Book Review | Bright Young Dead by Jessica Fellowes - A Surprisingly Gripping Murder Mystery

To begin with my expectations of this book were rather low after finding it in The Works in a three for five pound deal. I won’t lie, my main reason for buying it was the totally gorgeous cover, very 1920s it’s stunning! However, I was very so surprised with this book, and was hooked after the first chapter. 

Bright Young Dead gave me murder mystery mixed with The Great Gatsby and Bridgerton vibes, very classy. I enjoyed the character development we got to see of Louise, I generally felt connected to her by the end of the book. And the way Fellowes wrote the whole story made it an easy read and it wasn’t complicated to follow, which I feel sometimes murder mysteries can fall victim too. And by the end I generally was shocked by who-dunnit. I put my guess in early on, as I always do with these types of books and unfortunately I got it wrong. Well not unfortunately, I guess it shows great writing but I just hate being wrong. One of my favourite parts was at the end when Louisa and Guy explain who the killer was, the motive and how they managed to do it without being caught. I always enjoy getting that little insight into the mind of both the killer and the detective. It was also a treat at the end to find out it was loosely based on real events and people such as the Mitford sisters and the various gangs mentioned throughout. It sorta gave it that deeper meaning in my eyes, even though the murder was completely fictional. 

My only criticism is I felt the book focused too much on the gang side of the story and not enough on the characters that were in the house at the time of the murder. Their motives and stories were quite rushed at the end when discovering who-dunnit, whereas figuring out the gangs and the links they had to characters took up most of the story. The main suspect, who was in prison, was linked to a gang and the main characters spent a lot of time tracking down the gang members. And if I’m honest, the final reveal could have still happened without the gang story line as that didn’t directly play into the murder. Don’t get me wrong, I still loved it but personally I would have enjoyed it even more if the motives of the other characters, their personal stories and the actual murder night was explored more. 

Overall, I loved this book. I struggled to put it down, was excited when I knew I had time to read it again and was captivated by the story. I am so looking forward to welcoming the rest of the Mitford Murder books to my ever-growing bookcase.