Louisa Sullivan (nee Cannon) is pulled away from her new life to serve the Mitford family again, this time on a European cruise. She leaves behind her puzzled husband, who can’t work out why she would go back into that milieu.
A suspicious death brings them closer together- but Louisa can’t share all she knows.
Set against a backdrop of the rise of fascism in Britain as well as the Continent, bristling with scandal, secrets and spies, fans of this golden age homage series will find much to enjoy.
I was left unsatisfied and suspect I might be more interested in Louisa’s life without the glamour and snobbery of Lord Redesdale’s brood.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC.

Another exciting mystery in the Mitford series which I’m thinking may be coming to an end but I’m hoping not. Based on a real murder - don’t read the end notes until you’ve finished the book - this time we’re on board a cruise ship, the Princess Alice, in the Mediterranean in the early 1930s. Louisa, now married to Guy, accepts the Mitfords’ offer to accompany them as their ladies’ maid but unbeknowns to them, she has an ulterior motive. When Joseph Fowler is found murdered in his stateroom, the candidates for perpetrator are obvious. But are they too obvious? Running as a parallel story is Diana (Mitford) Guinness’s involvement with Sir Oswald Moseley and Unity Mitford’s obsession with Hitler.

Jessica Fellowes is a careful researcher and has managed to unearth a true crime of passion on which to base this story. When combined with the Mitford sisters’ political obsessions, this makes for an exciting and interesting storyline. It’s a real page turner, at times only just (but successfully) managing to avoid melodrama, and I would love there to be a 5th in this series.

With thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for a review copy. (This review will be published on Goodreads on 22 October 2020.

I truly cannot get enough of this book series.
I love the characters and find the stories to be entertaining and gripping throughout.

Jessica's Mitford sisters series are a great blend of my two favourite types of books; historical fiction and murder mysteries. Before starting this series, I knew nothing of the Mitford family or their history, but after the first book, I was intrigued to learn more so did some research on the family itself and that really deepened my enjoyment of the next 3. Well written and researched they are an easy recommend to readers who love a mixture of Downtown Abby and Midsomer Murders with a touch of menace.

** spoiler alert ** I've really enjoyed this series of books despite not knowing anything about the Mitford sisters.
They are like a warm comforting cuppa on a rainy day...and I thought this one especially as it starts with the wedding of Louisa and Guy.
We then have a good old classic "country house" murder...
But the talk of Germany and Hitler made the book ever so slightly more sinister than I remember the others being.
It felt like the final story ,I hope it's not

Inspired by a real murder full of surprises and secrets, the next book in this series sees newly married Louisa Sullivan, née Cannon, agreeing to accompany three of the Mitford women on a luxury cruise. But shortly before leaving England – and her husband – Louisa is asked to do something so out of character, and so against who she is (but something that gives her a thrill). Will she agree? And how will she react when, on aboard the liner, looking after the women who gave her a new life, there’s a gruesome attack. The story switches between what happened on board and the subsequent court case which makes the story seem all the more realistic. It’s not a story that’s full of hope necessarily, it is set in 1933-1935 when England is gearing up for another war, but it is sensitive to the time. The research that Jessica has done on the Mitford family – a group of people about whom I’ve always been interested – is apparent.