Miss Aldridge Regrets by Louise Hare

The glittering RMS Queen Mary. A nightclub singer on the run. An aristocratic family with secrets worth killing for.

London, 1936. Lena Aldridge wonders if life has passed her by. The dazzling theatre career she hoped for hasn’t worked out. Instead, she’s stuck singing in a sticky-floored basement club in Soho, and her married lover has just left her. But Lena has always had a complicated life, one shrouded in mystery as a mixed-race girl passing for white in a city unforgiving of her true racial heritage.

She’s feeling utterly hopeless until a stranger offers her the chance of a lifetime: a starring role on Broadway and a first-class ticket on the Queen Mary bound for New York. After a murder at the club, the timing couldn’t be better, and Lena jumps at the chance to escape England. But death follows her onboard when an obscenely wealthy family draws her into their fold just as one among them is killed in a chillingly familiar way. As Lena navigates the Abernathy’s increasingly bizarre family dynamic, she realizes that her greatest performance won’t be for an audience, but for her life.

With seductive glamor, simmering family drama, and dizzying twists, Louise Hare makes her beguiling US debut.

This book had great ideas but in the end it comes up short. No character is completely flushed out. Lena is supposed to be hiding who she really is but tells stories about her father at each turn. Finding her mother during this all made no sense and the ending and the motives felt like the author didn't know where to take the story so they just did whatever in the end. And there are some things gs that are never explained like Lena's box coming up missing. It's never talked about again it just disappears never to be seen or thought about again

Miss Aldridge Regrets by Louise Hare was one of my Easter weekend reads, I simply adored this book. From the Art Deco feel to the murder mystery happening on board a passenger boat heading to New York this was the perfect cosy read.

Lena Aldridge is a singer/actor working in a dingy Soho club. After a murder at the club, Lena is offered the opportunity to go and work on Broadway for a man she has never met; a chance of a lifetime and one she cannot afford to turn down. Boarding the boat set for New York, Lena finds herself forced to make acquaintances with the Parker/Abernathy family as she is told this will be good publicity for her future in New York. But as the days pass and she gets to know this family it appears that all is not what it first seemed. When a murder occurs, which is identical to the one at the club, Lena gets a sinking feeling that she is being set up for both murders. But who could be the killer? And will she survive the voyage to New York?

Think The Maid meets Agatha Christie, this book was a pure delight to read. I loved the character of Lena, a woman at the crossroads in her life. Alone after the death of her father and trying to find her place in life/society. I loved hearing about Lena's story, from her upbringing to her complex relationship with those around her. The plot, a great murder mystery set onboard a boat, where the murderer could not escape and neither could their victims. Although I had my suspicions about who the murderer could be there were enough red-herrings along the way to keep me guessing and totally entertained. This book delved into the class and race divide of the 1930s along with the culture differences between the British and Americans. This is a book that not only drew me in but totally enthralled me. One of my favourite reads this year. Many thanks to Louise Hare for taking me to an era that fascinates me, to a place that I hold dear to my heart and for an astonishing good read.