necessary - and as the conflict plays out, we learn about her past. As a child in Belgium she aided the British during World War I and, after moving to England and studying languages, she again joins the war effort, aiding resistance fighters. Now she finds ways to infiltrate the criminal family in London while planning ways to protect her peace-loving neighbors.

The historical immersion is brilliantly done in all of the time frames involved, and our protagonist is a fascinating character - prickly, strong, intelligent, aloof, and tortured by something she'd had to do in the war. Other characters are also wonderfully developed, including a woman in the crime family who is overlooked but smarter than she's given credit for. The plot is woven together effectively, and the past is vividly evoked. Altogether, this is an immersive, intelligent, and compelling novel. Immensely enjoyable.

I will preface this by stating that I love Jacqueline Winspear’s books. In the White Lady we meet Elinor White who resides quietly in English countryside. It is 1947 and the war is over although rationing continues. So who is she and what is her story? Her home is a “grace and favor” cottage so she must have done a major service to the crown. She keeps to herself until a neighbor’s toddler breaks through her reserve. When the child’s family is threatened by ties to a London crime family her past kicks in. And so we learn her story, past and present. I did not want this book to end and hope Elinor White may reappear but am content if she doesn’t.
Thanks to NetGalley for an eGalley of this book.

Jacqueline Winspear is best known for her series featuring Maisie Dobbs, a London costermonger’s daughter born in the late 19th century who—through a combination of raw intelligence, determination, and luck—works her way up through domestic service to a college education, serves as a battlefield nurse during the First World War, and ultimately opens her own investigative agency.

“The White Lady” covers some of the same territory but from a different angle. The title has numerous meanings that become clear as the story progresses. At the most basic level, it refers to the story’s heroine, Elinor White (born Elinor de Witt, which also means “white”), a single woman in her mid-forties who lives as a recluse in a village near Tunbridge Wells. One day in 1947, while on a walk, she encounters a recent arrival named Rose Mackie and is drawn to Rose’s three-year-old daughter, Susie. When thugs from London threaten Rose and Susie, Elinor brushes off the skills she polished during the two world wars and, with the help of a former colleague who has risen through the ranks at Scotland Yard, sets out to discover exactly what the thugs have planned for Rose’s husband, Jim. While trying to put a stop to it, she uncovers a web of intrigue and corruption that reaches to the very top of society.

This story occurs alongside an exploration of Elinor’s past, beginning with her girlhood in Belgium under German occupation during the First World War and extending to her service as an intelligence agent against the Nazis twenty or so years later. By the end we have learned not only all the meanings of “White Lady” but the motives behind Elinor’s intense drive to guard Susie from harm.

Both here and in the Maisie Dobbs novels, Winspear demonstrates a deep and multifaceted understanding of the effects of war on the minds, hearts, and souls of those forced to fight. Her books are thought-provoking and emotionally satisfying, but they are also just good reads.

I will be interviewing this author for the New Books Network (link below) in March 2023.

Another winner for Jacqueline Winspear! This historical fiction is sure to delight readers of Winspear’s other novels as well as those who enjoy Kate Quinn’s complicated heroines! An engaging read that I’m sure to recommend.

Elinor White is a veteran spy of two World Wars. Now retired after World War II, she can’t help but investigate when her young married neighbors and their baby are visited and treated harshly by family wanting them to return to London. Calling on old war contacts at Scotland Yard, Elinor is drawn into the couple’s story of an attempted new beginning in the county as corruption and mobs rage in post-war London.

As Elinor investigates her own story unfolds as a spy in the first war as a very young teenager in Belgium, to her work undercover in France, and the tragic events that have left her desperate to find peace in the aftermath.

From the author of best-selling Maisie Dobbs series, this was a fantastic historical fiction story. I would love to read more about Elinor and I’m hoping this becomes another series.