Louise HareCríticas

This is a murder mystery set in the 1930s by English author Georgina Campbell. Lena Aldridge is a mixed race singer playing in a tacky nightclub in Soho. After the death of her friend’s husband, the club manager, she is offered a dream job on Broadway and travels aboard the HMS Mary Queen to get to New York. On board she becomes drawn into the wealthy Abernethy family circle, intrigued by their interactions and dazzled by the glamour, until another body is discovered. Afraid fingers will point at her, she carefully tries to get to the truth, unveiling many secrets and surprises along the way.

This was an enjoyable read with a great setting, but not as dazzling as the blurb might suggest.½

Fun historical closed-circle mystery that also goes deep into the development of the main character.

Full review to come.

Lena Aldridge has fetched up in New York. After the horrible events on the Queen Mary, Lena is pleased to have found romance with Will Goodman and he helps her find a place to stay with his friends. As their relationship blossoms Lena tries to find out more about her family but also discovers a lot more about Will's history. After a sudden death, Lena must decide where her future lies.
This is the third book in Hare's story about Lena Aldridge, a bi-racial singer in the 1930s. Here the focus is New York and the uneasy relations between black and white and levels of society. I loved the setting in Harlem and places such as The Apollo and the Cotton Club. However at it's heart this is a story about family ties and revenge. Sometimes the plot feels a lott too contrived but I genuinely love the journey.

The sequel to MISS ALDRIDGE REGRETS takes place in New York City in 1936. Lena has survived the problems of the first book but is in New York with no job and no friends except Will Goodman whom she met on the Atlantic crossing.

Lena is staying with Will's friends Claudette and Louis. She's a library assistant and he's a doctor. Lena is also learning more about Will. She meets his stepsister Bel and his niece Joey and lots of people in Harlem who remember him fondly.

Lena is also looking for information about her father who recently died of tuberculosis. She met the woman who was her mother in the first adventure and has quite a few questions about her father's life that he never told her about.

The book actually begins with a woman falling out of the window of Claud and Louis's apartment holding Lena's passport leading the reader to believe that it was Lena. Then the story slips backward to when Lena first arrives in New York. There are also flashbacks that let the reader take a peek into Lena's father Alfie's life in New York City before she was born. We learn about him before Lena does.

This was an interesting historical story with a bit of mystery. Like in the first book, the mystery plot isn't the most important part of the story and isn't particularly strong. What is important is Lena's search for family and for the past her father never told her about. It is about the difficulties of being Black in New York City in 1936 even if your skin is light enough to pass. It's about the start of a romance that doesn't seem to have a future.

Fans of historical fiction will enjoy getting to know Lena and her world.

This historical mystery is set in 1936 and stars Lena Aldridge who is Black but passing for White. She is a singer in a seedy club when she is offered the chance to go to New York City to star in a Broadway musical. This couldn't come at a more perfect time. Her married lover has just left her. She's been kicked out of her room at her rooming house and has been fired from her job at the club.

She has also just witnessed the death of her boss who also happens to be her best friend's husband. Tommy Scarsdale wasn't much of a husband flaunting his younger and younger lovers in front of his wife's face. Even worse, he has just asked her friend Maggie for a divorce and plans to leave her destitute. When he dies from cyanide poisoning, Lena suspects Maggie but decides to cover up any possibility of her involvement.

Once onboard the ship, she finds herself seated at the table of the powerful Abernathy family. The head of the family is Francis Parker who is a very wealthy man who has suffered a stroke and is dying. However, he still has a tight grip on his family which includes his son-in-law Jack, daughter Eliza, and grandchildren Frankie and Carrie. Also in the entourage is his personal physician Dr. Wilding and Parker's secretary Daisy.

Lena is wondering why Charlie Bacon, who is supposed to be her guide to New York, wants to have her get to know these people. It soon becomes clear that he is eager for her to ingratiate herself with them in the hopes of having them support the upcoming Broadway show.

Then Francis Parker is also poised with cyanide and Lena is sure that she will be blamed. Two deaths having the same cause is just too coincidental. She's right that she'll be blamed because that's what a hidden enemy has planned. But why Lena has been chosen to be the scapegoat only slowly becomes clear.

Luckily, Lena has an alibi for the third murder in the person of bandleader Will Goodman. It is Will who brings the theme of prejudice into the story. He's a Black man who is knowledgeable about the difficulties Lena will face in New York if anyone learns that she's passing.

This was a complicated story with a variety of flashbacks and viewpoints. I found Lena to be morally ambiguous and I'm not sure I agree with her choices even while knowing there was no other real choice about what she did.

The time period was well drawn and the characters interesting and complex people. I enjoyed the story.

3.5*

Lena Aldridge boards the Queen Mary in 1936 to sail to New York from London. Accompanying her is Charlie Bacon, the self-appointed promoter, who has promised her a role in a Broadway show due to the connections of her deceased father. Lena has recently been fired from her singing act in a backstreet club after a disagreement with the owner, who is also the husband of her best friend, Maggie. Maggie's husband is poisoned and dies at the club on the same night with his mistress at his side.

Once on board the Queen Mary in first class, Charlie manages to secure a place at the dinner table of a very wealthy family. Travelling with the family are the elderly father, his nurse, and his doctor. There are many intrigues and assignations on the voyage, people die unexpectedly from foul play, and family secrets are exposed. This may be reminiscent for some readers of Agatha Christy’s novels.

Miss Aldridge Regrets by Louise Hare is told in alternating people, one is an unknown until the end and the other is Lena Aldridge. It is told in two-time frames, one in the current year of 1936 and the other two weeks prior.

In the two weeks prior, Lena is singing at a sleazy club run by Tommy the husband, of her best friend. One night Tommy is killed, and all eyes look toward Lena, see she did not like him, he was a pretty sleazy man and treated her friend horribly by cheating in her.

Lena is mixed race, raised primarily by her father who has recently passed away from tuberculosis. She is offered a role on Broadway, she thinks that this is too good to be true, but she does not want to stick around so the police can pin the murder on her.

The other chapters have Lena on the Queen Mary, headed to New York, she is traveling with Charlie, the man who said he could get her on Broadway.

On the ship she makes the acquaintance of the Abernathy family a very rich and dysfunctional family. When the elderly patriarch, Frances Parker, of the family dies, there is a lot of suspicion as to who did it, because it definitely was murder. Then there is Jack Abernathy who is cheating on his wife with Mr. Parkers caregiver. Jacks' wife, Eliza, rich and pampered but also neglected by her husband. Then there is Carrie, the youngest child of Jack and Eliza. This is a family that has lots of secrets.

When there is another murder, Lena starts to think that she is also in danger. The narrator that at this point the reader is not told who it is, appears to be the murderer, of Tommy and also the murders on ship. Can Lena stay safe and not be accused of the crimes.

Lena also meets Will, a musician on board the ship who performs above and below decks. He is black but Lena who can pass for white end up having a shipboard romance. There are a lot of characters to keep track of and who they are in relationship to others.

I found the mystery on board ship to be interesting, the intrigue and danger you could feel as you read. The ending kind of threw me off a bit, never saw that coming! The reader learns quite a bit of Lena's backstory and who she is and what she inspires to be.

I think that if you enjoy a good shipboard story, you should give this one a try! I give it 4 stars.

Historical mystery aboard the Queen Mary bound to New York in 1936.

Lena Aldridge aspires to a life on the stage so she jumps at the chance to travel to New York when Charlie Bacon offers her a job on Broadway and a first class cabin on the Queen Mary. Let's just say that she is leaving London under a bit of a cloud so she does not ask the right questions when she accepts this opportunity from a stranger who claims to be there at the behest of an old friend of her recently deceased father. Once aboard the ship, she meets an upper class family that is traveling together and, although she is mixed race, Lena allows others to believe she is Italian. Not that they really pay much attention to her as they have enough drama among them. Soon enough there's a murder and Lena has no idea whom to trust.

This was an entertaining read but I especially enjoyed the historical and period details more than the plot. The timeline jumps between events that transpired in London and those that happen on the ship. Mostly told from Lena's point of view, there is, however, another character whose narrative informs that they know what is going on and why with a very elaborate plan. The character of Lena is tolerable, but she did not capture my interest as she seemed very shallow and immature. The secondary cast personified all the types that you might find on a ship during that time period doing all the things that would be normal behavior for them. Casual drug use, alcohol, sexual trysts, and smoking combine with the class dynamics between the upper and lower deck people. I just never really became totally convinced by their authenticity enough to care about any of them. I had already figured out the mind behind the intrigue so the reveal was no surprise.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Books for this e-book ARC to read and review.

Lena Aldridge is a mixed race singer in a London dive in 1938. The owner, who is unfaithfully married to her best friend, is poisoned during a performance. Lena is questioned and released, fortunately, because she's just been offered an amazing opportunity in New York City by an old friend of her recently deceased father, looking to make amends for a past wrong. On the Queen Mary, Lena shares a table with the wealthy and dysfunctional Abernathy family, praying they will not figure out that she's passing as white. When an identical poisoning happens on the ship, Lena fears that all her secrets will come out.

But, even with all this interesting setup, the story plods along with no intensity. Lena has no agency. The extent to which she goes along to get along is revealed in flashbacks to her life in London. Alcohol and drugs are used casually and the only likable characters have very minor roles. The cast of main characters is large and underdeveloped and their motivations are a stretch. No one really event attempts to solve any of the crimes. Lena merely thinks about who may be responsible. A wasted opportunity for what could have been an atmospheric historical mystery with an unusual amateur sleuth.

This book was a lot of fun with more twists and turns than I was expecting. Two plot lines were being revealed in alternating chapters, and the pacing was really good. The characters were all distinct and interesting and not always what they seemed at first. The narration also included some interesting ruminations on race, class, friendship and family. I can imagine this as a good BBC/PBS series.

A mix between Death on the Nile (Agatha Christie) and Woman in Cabin 10 (Ruth Ware) - this book beautifully paints a beautiful picture of the Queen Mary traveling between London and New York.

Lena, reeling from grief over her dead father, and then a mysterious death at the club where she sings, is offered a gig aboard the Queen Mary by Charlie Bacon, and she takes him up on the offer without knowing much about the new job. Lena thinks she may have escaped troubled times, but when there is another murder aboard the ship, things start to take weird twists and turns.

The story had a few lulls, but then the twists made up for it. I especially enjoyed the historical aspect of this mystery - the setting of year 1936 on board the magestic Queen Mary. I would recommend this novel.

From a murder on land to murders at sea.

Lena had been there for them. One she thought she was responsible for, and the others she was set up for.

We meet Lena in a seedy nightclub in Soho where she sings and where she doesn't want to be.

Luckily a friend of her father's finds her a job ,and she makes her way from England to New York in first class on the Queen Mary.

She meets a family who shares their table and stories with her.


Something is wrong with this family, though, but perhaps they knew to invite Lena to their table.

Poor Lena gets drawn into the family's nightly dinners and also gets pulled into being questioned about the murder of the family's matriarch.

We follow Lena as her life before getting on the Queen Mary and during her time on the Queen Mary is revealed

I really liked Lena, but the poor girl was always in the middle of something. Someone was trying to harm her, and she had no idea why.

I enjoyed most of the characters even though they were a bit on the eccentric side.

MISS ALDRIDGE REGRETS is a mystery and family drama all rolled into one.

Who was the “real” murderer on the Queen Mary….we know who it was in Soho.

And who was trying to murder Lena?

Did they think she knew something?

It took a little for me to warm up to the story line, but as secrets unfold, you will quickly be turning the pages and enjoying the hustle and bustle.

Those readers who enjoy books set on ocean liners and this time period will definitely enjoy MISS ALDRIDGE REGRETS. 4/5

This book was given to me by the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review.

A suspenseful historical thriller that takes the reader aboard a transatlantic ocean voyage on the Queen Mary in 1936.

Lena Aldridge is fleeing the scene of one murder when she runs right into a second. Even worse, both men die in the same way.

Lena's been singing at a small, sleazy club when a man offers her the chance to star on Broadway. Lena hesitates, until her best friend Maggie's husband is murdered right in front of her. To protect her secrets, Lena takes her chance to get out of town. On board the ship, she's in a luxurious first class carriage, but her accommodations come with a price - the man traveling with her wants to ingratiate herself with the wealthy Parkers. When the patriarch of the family is murdered, Lena discovers that the secrets the Parker family are keeping run deeper than she ever imagined.

Lena's a biracial character who can pass as white, and the book isn't afraid to take on issues of class and race as Lena reflects on her impoverished - but filled with love - childhood with the black father who raised her. Lena also befriends Will Goodman, a black singer onboard the ship, but both hesitate to link themselves publicly, albeit for different reasons.

This book is a page-turner, filled with suspense and twists and turns as Lena struggles to find out who would frame her on this ship filled with strangers and why.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Lena Aldridge has never known her mother and, after the death of her father, lurches from one poorly paid job to another. She dreams of stardom but is still singing in seedy nightclubs. Then one day it appears her fortunes have turned, she is offered a job on Broadway and is whisked away on the Queen Mary. However this lifestyle seems to come with a few catches and death seems to be following Lena.
Despite the plots holes wider than the Atlantic, I loved this book. Maybe it was the sly hint at Cole Porter in the title or the aside that Lena loved Agatha Christie that made me smile. More likely it was the way that a golden age murder mystery has kept its 30s setting but been given an update. The race element is to be expected from Hare but she is becoming expert at making this integral, not a deliberate plot device unlike many others. Essentially it is just a great read again from a very accomplished writer.

I received a free copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving an honest review.

This was a fast moving mystery. I enjoyed how the author built the tension and kept me turning pages to discover the guilty party. My only problem with the book was that the end was...really anticlimactic. She did all of that great building of tension and then it all just seemed to fall flat. Good book, fun read, but could have been better.½

It is 1950 and a worn torn Britain is lacking in able bodied men. Answering this call the Windrush docks with a new labor force. Problem is, that many consider them the wrong color and are not willing to openly accept them. When a body of a toddler of mixed race is found in the river, these men of color are the first to be questioned.

Although the death of the child and the who done it gives it the air of mystery, this book is so much more. It is about prejudice and the effort it takes to be accepted, in some cases to never be accepted. It is also a love story between a mixed race girl and a young man from the Windrush. The plot is a long, unwinding of lives lived before and the lives to come. It is as much historical as it is suspense. It shows how easy it is to accuse without anything to back it up just because one is different. Easy to ruin lives with just an accusation.

Even though this is set in the past, this is something that happens everyday. And unfortunately, will be unchanged in the future.

Lawrie answered the call from post-War Britain and landed with high hopes of a future. Missing his Caribbean home he falls in with a group of musicians, finds a job as a postman and starts courting a young mixed girl. However when he finds a child in the pond on Clapham Common his world starts falling apart. Already used to the basic racism he encounters on an everyday basis Lawrie finds his life spiralling out of control.
This is a terrific book and a very strong debut by Hare. Superficially a story about a crime, the setting among the Windrush generation is very cleverly observed. The roles of women in post-War Britain are skilfully depicted, the fact that on marriage they are expected to give up work, that divorce is scandalous and very difficult to obtain. Obviously the inherent racism of society is writ large and racist attacks feature yet are treated as almost commonplace. All of this shows a very deft touch from the writer as the love story between Lawrie and Evie is kept central and the (rather melodramatic) plot winds around this.

3.5 stars