Prompt: A book set in the 1920s

I was going to read on of  Carola Dunn’s  Daisy Dalrymple books for this prompt as I have a few on my shelf. Then the third Mitford Murders Mystery was published in paperback and what can I say? Somehow it ended up in my baskets and being delivered through the post box. The Mitford Scandal by Jessica Fellowes starts in 1928 so is the perfect fot for this prompt.

What it’s about?

From Goodreads:

In the third book in the Mitford Murders series, lady’s maid Louisa Cannon accompanies Diana Mitford into a turbulent late 1920s Europe.

The year is 1928, and after the death of a maid at a glamorous society party, fortune heir Bryan Guinness seizes life and proposes to eighteen-year-old Diana, most beautiful of the six Mitford sisters. The maid’s death is ruled an accident, and the newlyweds put it behind them to begin a whirlwind life zipping between London’s Mayfair, chic Paris and hedonistic Berlin. Accompanying Diana as her lady’s maid is Louisa Cannon, as well as a coterie of friends, family and hangers on, from Nancy Mitford to Evelyn Waugh.

When a second victim is found in Paris in 1931, Louisa begins to see links with the death of the maid two years previously. Now she must convince the Mitford sisters that a murderer could be within their midst . . . all while shadows darken across Europe, and within the heart of Diana Mitford herself.

What I think:

This is the third in the series and I think they are getting better.

The writer has tried to cover the period of Diana Mitford’s marriage to Bryan Guinness so the story spans several years.

Several accidental deaths or suicides amongst the Guinnesses circle of ‘Bright Young Things’ rouse suspicion when amateur sleuth/ lady’s maid, Louisa Cannon, starts finding connections between a strange series of event over a number of years.

The writer recreates the personality of Diana Mitford well. Beautiful but cold, bot someone that people natural warmed to in stark contrast to her  vivacious sister Nancy. Louisa works for her but doesn’t ever really like her.

Louisa’s character is really developing over the books. She is determined to be more than a maid. Working for Diana gives her opportunities to travel but she does not find it satisfying as Diana and he friends are spoiled and often dismissive of their staff.

This book is a great mixture of fact and fiction. Some of the events and people are real and well documented in biographies and letters. The Mitfords and their friends are very well documented and because they led such interesting and extraordinary lives they lend themselves to fiction. Louisa, Guy and the crimes are all fictionalised.

This book will appeal to Mitford fans and murder mystery lovers.

Discover The Mitford Scandal at:

Waterstones: click here

Amazon.co.uk: click here