Året är 1928. Ett hembiträde förolyckas på ett glamoröst party anordnat av arvtagaren Bryan Guinness. Bryan har precis friat till arton år gamla Diana, den vackraste av de sex Mitford-systrarna. Hembiträdets död avfärdas som en olyckshändelse och de nygifta lägger händelsen bakom sig för att inleda ett virvelvindsliknande liv i Londons Mayfair, chica Paris och hedonistiska Berlin. Mitford-systrarnas jungfru, Louisa Cannon, följer med på resorna, liksom ett entourage av vänner, familj och hangarounds från Nancy Mitford till Evelyn Waugh. När ett andra offer hittas i Paris 1931 börjar Louisa se samband med dödsfallet två år tidigare. Nu måste hon övertyga Mitford-systrarna om att en mördare kan finnas i deras närhet. Detta medan skuggorna tätnar i Europa, och i Diana Mitfords hjärta.

The story starts in 1928 when at a scoiety party a maid dies while trying to watch the proceeding from a skylight. It is also the time that wealthy heir Bryan Guinness proposes to a young eigthteen year old Diana Mitford. The story continues over the next four years with the occasional death occurring. Louisa Cannon, former nursery maid to the Mitford sisters and now ladies maid to Diana is the connecting character to all the events. For me, unfortunately this really wasn't interesting enough to carry the story for all the years covered or the length of the book.
A NetGalley Book
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The eccentric Mitford family has always fascinated me, so when I saw that Julian Fellowes’ daughter was writing a mystery series that features the six sisters, I though it just might be fun. Wrong.

Unfortunately, Ms. Fellowes has what was called in my old office, “relative ability.” That is opposed to actual ability. Characters are undeveloped and the plots are thin. One book in this series is enough! ( )

This is the third book in Jessica Fellowes’ series of crime novels featuring the real life, but fictionalised, Mitford family set in the 1920s and 1930s. The real protagonist is Louisa Cannon, one-time nursemaid to the five Mitford sisters and now ladies’ maid to Diana Mitford after her marriage to Bryan Guinness, heir to the brewing fortune.

After their marriage Diana and Bryan, with Louisa in tow, honeymoon in Paris along with several hangers-on from their privileged circle. The tragic death of one of their friends, apparently from an allergic reaction, sends them all to Venice, where another of their number also dies, this time as a result of opium addiction. Over time it becomes clear to Louisa that these deaths may have not been accidental, giving her an opportunity to reconnect with Guy Sullivan, now a Detective Sergeant in the Metropolitan Police.

As Louisa and Guy investigate these deaths two things happen. Firstly, their relationship starts to blossom into something that might be more than just friendship. Secondly, they begin to see the dark and hollow side of the lives of these fabulously glamorous and wealthy people they work for.

Fellowes writes with verve and her story moves along at pace, drawing the reader in and making this quite the page-turner. The historical context is well-researched and finely detailed, revealing the growing crises of 1930s Europe and the emptiness of the lives of the rich and famous. ( )