Miss Aldridge Regrets by Louise Hare

Miss Aldridge Regrets by Louise Hare.

Published 28th April 2022 by HQ.

From the cover of the book:

London, 1936

Lena Aldridge is wondering 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. She has nothing to look forward to 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. Until death follows her onto the ship and she realises that her greatest performance has already begun.

Because someone is making manoeuvres behind the scenes, and there’s only one thing on their mind…

***********

London, 1936. Lena Aldridge, nightclub singer and aspiring actress, certainly has regrets. Her personal and professional lives have not turned out as she hoped - she misses her late father Alfie desperately, her married lover has left her, and she is stuck in a dead-end job at a dive bar in Soho working for the gangster husband of her best friend Maggie.

The sparkling future she envisaged seems further away than ever, when suddenly her luck turns. A complete stranger offers her a starring role on Broadway, with first-class passage aboard the Queen Mary all the way to New York. This couldn't have come at a better time either, as there has been a murder at the club and Lena needs to get out of the way fast before her involvement can be discovered.

Unfortunately, death follows Lena like a spectre once she is on the ship, and she begins to suspect that the Abernathy-Parker family she has fallen in with might be more than meets the eye, despite their high-class credentials. The truth of what is happening in these salubrious surroundings is far beyond Lena's imagination, and she is going to have to put on the performance of her life to survive.

Miss Aldridge Regrets is a sensational mystery that allows Louise Hare to channel Agatha Christie in all her glory, with delicious twists and turns and a highly enjoyable surprise ending. I particularly relished that Lena is such a fan of Christie, always with a book to hand, as everything here flows just like one of the mystery novels from the Queen of Crime herself. There are so many suspicious characters to evoke the Christie vibes, the real villains are often the ones you least suspect, and the setting of the Queen Mary in the heady 1930s is a delight, providing me with very favourite kind of glamorous back drop for a between the wars crime thriller. The locations, the music, the clothing, the references to popular culture, all contribute to creating a pitch perfect feel of time and place.

Of course, if you have read Louise Hare's marvellous This Lovely City you will know that she is able to explore some pretty gritty topics too, and underneath the light entertainment of a compelling whodunnit she does exactly the same here. Lena's mixed-race parentage is the central focus, and Hare uses this to examine the differences between quite what the black side of her heritage means on both sides of the Atlantic. She also threads in a lovely sinister and foreboding undertone about what is happening in Germany at this time, and doesn't shy away from probing how Hitler's political views divide the crowd. This is a story that mixes in so many aspects of life in the 1930s - the elegant facade of the rich and powerful; the gritty underbelly of the criminal quarter; and the looming prospect of another war. Intriguingly, it also harks back to the past with mentions of the legacy of Prohibition and the Great Depression too. All very nicely done indeed.

Lena is a complex and very engaging protagonist. Her love of Christie undoubtedly caught me from the first, and her situation definitely elicits a lot of sympathy. Her grief at losing her father, the resentment she holds for her absent mother, and the loyalty she feels for her friend Maggie - even her unpredicatable romantic entanglements - all influence how she thinks and acts, and though she is at heart a good person, she is far from being a goody-two-shoes. I really liked that about her - she has spark and style, and is not going to accept being made a scapegoat for anyone!

This story kept me guessing all the way through. I liked how Hare weaves in a narrative from the murderer as the story unfurls, and my idea of who was the guilty party changed time and time again as the murderous mayhem played out. There is a fabulous reveal that completely floored me too. Such fun!

If you love period detective fiction that draws beautifully into the era in which it is set, then this is definitely a book for you. I loved it!

Miss Aldridge Regrets is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats.

Thank you to HQ for sending me a proof of this book in return for an honest review, and for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

Louise Hare is a London-based writer and has an MA in Creative Writing from Birkbeck, University of London. Originally from Warrington, the capital is the inspiration for much of her work, including This Lovely City, which began life after a trip into the deep level shelter below Clapham Common. This Lovely City was featured on the inaugural BBC TWO TV book club show, Between the Covers, and has received multiple accolades, securing Louise's place as an author to watch.