Book Review - Jessica Fellowes's The Mitford Vanishing
The Mitford Vanishing by Jessica Fellowes
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: January 18th, 2022
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy
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.
Even Though I Knew the End by C.L. Polk
Many people, especially those of my Dad's generation, were very excited when they heard about the Perry Mason reboot. Perry Mason starring Raymond Burr was a television staple during their childhoods from 1957 to 1966. In fact Burr was so popular as Mason that they brought him back for TV movies throughout my childhood too! Now most reviews started by saying that "this isn't your father's Perry Mason" but I beg to differ, because by the end, after an initially rough pilot episode, the show found it's feet and got Parry into the courtroom defending a mother who most definitely didn't kill her child. Most people in fact were up in arms that Perry didn't start out as a lawyer and was a PI for the first few episodes. Well here's something that may shock you, yes, this series pays tribute to the original series, especially in the final episode's credits when a certain theme song is heard, but they weren't taking just from the series, they were pulling from the books. I know! Perry Mason started out in books! Erle Stanley Gardner wrote eighty books from the thirties to the sixties ranking him third in best selling book series of all time just below a certain boy wizard and Goosebumps! Also, what's fascinating about the series is that Perry as a person and in particular Perry's past isn't explored at all. We know more about his dining habits than about his personal habits. This, in my mind, made Perry perfect for a prequel if you will. And by no means is PI Perry dragged out. We learn about his family farm, his military service, his estranged wife, his child, and his struggles to make it, before becoming a lawyer. It's a good story for the early thirties and an America struggling to recover from The Great Depression. Though, as previously mentioned, the pilot is a little rocky, my guess is this is because it was written for Robert Downey Jr. to star in and it obviously had his acting quirks put into the script so when Matthew Rhys donned the mantel of Mason it took awhile to knock the Robert Downey Jr. out of the material. But I can honestly say, by the end of the first season I was grateful a second season was on the way, which I didn't initially think I would be. 
The Last Word (The Spellman Files Book 6) by Lisa Lutz
