Miss Aldridge Regrets

 

Miss Aldridge Regrets by Louise Hare 368 pages

Lena Aldridge isn’t happy with her life. She thought she would be a big star by now. Instead, she’s singing in a dump in London’s Soho. Her father, Alfie, just died, and her married lover has left her. She’s lucky to have the gig she has, mostly thanks to her best friend, Maggie, whose husband, Tommy Scarsdale, owns the joint.

But tonight isn’t Tommy’s night. He dies right in front of the stage, right in the middle of Lena’s set. This isn’t the first murder that has happened, which make Lena skittish.

A stranger appears, saying that his boss owes Alfie a favor. He offers Lena a chance to star on Broadway and a first-class ticket on the Queen Mary. Lena weighs her options, and figuring she has nothing to lose, she jumps at the opportunity.

Author Hare does a fabulous job in creating the period details and the luxuries Lena enjoyed on the ship. Luxuries she has never known in her twenty-six years. Heck, she even had to borrow clothes from Maggie just to fit in.

On Lena’s first night, she learns that her tablemates are the Abernathy’s. Each member of the family is stereotypical of their role. It got old quick! It’s more important than ever the Lena keeps her mixed-race identity a secret.

Wandering around the ship in search of what Lena isn’t quite sure. She meets one of the bandleaders, Will. There is mutual attraction, but Lena must be very, very careful. Will is African American, and mixed couples in 1936 are exactly welcome in either race. Lena believes that the Abernathy’s would rather have her thrown overboard as shark food rather than sit at the same table with her.

When the Abernathy patriarch dies, murdered it seems, Lena is more frightened than ever.

“Miss Aldridge Regrets” is hailed as being an Agatha-Christie like murder mystery. I don’t see t. To me the pace was slow, tension was low, and the characters were so stereotypical, Christie would be embarrassed. I did love the period details and that pushes “Miss Aldridge Regrets” to 3 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.