Miss Aldridge Regrets by Louise Hare Book Review

Synopsis

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.

My Thoughts

To those unaware of her background, Lena Aldridge, of mixed race, can easily pass as white. She is a singer in a seedy nightclub, the Canary Club, owned by Tommy Scarsdale, her best friend's husband. On her final night at the club, Tommy dies there in suspicious circumstances. A suspect in his death, Lena is eager to leave London behind and accepts a fortuitous offer of a role in a Broadway musical. Within a week, Lena makes her escape on board the RMS Queen Mary, sailing first class to New York.

When Charlie Bacon, her travelling companion, learns that Francis Parker, the controlling patriarch of a very wealthy family, is also on the ship, he inveigles a spot for himself and Lena at the Parkers' table and from then on they become part of the Parker and Abernathy set. Lena prefers to keep to herself, but is encouraged by Charlie to charm the sick and wheelchair-bound Francis Parker and his son-in-law, Jack Abernathy, into funding her musical. This is a part she doesn't like to play and observes that for all of their wealth and prestige, the Parker and Abernathy families are not happy with their lives or with each other. Despite their social differences, Lena strikes up a friendship of sorts with Francis Parker's daughter and granddaughter. Her life becomes entwined with theirs in a way she never envisaged.

However, Lena's relief at leaving London is short lived. When a death occurs on the ship bearing uncanny similarities to that of Tommy Scarsdale, she comes under suspicion again and finds that the only person she trusts is Will Goodman, a coloured musician, with whom she strikes up a friendship. But being associated with him could irrevocably damage her career prospects.

The story unfolds from Lena's point of view. It flits between the shipboard action where Lena attempts to fit into the first class world without revealing her true ethnicity and events in London leading up to the death of Tommy Scarsdale, sometimes delving into the pasts of Lena and her father. The narrative is also interspersed with diary entries from an anonymous source which leaves no doubt that events and Lena are being manipulated. Who this turned out to be came as a surprise, which I liked, but I thought the motive was weak for such an elaborate plan. I expected a more dramatic reason than the one given.

There is no denying that class and racial differences are foremost in this novel, highlighting the different attitudes to coloured people in America and England. Even Lena's own perception of her ethnicity is shaken up when she meets Will Goodman. The social commentary also includes the attitudes towards women; drug, tobacco and alcohol use; and being the 1930's with Hitler on the rise, politics.

Although certain aspects of the reveal were disappointing, it didn't spoil my overall enjoyment of this novel. The 1930's glamour of first class travel on board a luxury liner was captured superbly and was in sharp contrast to the impoverished life that Lena had abandoned. There were plenty of red herrings and suspense to satisfy the mystery element.

I have no hesitation in recommending this novel. As well as being an intriguing mystery, it is an entertaining snapshot of the 1930s. I look forward to reading more from this author.