Bright
Young Dead
A Mitford
Murders Mystery #2
by Jessica Fellowes
Review
& Interview by Elise Cooper
Bright
Young Dead by Jessica Fellowes brings to life
the mid-1920s amid a strong “who done it”
mystery. Fellowes, known for writing the companion
books to the Downtown Abbey TV series, has used those
skills to write a riveting historical book. This is
the second novel that delves into the lives of the
aristocratic Mitford household during the Golden Age.
During
a treasure hunt, a murder is discovered. Arrested
is one of the guests’ servants, Dulcie, since
she was overheard arguing with the victim. She had
previously been associated with a gang of criminals
known as "The Forty Thieves." Led by Alice
Diamond, this group shoplifts, robs the wealthy, and
fences the stolen goods.
Caught in the middle are Louisa Cannon, a servant
in the Mitford household and a chaperone of the young
adult daughters, Nancy and Pamela. She has become
a good friend of Dulcie and believes she is innocent,
determined to get to the truth of the matter. Intertwined
is the relationship Louisa has with a young police
officer, Guy Sullivan, and his partner, Mary Moon.
They have been assigned to go undercover and arrest
Diamond and the gang. During her investigation, Louisa
finds a definite connection with the thieves. Seeking
out Guy’s help, together they connect the dots
to find the real killer and end Diamond's reign of
crime.
Readers
will also enjoy learning about the 1920s era. The
young society aristocrats are determined to have fun
by going to dance clubs, becoming flapper girls, experimenting
with drugs, and showcasing the latest fashions.
The
mix of historical fiction adds authenticity to the
novel. The murder investigation allows people to understand
the tensions between the upper aristocratic class
and their lower-class servants. This story makes for
a very interesting read.
Q
& A with Jessica Fellowes
Jessica Fellowes |
Elise
Cooper: You seem to like writing about the 1920s?
Jessica
Fellowes: I have been writing a lot of non-fiction
and the Downtown Abbey series of books. I love this
era and wanted to write a novel in it. I was approached
by my editor who suggested I write a vintage crime
series. My continuing characters Guy and Louisa were
born.
Elise:
I was surprised you had a female policewoman during
that time period; what is the historical significance?
Jessica:
I knew that I wanted a rival to Louisa in this book,
and where better to place her than at work with Guy?
My research quickly uncovered that there were indeed
female police officers at that time, having evolved
from an informal service that women provided during
the First World War when so many men were away fighting.
In the year just before my book begins, in 1924, the
women police officers of the London Metropolitan Police
had been given powers of arrest, which was contentious.
As well as having a love rival, I had the opportunity
to explore what it was like for those women who were
daring enough to go where few women had gone before.
I was also lucky enough to track down an out-of-print
memoir by a policewoman, Lillian Wyles, which was
full of fantastic detail about her daily routine,
her uniform and the attitudes of her fellow policemen.
Elise:
Women played a role both as cops and robbers. Is it
surprising that women were able to be dominant during
that time period?
Jessica:
No, it is not altogether surprising. There is a tendency
today to think that only now are women rising up and
demanding to be treated as equal, which I sometimes
find a little frustrating. We’ve been doing
it for hundreds of years! Perhaps a woman only had
power through her husband, but it was power nonetheless.
For the vast majority, marriage was a woman’s
only way out of the parental home, the only means
for her to gain some kind of power and independence,
and her success would be judged against her husband’s.
After the war, the way in which society viewed women
changed because many women could no longer get married.
But these were the women who went out to work, to
manage their lives for themselves, and they are true
pioneers. Things changed after the war, partly because
the Suffragette movement finally won its cause and
partly because women had run the country while the
men were away fighting. I think there was a conflict
for them, though, because culturally the expectation
of marriage was still very present, not to mention
that it is a natural instinct to want a romantic life.
But through Louisa, I enjoy exploring how she feels
about Guy versus the work she enjoys doing and the
experiences it gives her. At that time, a woman would
be expected to resign her job on marriage, so it really
was a case of having to choose one or the other.
Elise:
Is Alice Diamond a real person and was she ruthless?
Jessica:
I can’t remember exactly how I heard of her,
but I was reading generally about the period, as I
have done for some years now, and came across her
story. It seemed to me immediately obvious that I
had to use her in this book! Alice Diamond and the
Forty Thieves were all the girlfriends of the Forty
Elephants, a notoriously violent gang from South East
London. Gang culture can be very pervasive when young
people are looking for motivation and glamour to lift
them out of their surroundings, as we know today around
the world, from South Side Chicago to Peckham in London.
Elise:
How would you describe her?
Jessica:
Alice Diamond was unusual in that she was a leader
from a very young age, just 16, but her story is a
complicated one. She was born into a criminal very
poor environment, where it was the norm for people
to get what they needed in aggressive, illegal ways.
That said, she was not frequently violent, and her
chosen method of getting what she wanted was shoplifting.
What Alice wanted most of all was to ‘put on
the posh,' wear good clothes and go out dancing, just
like most young women. She did what she felt she had
to, given the situation she was in. Not all of us
can claim that we would do much different. It is this
that I like to explore: I don't think people are straightforwardly
good or bad, and we have to look closely at the context
of their actions.
Elise:
How would you describe Nancy versus Pamela: (the good
girl versus the bad girl)?
Jessica:
In terms of the two sisters, Nancy, a twenty-one-year-old,
was a complicated person, I think, possibly born into
the wrong time. In a more modern era, she would have
lived a life that perhaps did not place such emphasis
on a need to get married and have children. Despite
her many accomplishments, there’s a sense of
sadness that she did not create her own happy family.
Her ambition made her spiky and her defensiveness,
or jealousy, could lead her to tease her sisters in
ways that were at times just plain mean. But then
again, she also had a wonderful, true sense of humour
and must have been huge fun. Of all of them, Nancy’s
the one I’d have liked to go out and have a
few cocktails with.
Pamela
was quite different from all the other sisters. While
they were all headstrong and wilful, unabashed about
causing storms and headlines, Pamela was quiet and
steady. She was more interested in horses, gardening,
and cooking than any political mantra, which is not
to say she didn’t hold her own strong views.
But I think she was the ballast of the family, the
rock that kept them moored.
Elise:
Can you explain this book quote about Diamond: "One
woman who was rather taller than the rest and elegantly
dressed...She carried herself with confidence"?
Jessica:
Looks and dress can define, in someone else's mind,
personality. I much prefer to describe the clothes
a character is wearing, then the details of their
faces, for two reasons. Firstly, I think a reader
naturally superimposes their own idea of a character's
face, and it's best to interfere as little as possible
with that. Secondly, I can say what I need to say
about a character's personality through their clothes.
Over and above all that, of course, I'm writing about
a very glamorous and good-looking period! It's delicious
to write about the details of their outfits.
Elise: Did you ever do scavenger hunts and
what gave you the idea to put it in this book?
Jessica:
I have never done a scavenger hunt because they didn’t
exist after the 1920s, though I wouldn’t mind
trying one out! I discovered them when I was researching
another project some years ago, and it was when I
was putting together the plot for Bright Young Dead
that I thought this would be the perfect place to
use them. I liked the idea of a murder happening in
the middle of a scavenger hunt, and how that could
frame several suspects at once. The Bright Young Things
were notorious in their time, with their antics and
parties frequently reported on in the papers. There
was plenty of authentic detail for me to draw on,
too, which is a real bonus in a novel like mine.
Elise:
Why put in the scene with Noel Coward?
Jessica:
He made a cameo appearance because he was so much
a figure of that time, and I thought it would be fun
to have a celebrity sighting, as it were! My mother
– who was an actress loved his songs, and often
sang them to me when I was a girl. Most memorably,
‘Don't Put Your Daughter On The Stage, Mrs Worthington',
and ‘Mad Dogs and Englishmen.' They brilliantly
capture the period, and his wit and bonhomie was much
admired at the time. Using a well-known figure like
this in a novel is a sort of cheat in a way because
it lends a note of ‘truth' to the proceedings,
a kind of authenticity that might be hard to achieve
otherwise. But it's fun, too!
Elise:
In the book, there was a contrast of classes. Please
explain.
Jessica:
The reality of life for the upper classes before the
Second World War, was that they largely shared their
houses with servants, the working class. In portraying
the Mitford sisters, there would be servants in the
house, and I wanted very much to include them in the
story. As a servant in the nursery, my fictional heroine,
Louisa Cannon, would be both up and downstairs, as
it were, spending time both in the servants' quarters
and closely with the family. This meant we could have
an insight into the workings of the whole house and
all its inhabitants.
Elise:
Can you give a shout out about your next book?
Jessica:
I’m currently researching the third novel in
the series, which will be called Cruel Bodies, and
have Diana Mitford as its focus. It will be out in
the Fall of 2019.
Elise:
Also, what is it like to write the companion books
to the Downtown Abbey?
Jessica:
Huge fun! I had access to the set, the actors and
an early read of the scripts. For all of us connected
to the Downton Abbey, the enormous success of the
show meant that it was a life-changing experience.
I would not be doing this today if it hadn’t
been for the opportunities that that work gave me.
It also meant I had six years of researching that
between-the-wars period, which I hugely enjoyed, as
well as touring the US giving talks on it. I feel
very lucky.
www.jessicafellowes.com
Elise and MyShelf.com want to thank Jessica Fellowes
for the review and interview.
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