strange and random happenstance: Missing

The Mitford Vanishing by Jessica Fellowes
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: January 18th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
Rating: ★★
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Louisa and Guy are about to start the next chapter of their lives. After their disillusionment with the establishment they have set up a private detective agency, Cannon and Sullivan. They hope to help those who the police overlook, though Guy is more sanguine, warning Louisa that they are probably going to spend most of their time on petty domestic disputes. Given their history with the Mitfords it shouldn't come as a surprise to Louisa that they are going to be their first clients now that she has finished her maternity leave. Louisa is summoned to Rutland Gate by Nancy because Jessica, familially known as Decca, has run away. This shouldn't be such a shock to the family. The nineteen year old Decca started her "running away" fund when she was twelve, so actually running away while claiming to be on a motoring tour of France with friends seemed inevitable. The problem is, if the press gets wind of this it would ruin her and her future. So they are hoping that Louisa and Guy can discretely discover what has happened by popping over to France. What has happened is that Decca's run off to the Spanish Civil War as the bride of her cousin, Esmond Romilly. From the family's point of view things couldn't be worse. She has divorced herself from her family forever. Esmond is a known firebrand and a Communist. He also happens to be Winston Churchill's nephew. Which is how the foreign office gets involved. And once the press finds out, it's front page headlines. With their reputation on the line, Louisa and Guy realize that they must succeed in finding Decca. The Mitford case will put their name on the map if they succeed. And if they fail? Their business will be a bust before it's even begun. Seeing as the government is now involved, they decide that not both of them are needed in France and Guy continues on to Bayonne while Louisa heads home to their darling daughter Maisie, and another disappearance all together. Julia Attwood has come to Cannon and Sullivan because her sister Petunia has gone missing. Petunia was a secretary at Lee Worth. A middle-aged woman who had no political power or clout. Someone who wouldn't be missed. The exact opposite of Jessica Mitford. This is someone not even the police are looking for. The poignancy of this makes Louisa take the case to heart. She learns about Petunia and a contretemps with her coworker, Bernard Plum. As soon as she starts digging into the man she finds connections to the Spanish Civil War, and, as impossible as this may seem, even Decca and Esmond. Could Petunia's case, as well as two other missing women cases that fall into Louisa's lap, all be tied together with the Mitfords for some inexplicable reason? Only time and Bayonne will tell.

Seeing as each book in this series has been focused on one of the six Mitford sisters, in the order they were born, before the title was even announced I knew this book would be about Decca. Once the title was revealed as The Mitford Vanishing I knew it would be about Decca running off to the Spanish Civil War with her cousin Esmond Romilly. Because, as any Mitford fan has, I've read Jessica Mitford's stellar autobiography, Hons and Rebels. Which makes me question the purpose of this book. Why did Jessica Fellowes choose this event from Decca's life to dramatize? It's been well documented and there's not much new ground to cover. Unless it was that Jessica Fellowes wanted us to see it from the point of view of the Mitford clan, collective noun still to be finalized, and how they were furious with Decca. Flipping the script of Decca's own writing and seeing her as throwing her life away and being nothing more than a spoiled brat than a girl on a romantic adventure. Well, having read extensively about the Mitfords, I say running away was the healthiest decision Decca could have made. Her family was a next of fascist vipers who would eat their own and this break with her family is what made her. But Jessica Fellowes takes this selfishness further and applies it to anyone who went to fight in the Spanish Civil War. Yes, there were people who viewed it as an romantic adventure, much as Jessica did at the start, but looking down on those who were actually trying to stop the spread of hate is hypocritical when Jessica Fellowes is also saying that we need to look to the past to stop the spread of fascism now. Plus it was because of the journalists on the ground that we learned about the true horrors of what was happening in Spain. It's weird to think of this large country involved in it's own conflict outside of the rest of the European theater. Yes, maybe this book took away some of the romanticism of those who went to Spain, but anyone who looks seriously at war knows there's nothing romantic about it. And Jessica Fellowes just felt like she was preaching. Hating on the naivete of these people while trying to give a teachable moment to her very naive leads. At the end I came away with the distinct feeling that Jessica Fellowes doesn't really like any of the Mitfords. And as for her mystery with the missing women? It was implausible and amorphous. No, like really implausible. Guy was in London on the phone with Louisa only hours before he showed up in Bayonne. That is the most implausible thing ever.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments

Labels: Esmond Rommilly, Guy Sullivan, Hons and Rebels, Jessica Fellowes, Jessica Mitford, Louisa Cannon, Missing, Mitfords, Murder Most Foul, Private Eyes, Romanticism, Runaway, Spanish Civil War, The Mitford Vanishing

Lock Every Door by Riley Sager
Published by: Dutton
Publication Date: July 2nd, 2019
Format: Hardcover, 381 Pages
Rating: ★★★
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Jules's life has gone spectacularly to shit. But a new job opportunity might just give her the breathing room to get it back on track. She's willing to take it, caveats and all. And there are a lot of caveats. She would be an apartment sitter at the tony Bartholomew. This apartment is one of THE most famous in all of Manhattan. All the residents are rich and famous, some even infamous. So obviously one of the caveats is to not disturb them. She is to come and go and do nothing else. She must never leave the apartment unattended overnight and she must never invite a guest over. Given the opportunity and the life of luxury she would be living, the rules don't seem untoward. Plus, she would be PAID to live a life she could never even dream of. Floor to ceiling windows overlooking Central Park! Views to die for. Only, maybe people did die for them... There are actually a few other apartment sitters in residence and Jules starts to befriend Ingrid, the sitter taking care of the apartment right below Jules that has a convenient dumbwaiter so they can communicate with each other. Ingrid reminds Jules painfully of her sister she lost eight years earlier. So when Ingrid disappears, Jules isn't going to rest until she finds her. She might have forever lost her sister to the wide world, but Ingrid can't just be gone as well! Plus, Ingrid had some very dark theories about what is actually going on at the Bartholomew. The building has a history. A dark history. Also, the building feels as if it's watching and waiting. With Ingrid missing Jules decides to dig deeper. Not just into the Bartholomew's history, but into her fellow residents. She learns that the turnover rate for apartment sitters is quite high. They all jump at the chance to make $12,000 but then rarely do they stay for the length of the job. They disappear in the middle of the night, just like Ingrid. Also, looking back, it seems odd that Jules was asked so much about her lack of family and friends in her job interview. Why would her lack of connections matter? Unless of course the Bartholomew doesn't want anyone looking for you... Jules knows she's probably in danger just looking for Ingrid, but she's been in danger since she took the job. What's one more foolhardy risk at this point?

I remember the first time I walked past The Dakota in New York City. At the time I didn't even register that that was where I was. I had been walking around the Upper West Side and I felt this chill in the air and I noticed that the building I was passing had actual gas lamps around the entrance. Who would have actual gas lamps in this day and age, which admittedly was a few decades back, but still!?! They're so impractical and of another era I was flabbergasted. It didn't even sink in that the entrance they were surrounding was where John Lennon was killed. I just got a creepy vibe off the building and moved quickly to Central Park where I would no longer be in the shadow of this building. Later that day I put two and two together. And oddly enough it wasn't finding myself in Strawberry Fields that did it but talking to a friend of mine about her first experience of New York and what were the sights she most remembered and everything clicked into place. And the vibe I got made sense. John Lennon's death aside, there's a reason Roman Polanski chose this building to be the "Bramford" in Rosemary's Baby. This building feels off, yet at the same time, it feels quintessentially New York. Lock Every Door is Riley Sager's ode to this duality of New York and The Dakota and in extension Rosemary's Baby. The Bartholomew gives you this feeling of what you imagine New York to be but that it never is. Or at least it never will be for you. It's luxury and class, but then, there's the sting. New York is an old city with old money and people set in their ways and the "other" New York is what lurks beneath. What is behind an apartment that is too good to be true? What are you inadvertently sacrificing to "live the dream?" What will be revealed if you dig deep enough? Also there's that pull to not dig, to not look, to just blindly ignore everything and just remember to not pinch yourself in case you wake yourself up. Because why would you want to? You're being paid to live the dream with a hansom doctor, exuding a season two Dynasty Nick Toscani vibe, right next door. I'd be tempted to ignore my sixth sense, wouldn't you?