Zie item over Nancy ( )

Louisa Cannon is a chaperone and nanny to the Mitford family in 1920s England. At the 18th birthday party for Pamela Mitford a guest falls to his death from a church tower during a treasure hunt. A maid to one of the guest families is accused of the murder, but Louisa is unsure and along with Pamela and Nancy Mitford sets out to identify the real murderer.

The suspect is a known criminal and Louisa herself has a murky past, both bringing a notorious female gang and despicable goings on in Soho jazz clubs into the mix. Louisa’s policeman ex-boyfriend and his new female police colleague help to unravel the mystery.

An old-fashioned (in a good way) page-turning crime caper, I enjoyed this book a lot. Fellowes captures the mood and historical reality of both the privileged upper classes and the criminal low-life with whom they often mixed for ‘the kicks’. She draws the women characters very well, although her menfolk are sometimes a bit flat. The Mitford connection here is a bit tenuous; the action has some basis in fact, but the Mitfords could really be any upper class family as far as this story goes. ( )

This is the second book in the Mitford Murders and includes more of the 1920's glamour and intrigue that I loved from the first.
This is a murder mystery and follows Louisa, the charming nanny to the Mitford sisters, in her hunt to unravel the puzzle of who killed Adrian.
This is a really fun story with a good ending that tied everything up nicely.
Highly recommend this book. ( )

‘Bright Young Dead’ is the second in the Mitford Murders series, seeing the return of housemaid Louisa Cannon, policeman Guy Sullivan, and the bright young things surrounding the Mitford sisters in 1920s London society. Centred this time around Pamela Mitford – the series looks to focus on a different sister each time – this develops into another intriguing murder mystery, mixing changing social attitudes with classic Golden Age crime elements.

A friend of the Mitfords is murdered at a house party, and as the plot develops the book touches on enough social issues to make this a more interesting book than a run-of-the-mill ‘cozy’ murder mystery. The flapper set mingles with the London criminal underworld, questions of class and social inequality are never far from the surface, and there is, of course, a strong emphasis on the role of women and attitudes to their role in society. These never interfere with the generally fast-paced plotting with, as is to be expected, its many twists and turns, red herrings and the obligatory falsely accused languishing in prison. The denouement when it comes – a recreation of the events at the fateful party – takes place on New Year’s Eve in the Mitford’s country house with all of the guests gathered and Guy Sullivan eliminating each of the suspects one by one until the real murderer is revealed…

This is turning into a fun series from Jessica Fellowes, with enough historical detail to make them interesting social observations as well as ‘classic’ whodunnits. Suspend your disbelief and enjoy the fun. Good stuff!

(With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in return for an honest and unbiased review.) ( )

Louisa Cannon is now firmly ensconced with the Mitfords as maid to the girls. However when she takes pity on a fellow maid Louisa opens the door to tragedy at the Mitford country house. Louisa believes her friend to be innocent but connections with a ruthless gang based in South London mean Louisa and the Mitfords may well be exposed to danger.
There is a line of fact in this story in that there were some notorious gangs in operation in South London in the 1920s including the Forty Thieves and the Elephants. That part of the plot is interesting, as is the idea of the disjointed policing of the time and the casual sexism towards female police officers. However the links to the Mitfords are more tenuous in this book than in the first novel (The Mitford Murders) and are almost incidental to the plot. Therefore I will be interested in seeing if Fellowes continues to use this family as a hook for readers or believes that Louisa Cannon has developed enough as a character to be allowed to stand alone if there are future volumes. ( )