Jessica Fellowes. Bright Young Dead. New York: Minotaur, 2018. Print.

Bright Young Dead is exciting fiction. It starts off like a cozy mystery, but develops into something out of Dickens.

The author, niece of Downton Abbey impresario Julian Fellowes, is writing about the same time period as her uncle’s television show. The central characters are historical figures—the famous/notorious Mitford sisters. It is the Roaring Twenties. The older sisters have debuted, the younger ones still are being nannied. Even though the sisters are historical figures, the tale itself is fiction. I guess we can think of Downtown Abbey, set in a real aristocrats’ home, but mostly fiction.

The title Bright Young Dead comes from a term which was coined to describe the fashionable upper class revelers of the Twenties: Bright Young People. For Downton Abbey fans, think of someone like cousin Rose.

There is a party at the Mitford estate. The Bright Young People are there. They devise a treasure hunt game (Americans usually use the term scavenger hunt) and everyone seems to be having a good time. Second-oldest daughter Pamela has debuted but is still required to have a chaperone. Young Louisa Cannon, sometime nanny to the younger daughters, is her chaperone. Much of the tale is told from her point of view. She will get to accompany Pamela and Nancy to parties and to jaunts in London.

During the opening scenes of the story, one of the Bright Young Men named Adrian Curtis falls to his death from the steeple of the chapel on the Mitford family property. (The father’s title is Lord Redesdale; the estate is Asthall Manor). The mystery starts out like a cozy. There are about a dozen people attending the party, and along with a few servants and chaperones, everyone is there. It could be any number of stories by Agatha Christie.

But it is not that simple. While Louisa is bright and young, she is a maid and a nanny—not a bright young person by society’s definition. She comes from a poor part of London and has friends who belong the Forty Thieves, a gang of young women criminals headed by the notorious and distinguished-looking Alice Diamond. Louisa’s friend Dulcie is a member. Dulcie is a maid for one of the London families who were invited to the party, so she comes to the party to help as a servant.

Dulcie discovers the body of Mr. Curtis and, when searched, she is found to have items stolen from the Redesdale estate on her person. She is arrested for theft and soon for murder as well.

Louisa has known Dulcie for a long time. Yes, she admits Dulcie is a thief, but she is no murderer.

Meanwhile another London friend of Louisa’s, Guy Sullivan, is a sergeant in the London police who has been assigned to undercover work trying to spy on and infiltrate the Forty Thieves and their male counterpart the Elephant Gang.

The story then weaves a fascinating connection between these London gangs and the Bright Young People. While alcohol is not illegal in England as it was in the United States, drugs are. Gang members are happy to supply rich clients with them. Some gangsters get rich and hang out at the same clubs the Bright Young People do.

Some of the Bright Young Ladies get their clothing made by a talented widowed seamstress who gets good deals on her fabric from the Forty Thieves as fenced by the Elephants. And this dressmaker, in turn, is taking care of the three-year-old son of one of the Forty while she is in jail.

There is potential for action—even mayhem. The tale gets more and more involved. Louisa and Guy discover lurid details to the point where things become dangerous for everyone. While the surprising climax back at Asthall Manor could be from Christie, in between with London lowlife and gangs, threats, fights, drugs, and thieves, Bright Young Dead has a lot more in common with Oliver Twist than Downton Abbey.

P.S. Not too long ago I had read a review of a book that had come out about the Mitford sisters. The eldest, Nancy, became the writer. One of her sisters became a Fascist; another became a Communist. Nancy is credited with coining the terms U and non-U to describe language and behavior that distinguished the lower classes from the upper classes. Jessica Fellowes has fun with this family. The reader will, too.