Title: The Mitford Vanishing
Author: Jessica Fellowes
Series: Mitford Murders #5
Best of series to date
I would like to thank Jessica Fellowes, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for allowing me to listen to a free audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Of the five Mitford books, I liked this one most, and it’s probably because it contained the Mitfords the least.
I’d never heard of the Mitfords before venturing into this series, and now that I’ve learned about them, I fail to understand why anyone would center a book series on them. I get why they are—were—media darlings, so eccentric and outspoken and opinionated, but they weren’t good people. Or rather, some of them weren’t good people, and the others weren’t very likeable (at least as depicted by this series). They try readers’ patience more than endear them or compel them to know more.
That leaves the heavy lifting to the actual main character, Louisa Cannon, who worked for the Mitfords for half her life in one capacity or another. I liked Louisa, but I never quite cared about her or became endeared to her. Same for the man who eventually became her husband and foremost secondary, Guy Sullivan. They were good, admirable, honest people, always trying to do right, but they just . . . didn’t have much personality, I suppose. They didn’t pop on page, didn’t have unique characteristics. Weren’t particularly funny or quirky—or memorable. Good leads, but not strong ones.
That could more or less describe Fellowes’s writing style as well. Not bad but not notable, not oh-my-god-I’ll-read-a-grocery-list-if-this-person-wrote-it. Not helping is her unfortunate narrative choices, such as having the series follow the Mitfords, making huge jumps in time, going back and forth between the historical present and a trial, which really just confused the entire mystery of book 4 for me. Here there were no huge jumps in time and the mystery was pretty straightforward with a couple intriguing twists I didn’t see coming. The most annoying Mitfords, Unity and Diana, were not present, thank god, and the second most annoying, Lord, Lady, and Nancy, were marginal. Jessica wasn’t as grating as I’d feared, so she was okay. The PS was super depressing, though.
Yes, overall, it appears I liked this one most because it was least like the others, lol. I think I’ve had enough of Fellowes’s work. I’m glad Louisa’s happy and has gotten what she wanted out of life. It’s just sad to think of all the hardships she’ll face in a few years.
