This was a very enjoyable mystery. I believe the characters have become very endearing. The story is also very well-written. However, the story mystery was predictable.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

This was the third book in the Mitford Murders series, set in the late 1920s/early 1930s. Diana Mitford gets engaged to a very rich young man, and they travel through Europe with Louisa, Diana’s maid. Mysterious deaths occur, and Louisa helps investigate with her DS fiancé, Guy. I enjoyed reading about the parties and the descriptions of their travels were interesting.

Louisa Cannon has turned her back on the Mitfords. She had such hopes, such dreams, and here she is a temp hired for a glamorous party at the Guinness household in London. Nothing but a domestic and not even one with a reliable salary. But this is also the night her life will change again thanks to the Mitfords, whether she wants it to or not. The debonair heir, Bryan Guinness, has been wooing Diana Mitford and what transpires at the party makes him realize life is too short and he and Diana should be wed. A maid tragically dies in what appears to be an accident and Bryan pops the question to Diana and she accepts! Now that she's the wife to a Guinness the world is Diana's oyster and she needs her own personal lady's maid, and who better than dear old Louisa? As for dear old Louisa, she isn't exactly in a position to turn the offer down. Such prestige, power, and pay, it's worth putting up with Diana's tempers. Yet murder seems to shadow Diana and Bryan when there's a death at their Paris residence three years later. No one thinks back to that poor maid on the eve of their new lives except Louisa. Louisa senses that they are somehow connected. Two accidents that shouldn't have happened is too much of a coincidence. And who better to ask for help than her old friend Guy Sullivan? He happens to be in Paris following a missing persons case with his best friend Harry and Harry's new wife, Guy's partner, Mary Moon! They sadly get nowhere on either case and Louisa is whisked off in the wake of Diana once again. Though the company Diana is starting to keep is far more political. She's turning away from the bright young things and turning towards Oswald Mosley. Louisa knows it isn't any of her business, she's paid to be Diana's friend and secret keeper, but these secrets are dangerous. And it doesn't help that this confidence doesn't go both ways. Diana won't hear about there being a murderer amongst her friends, even when a third body appears. What is Louisa to do?

If you haven't guessed by now we're working our way through the Mitford sisters in Jessica Fellowes's series, the ironically titled "Mitford Murders Mystery." So the third book means it's Diana's turn, with Unity, Decca, and Debo waiting in the wings, and yes, I feel sorry for them in advance with whatever Jessica Fellowes has planned for them. The problem with Diana is she's a deplorable. She is a genuinely horrible human. The fact that she was married to Oswald Mosley in Goebbels's drawing room with Hitler in attendance is the one sentence bio that adequately covers what a horrid human being she was. While this series has always been more concerned with the "look" of the Mitfords than the "spirit" of them I have to say that Jessica Fellowes did a good job portraying Diana, because not only did I hate the book for myriad writing and plotting reasons, but I hated it for Diana. And thankfully it feels like Jessica Fellowes hates Diana too, because I've come to terms with her being a bad writer, but if she was also a bad human, if she made Diana a heroine, well, I don't think I could stomach that. Though her hatred of Diana made the writing at times a tad heavy handed with the Nazi side of things. But I think that can be forgiven, because now, more then ever, people need to be reminded Nazis are bad. As I write this Nazi Germany is trending on Twitter, that is how relevant Nazis are. But the Diana hatred oozing off the pages made me dislike this book on a level not seen since I read Diana's autobiography A Life of Contrasts. It's really hard to like a book with an unappealing villain as the star. Add to that my myriad issues with the series as a whole, and there was no way I was going to like this. Throw in the weird timeline with us jumping years ahead at random intervals and we're supposed to believe that the crimes committed are in the front of everyone's minds all that time later? That's preposterous. Much like calling this series "A Mitford Murders Mystery."

The book is well written and accurate to setting and portrayal of actual people. Truthfully, I had a hard time getting interested. Not the fault of the author, I am not drawn to the period between WWI and WWII. There is a style of fiction that covers more what characters are wearing and the decor of the rooms. Fellowes comes close to this. Sadly not my cup of tea.

The Mitford sisters were fascinating people; just not very likeable.

The Mitford Scandal is the third book in the series but it is important to note that you can still enjoy this book without reading the first two. There is so much goodness in this book and I love the timeframe it is set in. If you are looking for a warm cup of wholesome mystery set in a fun time period give this a try.

I was so excited for this book. The story was complex and carried for much longer through the characters lives then I expected. It isn’t the norm in the books i have been seeing lately to show so much of peoples timelines in one story. That was a unique and enjoyable experience.

RATING: 3.5 STARS
2019; Minotaur Books/St. Martin's Press

I changed my rating for this novel from 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 stars to rounded down to three. My reasoning in changing this rating is the pacing of this novel. I felt like someone kept pressing fast forward and suddenly it was years later. It made sense in some cases, but at times for the cases it felt like too much time had gone by. I was listening to this on audio and thought I had nodded off a few times. I would rewind it a bit to realize that time in the novel had moved. In this book, I just did not get into the characters. They felt a bit distant and more like names than traits. I do like Guy and Louisa and I was happy to see more of them in this novel. I am looking forward to the next installment and hope the timeline doesn't zoom ahead too much.

***I received a complimentary copy of this ebook from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.***

The Mitford Scandal is the third in a series by Jessica Fellowes. Louisa Cannon is the former nurse maid to the Mitford sisters and now she finds herself back in their employ as Diana Mitford's (now Guinness) lady's maid. In 1928 their is a terrible death during a party at the Guinness's house. A maid falls through a skylight to her death. A year later while the Guinnesses are on honeymoon in Paris a friend dies after a night out with them of an apparent sesame allergy. Then almost exactly one year later another friend dies on their anniversary trip to Venice of an opium withdrawal.

Are these all connected or just a series of tragedies? If they are related how. Louisa Cannon starts to suspect something is wrong so she reaches out to Guy Sullivan for assistance.

I did not read the first two novels in the series and the only major benefit that I think they would provide is some background on the relationships in the book. The previous instances are mentioned when in reference to a previous meeting of the characters but they might help with the history of Louisa & Guy's relationship.

I am vaguely familiar with the Mitford sisters but this book's timeline only just touches the beginning of my knowledge (i.e. Oswald Mosley enters their world). I found this book enjoyable and it falls into my guilty pleasure murder mysteries, nothing psychological or life threatening just a good old fashioned high society death to investigate.

Ever since I was a little girl first watching the movie, then reading the book "Mary Poppins", I have been fascinated by the English upper class in London. In fact, Victorian / Edwardian London is still my favourite genre.
I have also read several books about the Mitford sisters, which I discovered recently. It makes it all the more interesting that most of the main characters in this series were real people. I love the way the author ties in actual events with famous people during the 1920's and '30's into her stories.
I thorougly enjoyed the first two books, especially since I listened to them on Audible and loved the narration.
This book is is equally good, with all the descriptions of the locations and people, however, it has taken me a little longer to read it, perhaps because it is starting to seem more like a cozy mystery, which I sometimes find boring.
Nevertheless, it is well written and I would still recommend this series to readers who like this genre.

Thank you so much for the ARC of this book! I just loved it! This is an excellent series (wonderful Downton Abbey feel). The newest entry did not disappoint -- the mystery was so strong and the characters were excellent (even when I didn't like them!). Highly recommend.

Not my favorite in the series. While I was intrigued by the historical references, I found the plot itself rather cumbersome and developed slowly over several years.

A really nice addition to the series. The characters are still awesome, and I like how Fellowes shows the growth (or lack thereof) of certain characters. They aren't desperate to stay in their current state. I enjoy this series and can't wait for more.

This is the third in a series of mysteries featuring Louisa Cannon, employee; and the Mitford sisters, part of the wealthy and famous of Great Britain at the height of the roaring twenties. The mystery here is complete within this novel and there is sufficient information about the relationships between characters to understand how their lives are interconnected. That said, the book can most likely be best enjoyed by reading the series to experience how characters and situations develop.
The mystery itself is well crafted and various situations, characters and events have been inspired by historically true events. At the end of the novel there are explanations for those who are interested regarding the real-life cases that were used to develop this story. This is an added bonus for anyone who may have an interest in the era and desire to do their own research.
Ms. Fellowes does an excellent job of creating the atmosphere of the age such that the reader has no difficulty creating pictures in their head as they read of fabulous parties, magnificent homes, and travel. In addition, Fellowes has effectively pulled back the curtain on people to give her interpretation of moods, ideas, and activities. In short, it is only a short leap to imagine this book series becoming a mini-series for television much in the same vein as Ms. Fellowes’ previous works.
While it is possible to put the book down when other activities interrupt reading, the images are likely to remain with the reader and draw them back to the book as soon as possible. Louisa Cannon is sympathetic and likable, and the reader can easily become engaged in wanting to follow her personal activities above and beyond the mystery of why members of the ‘bright young things’ set keep dying. There is ample opportunity to see life in the 20’s from both the servants point of view and that of the idle rich.
As for the mystery itself, it begins with the death of a maid and then goes on to involve the deaths of several wealthy young people, members of Louisa’s employer Diana’s set. While the story is largely viewed from Louisa’s point of view, along with her policeman friend, Guy, there are glimpses of the glamorous parties and the decadent lifestyle led by Diana and other members of her social escheleon. While the murderer is basically in plain sight through most of the novel, there are a couple of twists that, if the reader has not been carefully attending to information provided, will come as a surprise. A veteran reader of mysteries will have an advantage if they want to solve the murder, and the book is also enjoyable for anyone who simply wants to slip back to another place and time and experience a bygone era.
I would recommend this book to anyone who likes to read historical fiction as well as anyone who likes as well-crafted mystery. The characters are fully formed and their appearance, the description of places, etc. is skillfully woven in throughout the story in a way that makes the entire work move effortlessly from beginning to end. The only issue that brought me out of the story were the few occasions when Fellows would end a chapter, or mention within the story something to the effect that “things are about to happen”. When I came upon these phrases it was as if I was being reminded there is a modern day person who is penning this story, which momentarily took me out of the tale itself. Except for those occasions, I could have easily spent several hours immersed in the late ‘20’s and early ‘30’s. My thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced digital read copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

Again! Ms. Jessica Fellowes brings The Mitford Sisters back for a third helping...and it's absolutely delicious.

In this installment; It's 1928 and the Society Event of the Year is ruined by the untimely and tragic death of a maid. "How Dreadful" "Scandalous"!

Everyone who is anyone is in attendance at this party...including the Stunning, fun girl Diana Mitford and the very eligible heir apparant to a huge family fortune, Bryan Guiness...and it's love at first sight...

High Society Vixen meets eligible heir...what could go wrong? Did someone say "murder"?

Drawing from extensive research into the wild lives of the famously glamorous, overindulged Mitford Sisters. This is a story where truth blends to fiction to create a truly indulgent book.

5 Stars

Thank you to NetGalley, Minotaur Books-St. Martin's Press and the author Ms. Jessica Fellowes for the opportunity to read this Advanced Readers Copy of "The Mitford Scandal"

Third in the series historical fiction at its best. Characters that come alive a mystery a novel of time and place an involving entertaining read.#netgalley#st.martinspress

From 1928 to 1932, the British middle and upper class still experienced a bright time. The Roaring Twenties are dimming, yet the fun and frolic continue for those “Bright Young Things” who still have plenty of money. “They drink too much and they’re careless. They’re rich and young and they believe themselves to be invincible.” The descent into decadence plays a major role in The Mitford Scandal, a complex mystery, by Jessica Fellowes.

Foremost among them, Diana Mitford (an actual British socialite of the era) is presented as the embodiment of Daisy Buchanan, the heroine of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s magnum opus The Great Gatsby. She believes “One should live life to the absolute fullest, not doing anything dreary but surrounding oneself with love and beauty.” Sadly, the reader comes to understand that “life to the fullest” includes infidelity, adultery, and opium addiction among Diana’s social set.

The book begins with a series of behind-the-scenes views at a high society party in 1928, mostly seen through the eyes of Louisa Cannon, who’s employed as a temporary servant for the evening. Chapter One ends shockingly: a maid falls through a skylight into the middle of the partygoers in the ballroom, dead. While it seems obvious that this was an accident (she had been peeking at the party from a floor up above through the glass dome but fell into it, shattering the glass), evidence years later suggests the cause may have been something more sinister.

The maid’s demise is a precursor to several other deaths among Diana’s socialite friends that occur throughout the book. None are apparent murders, but Louisa and Guy Sullivan (a British police inspector) gradually come to suspect there may be a killer at work. A maid, Rose Morgan, has gone missing and may be able to shed light on the mystery if only she can be found.

When Diana marries Bryan Guinness, Louisa becomes her lady’s maid. She and Luke Meyer hang on the fringes of Diana’s social set – usually tolerated but not really part of the inner circle themselves. In Mr. Meyer’s case, his entrée is due to family connections, primarily Lady Boyd, his aunt. He’s not independently wealthy like the others and supports himself as a “diarist,” or provider of gossip for the London society columns. Observations by Louisa and Luke provide the reader with both clues and red herrings as various members of the group meander through Europe (Paris and Vienna) and back to England. Guy’s investigation turns up additional clues that point to murder.

Louisa and Guy, whose fictional collaborative efforts solved crimes in the previous two books of this series, once again share information to get to the bottom of things here. Louisa is devastated that the police won’t hire her, although she’s pleased that being part of Diana’s entourage at least allows her to see more of the world. Her romantic hopes rise when she and Guy reconnect. Unfortunately, she doesn’t know he is engaged to an Irish girl, Sinéad Barry.

The book blends history with fiction convincingly. Bryan Guinness and Diana Mitford are not the only historical figures portrayed. Others include her siblings—Nancy, Pam, and Tom. Sir Oswald Mosley really was a charismatic political leader, an early proponent of fascism, and a notorious philanderer. The story includes incidents from the lives (and deaths) of Lytton Strachey and Dora Carrington, members of the famous Bloomsbury Group. Many occurrences depicted did actually happen.

We see the contrast between the older generation’s adherents of strict Victorian and Edwardian moral values versus the looser cultural standards embraced after World War I. There’s mention of the strides women are making. “In the newspapers there were constant stories of women who had earned impressive degrees at university, who were making great scientific discoveries, exploring new territories and flying aeroplanes.” Additionally, the reader can spot early warning signs that the ideology of Hitler and Mussolini are seeping into society.

This is historical fiction with a confounding mystery and a hint of romance. That’s a lot to pack into one book, and it’s mostly successful. I’m impressed with the author’s ability to take actual people and events and weave a fictional story around them. It’s surely a winner for readers who love well-written historical fiction.

I found its biggest problem to be the inherent UN-likability of so many characters. The pages are filled with shallow, spoiled, irresponsible people and, like Louisa, my interest in spending time with them waned. Without caring much about those who died, I was less interested in seeing the culprit discovered and punished.

The villain, once revealed, proves to be both obvious and largely invisible. The biggest clue? As Pam Mitford says, ““It’s extraordinary how people so often don’t see what is right in front of their own eyes.”

More of a 2.5 than 3 star rating, but there was enough that I liked in this book to keep it [for now] at three.

The first of these books was really good. I was pleasantly surprised and looked forward to book 2. Which was NOT really good. It was just okay. But it was good enough that I was willing to read this when I got the ARC of it. Sigh.

Once again, Louisa is the main character and once again, she is back in service to The Mitford Family, this time as a Lady's Maid to Diana, who has married Bryan Guinness [of the beer family]. The book starts in 1928 [with a party and a murder] and ends in 1932 [with a declaration of love, a murderer caught and Louisa making a rather rash decision], with a LOT of jumping around to different places and times. One section could start in a month and then the next section will start a new year and there was a lot of empty space and time that was just left hanging. It was hard to get into the cadence of the story when it is jumping around like that it makes it hard to really get interesting or really *KNOW* the characters when this jumping around is going on. Even all that was going on with Louisa was hard to get interested in because I was just trying to keep track of where they were, who they were with and just what bloody year it was.
AND [and this might just be a nitpicky thing on my part], how many ways can "we" dramatically end a chapter? Plenty, if this book is any indication, though after 6 or 7 of nearly the same dramatic sentences, it became quite eye-rolling and tediously repetitive.

THAT said, the mystery [even with the jumping around and such] was good. Once you figured out that there was actually a mystery and what that might be [I am not sure that DS Guy Sullivan would truly have been given that much freedom to continue to pursue the avenues of questioning years after the events happened], it became a decent read. Though, again, I felt it was about 100 pages too long [there is just only so much about the "bright young people" that one wants to read about], it was, for the most part, a decent read, once you figured out that there was an actual mystery.
And I will say that all I learned about Diana [both here and what I later read online about her] was both a bit shocking and sad. I don't think that she was a particularly nice person.

IF there is another book, I may read it because, even with my complaints, I like Louisa Cannon very much. She is a great character that almost deserves a better story-line than the Mitford Sisters. And I like her and Guy's story together as well. We shall see if there is another book.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin Press/Minotaur Books for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Jessica Fellowes returns us to the fascinating world of the complicated Mitford family in the third of this series. While the novel reads well as a standalone, it also picks up several continuing story lines. I’m particularly interested in the historical Mitford daughters. The political views of that one family spanned the gamut from fascism to communism in a time when taking sides was a matter of life and death. Fellowes does a particularly good job of bringing the politics and the social stratification of the times to life.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I found this third installment of the Mitford series an enjoyable read I like the character of Louisa, now a maid to Diana Mitford, newly married and traveling in Paris and Venice. Murder and adventures ensue.

The Mitford Scandal is the third book in the Mitford Murders series by Jessica Fellowes. Due out 21st Jan 2020 from Macmillan on their Minotaur imprint, it's 384 pages and will be available in hardcover, paperback, audio, and ebook formats (some formats available currently).

This is a well researched fictionalized murder mystery woven around a framework of actual historical occurrences and people. This was the first book in the series which I read, and it worked well enough as a standalone for me, though some of the secondary characters blended together and I found myself going back to re-read passages to find out who was married to whom. The murder 'mystery' was not a big part of the central plot and that and the romance subplots felt a bit tacked on to satisfy genre content.

For readers familiar with the history of the Mitfords and especially Diana Mitford, this one covers several years from 1929 and her marriage to Bryan Guiness onward. The privileged lifestyle and excesses of the moneyed classes are front and centre, contrasted with the privation of many of those who serve and protect them. The story moves from London to Paris to Venice and onward as the bodies pile up. Lady's maid Louisa works to untangle the motives and suspects and solve the crimes against a backdrop of ever-rising fascism and the threats to peace.

I did enjoy the book, the author is talented at her craft. The plotting was well done and moved the action along at a good pace. For me personally, the murders and romance subplots felt tacked on and inorganic. I think my antipathy to Diana Mitford Guiness herself dulled my appreciation of the book as a whole. Definitely a readable historical mystery and a well crafted book.

Four stars. Well written, well paced and plotted, satisfying and undemanding read.