The notorious Mitford sisters and the 20's this book manages to put fact and fiction together easily.
Wealthy families with nothing to do with their time stage a mystery murder evening which turns out to be more realistic than they hoped. All the clues point to Dulcie but can Louisa, a former thief but now reformed catch the killer before the police make a big mistake. A fun read.

Immersive Whodunnit…
1920’s delight in this glorious, immersive whodunnit in the Mitford Murders series of mysteries. London society of the time is brought to life along with the privileged Mitford sisters themselves. A deftly drawn cast populate an intriguing and well crafted plot. Witty and entertaining.

I think I'm going to give up on this series. I read the first one and wanted to like it but thought it was patchy. So I thought I'd try this second one to see if it had settled down - because I *want* to like this series because there's so much in the concept that appeals to me. But no. I liked this much less than the first one and it felt like a slog to get to the end. Not for me. Hey ho.

This is the second in the series of books which takes us with the next Mitford Sister playing a strong role, but of course the others especially Nancy heavily predominant in the first book make an appearance as well.

However the story is related round Louisa Cannon who went to work for the Mitford's in the first book escape her unpleasant Uncle. She works mainly in the nursery and becomes a chaperone for the sisters as they reach a certain age but she is till seen helping round the house in whatever role is necessary. A maid of all work I suppose.

I really feel you need to know this background to Louisa as well as her sometime friend Guy Sullivan, a policeman wanting to make a name for himself. Without this prior knowledge i feel that you would be lost for the first third or so of the book - I was and had to go and do a quick recap of who was who. Once I had done this I settled into the book much easier.

This time the focus is centred on Pamela Mitford the second sister, turning 18 and rather to be found out in the fields with horses, returning with no care for her appearance she is in contrast to her older sister Nancy who has embraced the 1920s and is certainly one of societies Bright Young Things.

To bring Pamela into this circle, nancy arranges for one of her infamous treasure hunts to take place but it results in tragedy.

One of the Bright Young Things; Adrian Curtis is found dead. Perhaps not well liked, but certainly no reason for him to have died.

The killer is Dulcie a maid and an associate of Louisa Cannon.

It all seems clear-cut until you start to find out about these Bright Young Things, their relationships and their connections to Alice Diamond.

Alice Diamond is well-known and well-regarded amongst certain elements of the underworld in London in fact she is the Queen to the Forty Thieves. Rarely caught her method of distraction and working the shops as if she was as well-regarded as the Queen means that she is a name everyone knows.....especially Louisa.

Again, Fellowes brings the fact into fiction and weaves it into a believable tale which had me intrigued how the criminal were flirting with the high society and getting away with it, until the day that Pamela and Nancy along with Louisa help reenact the evening of the murder to see if they can solve it.

Aside from the slow start when you have to know who is who, once you get going this book moves along at a quite a pace and you see Pamela start to blossom and stand out from Nancy's shadow.

A great murder mystery which adds the elements of well-known people - both the Mitford's and Alice Diamond (google her I had to - she did exist!) and creates a book worth reading and buying for all fans of good old-fashioned golden age murder mystery.

I look forward to seeing where we go next as chronologically it should be Thomas Mitford but I feel it will concentrate on the sisters, so Diana next and I wonder who else I learn about in the process.

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.

A very good whodunnit. Jessica Fellowes has created a murder mystery centring on the Mitford family and their home, and some of Nancy’s friends who are mixed up in London’s 1920s drug scene, illegal drinking clubs and prostitution. Alice Diamond, ‘Queen of the Forty Thieves’, seems an unlikely character but she was a real person who ran a gang of female shoplifters. The murder itself is fictitious but many of the characters and the historical detail are not.

Fellowes has clearly done her research as 1920s London is vividly brought to life. She is, of course, well connected herself. Her uncle wrote Downton Abbey and she has written spin off books from the series. I requested this book because I used to be a real Mitford nerd and thought I’d enjoy reading about them. I did but I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I did.

With thanks to Little, Brown Book Group UK and NetGalley for a review copy.

Thanks to Little, Brown Book Group UK for review copy in exchange for honest review.

Jessica Fellowes has a hit with this series.. Each book gets better and more personal. Love the quirky twists to the mysteries, the back dramas going on, and the historical detail.

Jessica Fellowes ventures below stairs to solve a country house murder in Bright Young Dead.
As in 2017's The Mitford Murders, the main protagonist is Louisa Cannon. She is nurserymaid, chaperone and amateur sleuth. Fellowes has done her homework in evoking the period well. The Mitford sisters are captured before their notoriety, wanting to break free from the strictures of Farve and Muv. At every opportunity there is a trip up to London for a party or shopping trip.
The murder this time takes place at the family seat during a birthday party. The obvious suspect is a maid, Dulcie. It is a case of there, but for the grace of God, go I. Louisa has come from the same background and could easily have made the same choices. She resolves to solve the crime, with the occasional help of the sisters.
The action jumps between country and town. The Bright Young Things are not all they seem, at least two of them being on the wrong side of the law. Also in London is a notorious gang of female thieves, called the Forty. The criminality of both converges on a club called the 43.
Aside from the murder, the main focus of the book is the disadvantages of women. Men can go as they please, while ladies need a chaperone. Louisa longs to be more than a maid. Mary, a new police constable, has to put herself in harms way to prove herself.
In further books, it would be nice to see the personalities of the Mitford sisters coming to the fore, as they could be any large family at the moment.

enjoyable read, weaving in the lives of the Mitfords and their eldest daughter Nancy's social set, and that of Louisa, their maid (and her policeman friend Guy). I have always loved the Mitfords, particularly since I read Nancy's The Pursuit of Love, so this series really appealed to me. It's also written by Jessica Fellowes who has written several books about Downton Abbey too.

Whilst this is the 2nd in the series, it can easily be read standalone although I think some of the colour and backstory do help make this book more rounded. I really enjoyed this tale with its multiple threads, with Louisa at the centre of the action. However, as Louisa's story is covered in #1, if #2 is read standalone, the characters might be a little flat and the story a little less engaging.

4* A good old fashioned mystery, with lots of interest.

This is the second novel in The Mitford Murders series by Jessica Fellowes.

This is set in the 1920s and captures the period with dancing and Jazz clubs, flapper girls and the young aristocrats having fun.

These young people were a media sensation at the time with famous treasure hunts, showing off their excesses.

Louisa Cannon works for the Mitford family in Oxfordshire and is often a chaperone to the Mitford girls. Louisa finds herself in the exciting gaudy world of Nancy and Pamela Mitford and on the young Pamela's 18th birthday party there is a treasure hunt that ends with the death of Adrian Curtis.

The housemaid, Dulcie, is arrested for Adrian’s murder and is imprisoned awaiting trial. Louisa is certain Dulcie did not murder him and and is determined to find out the truth.

Jessica Fellowes has written a thrilling historical mystery that bristles with descriptions of the era and society at that time.

This is a bubbly, fizzing, sparkling champagne of a read with believable characters charlston-ing out of the 1920s. Historical fiction with crime, murder and mystery thrown in.

I would like to thank the Author/the Publishers/NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for a fair and honest review

An interesting look into life in the 1920s evolving around the lives of the upper class and the other end of the spectrum, and an in-depth look into Street crime at that time, some of which are based on facts. Well worth a read!

This is the second book in the Mitford Murders series by Jessica Fellowes, but would be fine as a stand alone novel. The main character, Louisa Cannon, is a nursery maid for the Mitford family, although she spends less time with young Debo and Decca and more off solving crimes with the eldest Mitford sisters, Nancy and Pamela.

This novel tells the story of a murder committed during Pamela's 18th birthday party at the Mitfords' country house. The action then moves between there and London as Louisa's investigations take her to the shady 43 club and into the realm of the criminals ruling London's underworld.

For Mitford fans, there's much to like - the family are all here, including Muv and Farve. It won't teach you anything new about the family, but it's quite interesting to see how the biographical information has been shaped into a novel.

My main issue with the book was that the 'bright young things' who form Nancy's circle of friends (and the main focus of the murder investigation) were just so interchangeable. I couldn't remember who was who, which detracted somewhat from the narrative. For this reason, I found the bits with the full cast of young people a bit underwhelming, including the denouement. However, I did like the sections with Louisa, Guy and the Mitfords so it was readable, just a bit like hard work at times.

I really wanted to love this - I'm interested in the Mitfords, love a murder mystery, found the 1920s setting appealing... However, it just didn't have the spark I was looking for. A good read, but not a great one.

I enjoyed the first in this series, The Mitford Murders, far more that I expected. If you're expecting an impeccably accurate account of either the Mitford family or of life generally at the turn of the 1920s, you'll be disappointed. But I went into it expecting it to be silly and inaccurate, and instead found it a greatly entertaining page-turner (but also, yes, inaccurate and somewhat silly, if with a properly tense and surprising dénouement). Because of this, I had high hopes for Bright Young Dead and was looking forward to returning to the characters - nursery maid Louisa Cannon, London policeman Guy Sullivan and, of course, the fictionalised versions of the Mitford family members. The reader is plunged immediately into the action (which may be disorienting to anyone attempting to read Bright Young Dead as a standalone), with Guy on the trail of a gang of shoplifters and Louisa chaperoning Pamela Mitford to a party where they meet the fashionable London set of bright young things, with whom Nancy Mitford has fallen in, and from whom the novel gets its name.

But it's not long before tragedy strike. At Pamela's 18th birthday party in Gloucestershire, one of the bright young things found murdered while a maid - Dulcie, a friend of Louisa's - stands over his body.

Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy Bright Young Dead anywhere near as much as the first in the series. I found it much harder to connect with the characters and, although important to the plot, found the sections in London following Guy's investigations especially dull. A 2.5 for me, rounded up to 3 stars because, as in the first book, the murder mystery element remained strong and genuinely intriguing.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for an advance copy of Bright Young Dead, the second novel to feature Louisa Cannon, nursery maid to the Mitford family.

It is 1925 and the second eldest Mitford sister, Pamela, is preparing for her 18th birthday party at the family home. Her elder sister, Nancy, has invited some of her friends to join them, the so called Bright Young Things whose hedonistic lifestyle appals their elders. To make events more interesting they have arranged a treasure hunt but things go awry when one of their number is found murdered during the hunt. The local police are quick to arrest servant, Dulcie Long, but Louisa isn’t so sure and sets out to prove her innocence.

I thoroughly enjoyed Bright Young Dead which is a fascinating mixture of mystery and historical detail. It is an interesting conceit to mix historical figures into a fictional murder but it works, adding a certain authenticity to the mix. The novel is told from Louisa Cannon’s point of view which I think is a good move as it allows the author to explore both sides of the social divide and put the era into a wider context. The setting plays a large part in the novel but the murder investigation is equally compelling. I didn’t have a clue about the perpetrator or the motive so followed the author’s direction which led up and down blind alleys and into some unusual doglegs, always absorbing and never dull.

The characterisation is equally interesting. I haven’t read the first novel in the series yet so I had to gather from this one that Louisa has a bit of a shady past but seems very much on the straight and narrow now. She is frustrated, however, by the confines of her current existence. She is a servant so mostly invisible to the greater world and unable to spread her wings. In sharp contrast the upper class Mitfords have little to do but enjoy themselves. With no real knowledge of the era it is difficult to judge if it really was so or if the author is labouring the point through the prism of modern sensibilities, which it sometimes feels like.

Bright Young Dead is a good read which I have no hesitation in recommending.

I've not read the other book in this series but that did not stop me enjoying this one. I was transported to the roaring 20s for this page turning whodunit! I enjoyed the plot and the characters

This is the second book of the Mitford Murder series by Jessica Fellowes. I love her easygoing writing and the plots. I loved the first book, and the second book didn't disappoint me.
We follow Louisa, who is the nanny to the Mitford sisters. She's on a mission to find who killed Adrian this time. It's a nice mystery that hooks you and takes you to find the killer. I love this book, because it also takes place in 1920s, and I believe Fellowes reflected the ambiance of the times very well.
Very enjoyable read and murder mystery that's sealed down very well in the end too. I really recommend it.
Thanks a lot to NetGalley and the publisher for granting a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Louisa is a maid to the Mitford sisters, high society of the 1920’s. When one of their gentleman friends is murdered at the Mitford county house treasure hunt, Louisa’s friend Dulcie is arrested for murder after been found with stolen jewels. You follow Louisa trying to prove Dulcie innocent with drug use and criminal gangs thrown in. An entertaining who done it with a reveal at the end Agatha Christie style.
I was given an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

‘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.)

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.

This is the second light and slightly frothy book in the 'Mitford Murders' series: like the first one, we have to swallow some plot implausabilities around the relationship between Louisa and the Mitford girls. There are also some truly risible similes that really should have been cut by the editor ('Mr Coward laughed like jelly', 'A line of prison visitors began to queue up by the wooden door, which had started to take on an almost comical effect, as if a wizard and his dragon would be waiting on the other side', 'Dulcie's words ran around her mind... like a Hornby train set'). For all that, this is hugely enjoyable as a switch-off read, and Fellowes feels more confident in her story-telling. Combining a plot of bright, young things with a gang of female thieves and a woman police constable pay interesting attention to female roles and possibilities.

Best switch off your more critical faculties and enjoy this for a romp of an adventure in 1920s London.