Bright Young Things by Jane A. Adams is the seventh book in the Henry Johnstone Mystery series and the first book I have read within this series. It did not stop me reading and enjoying it. I found this book very enjoyable and hard to put down once I started to read it (and then forgot to do a review for it Sorry) with lots of twists and turns throughout. Jane's books are always Well written, and an enjoyable read.

I highly recommend this book and all of Jane Adams books.

Big Thank you Netgalley and Severn House Publishers for an advance copy of Bright Young Things,

It’s a nice mystery, well built. Not much in the way of setting, but enough to feel the time.

It’s one of those stories that absolutely focus on the mystery plot, and I don’t complain about it. Though I have to admit that I always appreciate when some space is set aside for a closer look to the human side, especially of the detective.
Here, glimpses into Henry Johnstone’s life occasionally insert into the narration, enough to make me really curious – but not enough to let me really connect with the character.

And yet, I’ll admit that the characters are the strong part of this story. Yes, the plot is solid, but the characters are very very good. They are real people with real desires, real fears and very real flaws. Faun, the victim, who appeared alive in the many flashbacks, is such an interesting character. She’s a go-getter, and still she’s also very vulnerable.
In a way, I almost felt that the characters directly connected to the this mystery were stronger than the recurring characters of the series, but this certainly comes from the fact that the recurring characters will have more time to ‘unfold’.
I actually loved Mick and Henry’s relationship. Henry is a taciturn, quire rough person, who don’t seem to get along with people very much, though he is indeed a sympathetic character. So, Mick, who in many regards is his exact opposite – he’s easy-going, amusing, he likes to joke – is his perfect partner. And if fact, they are a formidable pair of detective when it comes to digging up the truth about a murder.

All in all, I enjoyed it, and I’ll read more in the series, if I’ll have the chance.

The start is quite creepy and promises an exciting historical thriller. The book somehow wasn't up to the beginning even if I enjoyed.
I was glad to catch up with Johnstone&Hitchens, as interesting as usual, and loved the well written characters, especially the women who are quite out of the norm.
I wasn't a fan of the part by different POV as they made the plot less gripping.
It's an entertaining book that can be read as a standalone.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, Severn House for this Advanced Reader Copy and the opportunity to review “Bright Young Things.” All opinions are my own.

Is the “…upstanding example of English manhood” a serial killer, perhaps? Is that what the prologue wants us to believe? An interesting beginning to “Bright Young Things” by Jane A. Adams, the seventh in the series of books that feature Inspector Henry Johnstone of London.

A man calmly dumps the body of a young girl on the sands of Bournemouth beach at the start of our book. He doesn’t try to hide what he’s doing. The local police call for help. DCI Johnstone has not yet gone back to “active duty” – you’ll have to read earlier books to find out how that came about. He’s not sure he even wants to. But the decision is made for him when his sergeant shows up and expects him to work on this case. He slides back into it – rather easily, actually.

Johnstone’s sister Cynthia see a picture of the dead girl and recognizes her as Faun Moran -- someone who supposedly died in a car crash six months before. The victim is one of those “bright young things” of the title – an actual appellation for young and restless aristocrats in 1920s England; the American flappers of their day.

Quickly we find out what (supposedly – you know how mystery books love their twists) – caused the girl’s “second” death – she angered the wrong person. Now readers have many mysteries on their hands – and we’re only one chapter (okay, and a prologue) in!

Johnstone quickly realizes that the case wasn’t investigated fully. The author does a good job of pointing all this out. Ms. Adams also makes it clear that Henry is still feeling his way back after his injury.

There are women in this book, the sister and the friend of the dead girl, who we see breaking out of the mold of “proper English women” of the time (our book is set in 1930). The author makes a point of bringing that to our attention, too.

Interspersed are short scenes from the person who so very gently disposed of the body -- giving his side of the story, as it were. And we even read scenes from poor, soon to be dead Faun Moran. I don’t enjoy these types of vignettes when I encounter them in these types of books; they take away from what the “detective” is doing in a police procedural, seems to me. Thus, a problem is that “we” know the culprit – so all of the investigation getting to that point is difficult to work through. Johnstone even meets the murderer, and his accomplice, and our case becomes a cat and mouse game. The murderer is rich, and it seems he will get away with it.

The ending came way too abruptly for me. There should have been some sort of triumph for readers there, and there wasn’t. I felt cheated. While “Bright Young Things” is an interesting story, and Inspector Johnstone and his sergeant Mickey Hitchens good characters, I think they were let down by the book’s format in this case.

DCI Henry Johnstone and DS Mickey Hitchens have a real puzzler on their hands when the body of Faun Moran, who has been believed dead for some time, turns up on a beach. It's 1930 so there aren't any of the handy forensic helpers we have today- only footwork which these two do to also figure out who the young woman was who was in the car when Faun was allegedly killed. Whew. Adams packs a lot into a slim volume but it's just right for a read to keep you chewing on question. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. Part of a series but fine as a standalone.

This is the 7th book in the series, but the first that I have read. The main characters are DCI Henry Johnstone and DS Mickey Hitchens. It is set in 1930 England, mostly in rural counties. It begins when a man is seen walking along a beach carrying the body of a young woman in his arms. When he attracts the attention of passersby he carefully lays the body down and calmly walks away. Even more disturbing is the young woman, Faun Moran, was reported dead and buried six months earlier, the result of an auto accident. So Johnstone and Hitchens investigate to learn not only who killed Faun, but where she had been the last six months and who the second young woman was whose body was found in the accident and who staged it. Johnstone and Hitchens are an excellent team, and different from most similar pairings. I liked that although different personalities they were not just partners, but friends, and used their individual strengths and weaknesses as a team. I want to thank Severn House Publishing and Netgalley for allowing me to read this ARC. I enjoyed it and want to read other books in the series.

January 1930 Early in the morning a man dumps the body of Faun Moran on Bournemouth beach in front of witnesses. But she was supposedly killed the previous Autumn in a car accident. DCI Henry Johnstone and DS Mickey Hitchens investigate both cases.
An entertaining and well-written historical mystery, a well plotted story with likable and intelligent main characters. Another good addition to the series which can easily be read as a standalone story.
An ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Intriguing, Suspenseful Mystery….
Book seven in the Henry Johnstone series of mysteries finds Johnstone returning to work from sick leave to face a baffling mystery. With its trademark atmospheric setting and cast of well drawn, credible characters this is another dark and twisting, intriguing, suspenseful read and in keeping with the series thus far.

Jane A. Adams, Bright Young Things, Severn House 2021.

Thank you, Net Galley and Severn House, for providing me with this proof for review.

Bright Young Things begins in a quietly menacing manner, an unknown person reads loving words from an admirer, and sneers at the correspondent. This sense of unease remains throughout the novel, even though the recipient, and probable murderer is identified early.

Two detectives are brought into the case when a young woman’s body is publicly deposited on a beach. Henry Johnstone is introduced as a man ensconced comfortably in his sister’s pleasant home, reading the newspaper in which the story of the body, the way it was placed on the beach and the man who carried her is described. Henry has been bodily and mentally damaged from a previous case involving his niece – will he become involved in this one? Sergeant Mickey Hitchens arrives and solves this question. Although Henry is much his superior, Mickey decides for both. The two will take on the case, and together with an intelligent young officer from the local force, solve it.

Doing so is not a fast and furious endeavour, rather it is measured, detailed, atmospheric and engaging. The relationship between Johnstone and Hitchens is beautifully observed, so too is the way in which Johnstone’s sister interacts with the two men. Another relationship is developed through letters between two sisters, one a ‘bright young thing’ and the other a married woman. An uncomfortable and threatening relationship between the perpetrator and his partner makes a distinctly different approach to human relations a strong contrast.

This story is set in the 1930s, and some of the social landscape is intertwined with the story of entrapment, women seeking to free themselves from patriarchal bonds, and the emboldened behaviour of some men arising from their war experiences in contrast with the bleakness cast upon some aspects of others’ lives.

I enjoyed this different (for me) murder mystery and detection. The pace, lurking menace and characterisation all worked perfectly. I am certainly tempted to read more of Jane A. Adams’ work, if only to see what happens next in the delightfully drawn relationships between Henry, Mickey, and Henry’s family. And, of course, being lured into the next crime to be solved.

A dark and captivating novel set in England at the beginning of the Great Depression centered around the unexplained disappearance of a young and careless British socialite & the murderous & sadistic shenanigans of the evil perpetrators who might prove way too clever & protected for the two Scotland Yard detectives assigned to the case to quickly find & arrest. Fiendishly plotted and blessed with a cast of complex & well drawned characters this wonderful murder mystery is an absorbing puzzle full of family wrath and hidden secrets silently kept within the folds of a privileged and moneyed atmosphere redolent with the tangible uneasiness so prevalent throughout most Western societies at the start of the 30s.
A frightening & complex fictional tapestry that kept me mesmerized for a few hours thanks in part to its talented author's utterly beguiling and gorgeous prose & to the unshakable feelings of impending doom & menacing dread that skillfully & relentlessly drive this suspenseful story towards its higly fascinating denouement.
A recommended historical murder mystery that really deserves to be enjoyed without any moderation whatsoever!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Canongate/Severn for this terrific ARC

This book was a huge disappointment for its theme failed to deliver a gripping and exceptional plot and ending. The characters were more interesting than the story line.

Thank you to Severn House Publishers Limited and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Severn House Publishers for an advance copy of Bright Young Things, the seventh novel to feature DCI Henry Johnstone of Scotland Yard, set in 1930.

A man walks onto the beach in Bournemouth and deposits the body of a dead young woman in full view of passers by. The young woman is socialite Faun Moran, who died in a car crash a few months earlier. Henry Johnstone returns from sick leave to investigate two murders, Faun Moran’s and the unidentified young woman in the car crash.

I enjoyed Bright Young Things, which has an intriguing premise and an interesting mystery. I had not read this series before so didn’t know what to expect, but, as I am always on the lookout for new series, I was prepared to take the plunge.

The novel is mostly told from Henry’s point of view with characters from the other side offering their views on what happened to Faun in the months between her disappearance and death. These other side narratives widen the picture for the reader, but take away much of the mystery and intrigue from the investigation leaving Henry in a catch-up role for the reader. It makes the novel less procedural and more psychological as it examines the other side’s motivation and actions. I feel this out of keeping with the setting and the genre at that time and it disappointed me as I’m a procedural girl. Nevertheless, the many twists and turns held my attention and the car crash organisation is ingenious.

Henry Johnstone and his sergeant, Mickey Hitchens, have a good relationship with each able to rely on the other and they bring their own strengths to the investigation. Of course, class raises its ugly head, so that’s why Mickey’s a sergeant and not a chief inspector when he’s every bit as smart, if not smarter than Henry.

Bright Young Things is an occupying read that held my attention, but I wasn’t so keen on the format.