Mysteries based on fact are a great way to get a feel of the times while getting invested in the characters. Louisa seems to continually get involved with the Mitford families trials. Great series.
Goodreads

The Mitford Vanishing is #5 in a series. This is not a stand alone book and I recommend starting with book #1. That said, the book (and series) is part of cozy mystery set in the early 20th century. It mixes fiction with a few facts and the Mitford family is wealthy and influential in the town.

Former employee Louisa and her husband, Guy, started their own detective agency and when Jessica Mitford disappears they hire Louisa to find her. Only 19 years old the family fears she may have gone to Spain to fight in the Civil War but there are other paths to be explored.

The book takes place between the U.S. and France so that is a nice addition to the read.

The Mitford Vanishing is the fifth mystery in The Mitford Mystery series. This is a very fun fast-paced mystery. I like how Louisa investigates two missing cases. The mystery was very suspenseful. I loved the romance! Therefore, this is an captivating installment to a fun series! I recommend this fans of Shelley Noble, Sara Rosett, and Clara McKenna!

This was my favorite of the series so far. Part of the inherent problem I had with the last two books is that the Mitfords aren't particularly likeable. Decca might be the exception that proves the rule. The climax felt a tad long in coming and by about 60% of the way there I had a sneaky suspicion I knew what had happened. but all in all a delightful read.

The newest title in this series, this mystery is set against the backdrop of the Spanish CivilWar. When Jessica Mitford disappears, Louisa & Guy are hired to find her. Parallel to this Louisa is trying to solve a second missing person case.

The real-life story of Jessica at this time is deftly woven with the other case in a wonderful mystery.

RATING: 2.5 STARS
2022; Minotaur Books/Macmillan Audio

For some reason, I am losing my interest in this series. The Mitfords seem further on the outside, and less like participatory characters. I am also not into Louisa's story anymore. I was half listening to this one as I could not really get into it. I think I will leave it here for the series.

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

A pleasing fifth installment in this series. Jessica Fellowes does a wonderful job of combing historical facts with fiction. Once again Louisa Cannon, ex-servant in the Mitford household and her husband Guy Sullivan are pulled into another Mitford family drama and must solve another mystery. Interest in the Mitford sisters seems to be on the rise and has been the subject of a number of historical fiction novels recently. While the main characters in the series are Louis and Guy, the Mitfords and they fascinating history are a focal point in the plot. This time around Jessica, nicknamed Deca by her sisters, has eloped to the continent with her second cousin. This event actually did take place and is skillfully incorporated into the rest of the plot. A wonderful series for fans of historical fiction in general, and the Mitford family in particular.

The Mitford Vanishing is the fifth book in the Mitford Murders series by Jessica Fellowes. I started this series with book 4; I was a little lost there, but not so much with this one. This story stands alone perfectly well. Ms. Fellowes is gifted in crafting stories blending real people (the Mitford family) and real events (the Spanish Civil War and the rise of Adolf Hitler) with fiction. You'll be riveted to the page.

Things are becoming fraught in the world in 1937. Hitler is rising in Germany, and it seems another war with that nation is looming; the Spanish Civil War is also blazing. The sisters in the Mitford family are being pulled apart by different political views. However, ​Louisa Cannon Sullivan, former maid to the Mitfords, is happy in her new life. She's married to Guy Sullivan, a former policeman, and the two have opened Cannon & Sullivan, a private detective agency; they are also loving being parents to their little baby Maisie. The past intrudes once again when writer Nancy Mitford requests they look for her Communist sister Jessica (Decca) who is missing in Spain. While investigating that case, they are also asked to look for a missing woman and a vanished soldier. Things are about to get really complicated!

I cannot believe that I had never even heard of the Mitfords before I started this series! They are so outrageous and seem larger-than-life; I guess you just couldn't make this stuff up! The missing Decca was a Communist, while other sisters were fascists and were friends of Hitler. Family dinners must have been interesting, to say the least. Decca married Esmond Romilly, a relative, and both were related to Winston Churchill. It's enough to make your head spin. On the fiction side, Louisa and Guy were great characters. They were working hard building their detective agency and spending time with their delightful baby girl. They didn't necessarily want to be pulled back into the realm of the Mitfords, but could use the connection to further their agency. Louisa, however, now entered through their front door; she was no longer their subservient maid. The efforts of the Sullivans to find Decca were interesting, but it was the fictional investigations that truly made the story. At first Louisa was approached to find a woman's missing sister, which grew to include a search for a connected missing man. I did not know how that storyline would play out, and I was pleased to be surprised at the outcome. I enjoyed watching Louisa and Guy working together and sharing the joys of parenthood. I was upset, however, with how Louisa kept things she learned from Guy; she believed she was right, but I didn't care for the dishonesty. I guess Guy is a lot more forgiving than I would have been! Not only did I enjoy the story, but I also loved reading the author's notes on historical events and the Mitford family. You'll want to find out more! I hope there are more Mitford Murders to come.

I received an ARC of this book courtesy of the publisher and NetGalley. I received no compensation for my review, and all thoughts and opinions expressed are entirely my own.

Mitford shenanigans!

Ah, those Mitfords! If ever a family has had the spotlight cast upon them, this is the one. (Oops! Unless you’re a Royal!) It’s 1937 and Nancy Mitford is worried about the disappearance of her sister ‘Decca’ that is Jessica, (the Communist) in Spain. She asks Louisa Cannon, once the family maid, now a private investigator, to look into her whereabouts. Louisa and her husband, former policeman Guy Sullivan, run Detective Agency, Cannon & Sullivan. Nancy’s parents, Lord and Lady Redesdale (David and Sydney Mitford) join the request for Louisa and Guy’s aid. It appears Louisa and Guy’s inquiry overlaps with a young woman’s body in London and the disappearance of a sailor.
All roads lead to Bayonne, France on the border with Spain. The resolution of the various inquiries keep becoming more complex and intriguing.
I loved the way Fellowes has incorporated history with personalities, giving vivid portrayals of the prevailing politics and actions of the times, and a penetrating fictional / factual look into this fascinating family whilst maintaining a suspenseful and puzzling tale.
The Who’s Who, and Historical Notes at the end are illuminating.

A St. Martin’s Press ARC via NetGalley
(Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.)

3.5 stars.
I am unfamiliar with the Mitfords, except that they were English nobility, there were many sisters who fraternized with European leaders during many important events in the 20th century, and, oh yeah, most of them had a real fondness for fascism and were probably or actually anti-Semitic. So, I approached this mystery series with some trepidation.

This is my first book in this now 5-book series, and I’m glad that the main character isn’t an actual Mitford. Instead she’s a character created by the author: Louise Cannon, formerly in-service to the Mitfords as a housemaid, now a detective and co-owner of a detective agency with her former policeman husband Guy Sullivan, and a mother of a delightful baby girl.

Nancy Mitford begs Louise’s help at the book’s outset: younger sister Jessica “Decca” has vanished somewhere in France, and must be found and returned. Both Louise and Guy are employed and travel repeatedly to France during the course of their investigation, which touches on the brutality of the Spanish forces fighting each other and the involvement or British citizens in the Spanish Civil War, and the Mitford family dysfunctions and privilege.

Simultaneously, Louise is contracted by a woman to find her missing sister in London. Louise begins her solo search, encountering police indifference, and secrets at the company the missing woman worked at. Eventually, there even appears to be a tenuous connection back to their main case.

This was interesting, especially from Fellowes’ weaving of real historical people and events into this story. She had me googling as I read (I always appreciate learning details about history). I also liked Fellowes’ Louise, a woman with an interesting and difficult past I shall have to read about when I eventually pick up book one in this series. And I guess that means that Fellowes’ got me interested enough in Louise to read about the Mitfords.

With regards to this book, I found myself less engaged while reading the first half of the book, when Louise and Guy track down a naïve, reckless and privileged young woman with little understanding of the consequences of her actions. I much preferred the second half of the book when Louise devotes her energy to finding the missing woman in London. The book and the characters felt more lively to me there, perhaps because Fellowes did not have to work as many real people into her narrative .

Thank you to Netgalley and to St Martin's Press for this ARC in exchange for my review.

The Mitford Vanishing by Jessica Fellowes is another in the series featuring primarily Louisa Cannon Sullivan, who along side her husband, Guy has started a private detective agency. This is to be her first case as she is just returning to work after the birth of their daughter, Maisie. Her friend, and daughter of her long-time employers, Nancy Mitford, the novelist is at the heart of the case. Her younger sister has run off, supposedly to France to travel with a friend, but it has become apparent that that is a prevarication and the family wants her back before she can do anything stupid or embarrassing. They have called upon Guy and Louisa to follow her to France and bring her home. At about the same time, a woman comes to Louisa with the story of a missing sister. They are separate cases, but along with several others, come together in the end.

It is 1937 and things are changing for women but they are not there yet. Guy is trying to be a modern male, but he is a protector at heart and he loves Louisa and worries about her tendency to rush headlong into danger. These are complicated cases, all people who might be involved with the revolution in Spain and all the dangers that entails. The wards between the Nazis, the fascists, and regular British are running rampant. Young people, as young people do, believing heir parents are ignorant and they know best. Jessica Mitford is one such young person. Louisa is non-political but knows the dangers of the street. She wants to save her friend from making a terrible mistake, and at the same time find the women who are truly missing. She works hard and has her own set of morals. It is a moving piece of writing.

I was invited to read a free e-ARC of the Mitford Vanishing by St. Martin's Press, through Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are mine. #netgalley #stmartinspress #jessicafellowes #themitfordvanishing

Louisa once worked for the Mitford family before her marriage to Guy Sullivan. She and her husband have now opened a detective agency. When Louisa receives a note from Nancy Mitford requesting her help she realizes that this could be a case that could help their fledgling agency. Nancy’s sister Jessica, nicknamed Decca, has vanished and Lord and Lady Redesdale would like Louisa to find her. She was supposedly visiting friends but that was a lie to cover her activities. She had been communicating with Esmond Romilly, a distant relative, and has now run off to be with him. Tracing her to France, Louisa and Guy discover that Decca and Esmond are trying to make their way to Spain to fight against the fascists in the civil war. Esmond is an avowed communist and disapproves of the Mitfords and Decca’s father has sworn to disown her if she does not leave Esmond and come home.

While Guy stays in France to find Decca, Louisa returns to their offices where she takes on a case of her own. Petunia Atwood has disappeared. A single career woman, her sister has lost contact with her and fears the worst. Petunia had complained about Bernard Blum, a co-worker, shortly before her disappearance. Blum was suspended from work and has also disappeared. Blum’s wife Janice seems relieved that he is gone. He had run off before to fight in Spain and Louisa contacts Guy to watch for him in France. As Guy and Louisa work these two cases Louisa begins to find connections between them. When the first body is discovered she realizes that finding Blum is a priority before others die.

This is Jessica Fellowes fifth book revolving around the Mitford sisters. A socialist, a fascist and a communist, they are politically divided and their notoriety has given Fellowes characters who are difficult to like but still fascinating as they reflect the politics of the 1930s and 1940s. Louisa is on friendly terms with Nancy, but is still aware of her position as an employee. Now, however, she is in a position to arrive at the main entrance rather than using the servant’s entrance. As she takes on her own investigation she becomes even more confident. Fans of Downton Abbey will find the social aspects of this story entertaining as well as enjoying the twists that Fellowes throws at the readers. I would like to thank NetGalley and St. Martin Press for providing this book for my review.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for this Advanced Reader Copy and the opportunity to review “The Mitford Vanishing.” All opinions and comments are my own.

Louisa Cannon is again involved with the Mitford family in this, the fifth in the series. (And these are not stand-alones, folks; too much has gone on in the lives of the Mitfords and with Louisa to allow that.) We’re told it’s 1937, and Louisa’s private detective agency with her husband Guy Sullivan has been open for six months. And it looks like a private detective is needed. “Decca” Mitford, one of the younger sisters, has gone missing. The family wants her found and returned before news of it gets out (read before “Society” founds out the details). Nancy Mitford, Louisa’s former employer and now friend, asks Louisa to come, and Louisa goes.

And we’re off, on a convoluted tale of disappearing people, Decca (and especially her boyfriend/fiancé Esmond Romilly) railing against the “Establishment,” dead bodies, another man’s wife, and trips to France and war-torn Spain. As in previous books, you’ll get a history lesson in this one – not a bad idea to brush up on your knowledge of the Spanish Civil War, if you want to get the full effect. Speaking of history, the Mitford who is missing will become the writer Jessica Mitford – Communist, journalist, and eventual digger of dirt on the American funeral industry. As with the other Mitfords, her life is a fascinating story in itself.

And since we’re got to have something else going on, there’s a secondary case that Louisa picks up. A missing young woman, and then a missing man. Remember that wife I mentioned? Eventually, this case really involves Guy, and becomes threatening to both – and there’s a Mitford connection. Our author, Jessica Fellowes, ensures that Louisa has to do some real truth-hiding. It’s quite the mess. But when you’re involved with the sisters, everything’s a mess, even in a collateral fashion.

A postscript explains what happened to everyone (well, the real someones), and includes a “Who’s Who in 1937.” There are also Historical Notes, which the author explains contains spoilers to the book.

I enjoyed “The Mitford Vanishing,” because I appreciate the research and history the author incorporates into her writing. However, these are not easy characters to enjoy -- they are true to the real figures she’s writing about. But I look forward to when Louisa and Guy will be summoned again by a Mitford. No doubt something will turn up.

This is the first book I read by this author and I really enjoyed it. Louisa and Guy make a great investigative team and then to throw in the Mitford sisters and parents is really fun. This book has Louisa and Guy helping to find a Missing Mitford and another missing woman. There is some action and much thinking. I received a copy of this book from Netgalley for a fair and honest opinion that I gave of my own free will.

"A mystery with the fascinating Mitford sisters at its heart, Jessica Fellowes's The Mitford Vanishing is the fifth installment in the Mitford Murders series, inspired by a real-life murder in a story full of intrigue...

1937. War with Germany is dawning, and a civil war already rages in Spain. Split across political lines, the six Mitford sisters are more divided than ever. Meanwhile their former maid Louisa Cannon is now a private detective, working with her policeman husband Guy Sullivan.

Louisa and Guy are surprised when a call comes in from novelist Nancy Mitford requesting that they look into the disappearance of her Communist sister Jessica in Spain. But one case leads to another as they are also asked to investigate the mysterious vanishing of a soldier.

As the two cases come together, Louisa and Guy discover that every marriage has its secrets - but some are more deadly than others. Suddenly home feels a long way away..."

Me continuing to read this series shows I'm insane because I keep expecting them to improve.

The six Mitford sisters have provided a rich historical vein for Jessica Fellowes. This book, the fifth in the series, is set against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War. Decca Mitford has vanished. She has pulled the classic teen-age girl trick (albeit on an international scale) of telling her parents she is going to a friend’s house, but now she is missing, and the Mitfords are beginning to panic.

Fellowes has pulled off her usual deft blend of history with a mystery twist.

Louisa, former maid to the infamous Mitford sisters, and her husband Guy now have a small detective agency (and a small daughter) so of course their first case involves one of the Mitfords. Nancy is worried because Jessica, known as Decca, the most left leaning of the group has gone missing in Spain and she wants Louisa and Guy to find her. They find more than Decca in their hunt, which ranges back and forth between England and the Continent. While this isn't for those who know a lot about the Mitfords because those readers will undoubtedly know what's going to happen, it's still a good historical novel. Not so much a mystery, although there is a separate plot line that is, as a chance to spend time with interesting characters. I've been a fan of Louisa, and Guy of course, so it's good to see them flexing their abilities. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. Hold off, as I did, on googling Decca til you've finished.

Set in 1937, The Mitford Vanishing is the fifth book in the series and takes place as the world is on the cusp of WWII. This time period is one of my favourite to read about and I appreciate the historical nods and details in this fiction story based on historical events (see the author's notes at the back AFTER you read the book). The Mitford family was a political and controversial one, chock full of mystery, intrigue and adventure. Jessica Fellowes seamlessly intertwines facts with beautiful storytelling.

Louisa Cannon, a private detective, has an unique tie to the Mitford family...she knows them inside out as a former maid. She is called in to investigate the vanishing of Jessica (Decca) and is helped by her policeman husband, Guy Sullivan, with whom she has formed a new detective agency. Their wee daughter, Maisie, makes several appearances. Twists and turns ensue and another case is introduced which connects with the missing Decca. Politics and the mores of the day (such as links to Winston Churchill, Communism, Fascism and social classes) are brilliantly written in. The ending is worth waiting for.

My favourite aspect about this books, other than the mystery itself, are the evolution of Louisa in her roles of wife, mother and detective and the generous splashes of historical Mitford details which bring the story to life. Historical Fiction, Women's Fiction and General Fiction readers ought to add this series to their list.

My sincere thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the privilege of reading this fascinating book!

I have so enjoyed this series not only from a historical fiction perspective, but watching Louisa Cannon grow and come into her own. This latest installment once again brings Louisa to the aid of the Mitford family, but this time in the capacity of private investigator. The story takes place in London, France and Spain and is rich in detail about the locations, characters and their stories. Excellent read!

Jessica Fellowes Mitford series is absolutely fascinating and the fifth installment in the series does not disappoint! Louisa and Guy have opened their own private detective business and following the birth of their daughter, Louisa is ready to get to work. Both are surprised when their first clients are the Mitford family! One of the sisters has gone missing and they want the detectives to track them down. But things are never straightforward when the Mitford's are involved and when a second case overlaps with the disappearance, things become very complicated and dangerous for Louisa and Guy,

I highly recommend this book and look forward to the next one! Thank you to #NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy of #TheMitfordVansihing.