Medium – Audiobook
About the Book – Louisa Cannon, a young cockney girl, is trying to escape from her nasty, abusive Uncle Stephen. She manages to get a job with the famous Mitfords, an aristocratic family who were infamous during the 1920s. She works as a nursery maid, caring for the family of six daughters and one son, and becomes really good friends with Nancy Mitford, the eldest and closest in age to her. One day, they hear of the murder of Florence Nightingale Shore, a WW1 war nurse, and Nancy becomes obsessed with trying to work out who the murderer is. Louisa teams up with Nancy and her newly-met acquaintance, the railway policeman Guy Sullivan to try and find out the murderer, and to protect the Mitfords from peril.
My Rating – 4/5
My Thoughts – This is one of those archetypal ‘cosy crime’, historical crime novels. Cosy crime is one of my favourite genres, so I was keen to read this book. Alongside this, I have read several books about (and by) the Mitfords, including the novels by Nancy Mitford, Jessica Mitford’s memoir, an overall biography of the six sisters and a book of their letters to each other. They were all super-interesting women, so it was really lovely to see them (well Nancy and Pamela mainly in this first book) as young teenagers. It looks like the author is planning six books, each focusing on a different sister, and I am already reading book 2, which focuses on one of my favourite of the Mitford girls, Pamela (my other favourite is Debo). The plot of this book was good, the characters believable, and I liked the character of Louisa, who acts as our narrator.
I only have one major problem with this book, which is why it is rated at a 4/5 rather than a 5/5. Without wanting to give too much away, the murder of Florence Nightingale Shore was a real-life event, with the murderer never being found and disappearing off into oblivion. The murderer in this book is found, and it is a person who actually existed in real life. This person was never suspected of the real Florence’s murder, and as far as can be found out, lived a long, peaceful retirement. The fact that this person was written as the murderer in this book looks like speaking ill of the dead at the very best. It feels mean-spirited and I don’t think there is enough distance in terms of time for the person written as the murderer to still have relatives living. It left an unpleasant taste in my mouth, and ruined the book slightly for me at the end (the information only appears in the author’s note).
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