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Miss Aldridge Regrets: from the bestselling author of This Lovely City comes a new gripping historical murder mystery in 2022!

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A fabulous historical crime mystery that was decently paced and kept me guessing for most of the book. While on the ship,Lena gets the opportunity to learn more about her past and the book shows how she was sometimes able to pass as white and how she played on either side of race depending on how it would benefit her. 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. Even though Lois told me this book had no connection with either Ella Fitzgerald or the song Miss Otis Regrets, I downloaded the audiobook from my local library, and I'm glad I did.

When the owner of the Canary club Tommy Scarsdale dies right in front of her, mixed race singer Lena Aldridge decides to accept the offer of a lifetime role in a Broadway show. I leaned my head toward the lighter's flame, and my hand grazed his as we protected the flame with our palms. The contradiction that the band are allowed to entertain first class passengers, but not sit with them, is something that will stay with me. It’s such an exciting, riveting historical fiction meets thriller- whodunnit mystery that fully enjoyed and devoured in one sit that I highly recommend! When a stranger offers her a starring role on Broadways and a first-class ticket on the Queen Mary, she ends up accepting it, despite knowing very little about the opportunity or the people.

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. They do say that life changes when you least expect it to, and enough bad things had happened to me that I deserved some good luck at last. These characters get very little depth other than their basic descriptions above, which is too bad – even when secrets are revealed about this family, they don’t progress or change my perception of the family members and staff. The book also switches timelines (multiple times) between the current trip on the Queen Mary and the events of a week before. This is one of those mysteries where I suspected everyone of everything by the end, assuming ill intent and secret motives on behalf of the whole cast.

Lena Aldridge is a singer in a seedy London jazz club where the owner has just been murdered right under her nose and said club owner just happens to be the husband of her best friend Maggie. Instead, she’s stuck singing in a sticky-floored basement club in Soho and her married lover has just left her.Lena has an interesting background, being a mixed-race woman who passes as white – something she is informed will be important to hide in the more colour conscious United States. It reminded me of those boorish upper-class men I'd spent too much time with recently, spouting their fake Cockney slang and frequenting the Soho nightclubs, splashing their cash on cheap gin for good-looking girls. With seductive glamor, simmering family drama, and dizzying twists, Louise Hare makes her beguiling US debut. The Abernathy’s were quite an interesting, obscenely wealthy family, and although none of them were very likable, they were very interesting. However, when another murder happens at sea, on the way to New York, to one of the Abernathy family members, Lena starts to wonder if her own life is in danger.

Also maybe not that much of a mystery, cause i think alot of people might have guessed who the killer was since the author was trying hard to misdirect but overall engaging and i liked the time spent reading this book. Poor Lena gets drawn into the family's nightly dinners and also gets pulled into being questioned about the murder of one of their family members. Luckily Charlie Bacon: ex police officer, look alike Clark Gable with strange last name appears out of nowhere at the right name in the right place, making her an offer she cannot reject. However, she never really seems to go beyond the characters on the table and Hare does not make use of the closed shipboard setting as well as she could. 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.

None of the family seem particularly happy, with a lot of sniping at dinner and all the vices of drinking, gambling and … It makes Lena nostalgic for her father and the easy way they got along, and also Maggie who despite her difficult marriage and the terrible drama of Tommy’s murder, has always been like a sister to Lena. The story is told in the present aboard Queen Mary and backtracks to the previous seven days from the events at the Canary club.

They exchanged a few words, but I saw his gaze wander as she talked, her conversation slowing to a trickle as she realized he wasn't listening. However, someone on board is wanting to make her life hell, and what better way than framing her for murder. 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. Readers that enjoy historical mysteries and the glamor and pitfalls of the 1930’s should check out this novel. Set mainly on the Queen Mary, a British ocean liner sailing from England to New York, Miss Aldridge Regrets by Louise Hare brings mystery as well as racial and class differences to life in this historical mystery set in 1936.Her new theatre boss wants her to make herself known on the crossing and to get to know the wealthy passengers, but Lena feels out of her depth. However, the description of an entertainer’s life in Soho and a passenger’s life on the Queen Mary is fascinating, and while Lena is an interesting person who always seems to be either doing or listening to or watching interesting things.

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