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

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Because someone is making manoeuvres behind the scenes, and there’s only one thing on their mind... The book opens she is on stage, singing when her boss/ her best friend’s husband Tommy Scarsdale dies in front her eyes. He’s poisoned and she might be involved with the murder.

Lena is interesting because her skin tone, her parentage, her profession, and her current mission, not to mention the liminal state that everyone exists in while at sea, all place her in a nebulous state that allows her to talk to everyone. She travels all over the ship and interacts with everyone from the filthy rich passengers in First Class to the ship’s employees. It’s a lot of fun to see how the upper third lives, with their endless attentive service, a store for every possible need, loads of food, and flowers, and private cabins for all. The book was engaging and it held my attention throughout. I was eager to find out who had it in for Lena and why. The plot certainly has a murder-mystery feel to it. Hare's well-crafted second novel oozes glamour . . . Did someone mention Agatha Christie? Yes, but with the bonus of subtle reflections on race and class' ObserverLena has nothing to lose and this offer can save her from her biggest predicament ( a person of interest of a brutal crime) Indeed, one of the most important threads that runs through the novel – the racial identity of Lena – couldn’t have been better explored for the era. A strong yet vulnerable heroine Lena’s iffy moral choices lend the novel a touch of noir moodiness but also make her a difficult protagonist for me to attach to. The club she worked at was attached to a brothel (same building, owner, and many shared customers) that victimized very young girls. Lena was one of many that knew about it but chose not to report it – not only for her own protection but because the owner, Tommy, was bribing the police anyway. She covers up a murder, she uses cocaine, she lies, she drinks heavily, and she’s kind of a crappy friend. In short, Lena is not an evil or amoral person by any means, but she is focused on her own survival and although she is capable of feeling a great deal of compassion for people, she is also capable of ruthless behavior. stars. I enjoyed this and will definitely read the next in the series. There's a murder that is introduced at the beginning of the story and referred to throughout but the big murder the blurb refers to, the one the real mystery of the story hinges on doesn't occur until the end of the first third of the book. That's a peeve of mine for a mystery.

The ending! I don't mind what happens, exactly, and I applaud an atypical conclusion. But it just felt like it was underwritten, and certainly I needed more reasoning and feeling behind the choices that are made. And while I also don't mind that Lena is not the detective and largely reacts to things throughout the story instead of acting--this felt right, as a passenger--I do think that at the end, we needed more of an emphatic statement and proactive decision-making from her.Charlie Bacon, the mysterious man who promised Lena a Broadway part, accompanies her on the cruise. He insists they sit with a wealthy American family, the Abernathy’s for dinner, and as she gets to know this wealthy American family, she realizes they are very dysfunctional. 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.

The pacing is also wrong, I don’t know what the editor was thinking when they said yes, this is good, no need to change anything. Really, I had to read multiple useless description of what the MC was eating and drinking or how she was dressed and the character + mystery building were practically non-existent. I understand it’s historical fiction and probably the author wanted to set the tone, but it was too much tone and too little actual substance. From murder to family relationships, lovers to enemies, loyalty to deception… Lena’s story encapsulates them all in a whirlwind of exciting moments. It’s such an exciting, riveting historical fiction meets thriller- whodunnit mystery that fully enjoyed and devoured in one sit that I highly recommend! Miss Aldridge Regrets was an enjoyable read, and it introduced me to a new subgenre, which I really enjoy.

Considering that this book is not just a historical fiction but a historical mystery, it is definitely a well-layered book that has a lot of intrigue as well as drama. In fact, this book reminded me of Agatha Christie’s book Death on the Nile as the second murder happened while they were on the ocean so it was more than clear that the murderer was on board. That definitely increased the tension and danger in this well-written and captivating read. mixed-raced Lena Aldridge is a showgirl at a club in Soho, London. One night the boss (and her best friend’s husband) is poisoned and dies whilst in the audience. Lena may have had a hand in the murder and tries to keep her head down. It’s not long though before a theatre producer who knew her deceased father gets in touch and wants her to appear in his new show on Broadway. The two timelines are easy to follow, even on audio, though I'm not sure the unknown second POV added much to the story. After the first arch interruption, it gets repetitive and shrug-worthy. I enjoyed this story and the mystery very much. I loved the setting of the Queen Mary, and the author did a wonderful job of describing life on the ocean liner. I also liked that Lena’s love interest is a member of the staff of the ship, and that made for some interesting scenes from the working class. The Abernathy’s were quite an interesting, obscenely wealthy family, and although none of them were very likable, they were very interesting.

Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.Knowing that she needs to leave London and that it is an opportunity of a lifetime, she accepts and travels in comfort to New York on the Queen Mary. However, someone on board is wanting to make her life hell, and what better way than framing her for murder. But who and why would someone go to the trouble of following her onto the ship to stage the elaborate plot? Ah, I liked this one. It's basically Agatha Christie with a young mixed-race jazz singer as its main protagonist--and I say protagonist instead of heroine, because Lena has to look after her own interests, and exhibits morally ambiguous behavior throughout the story. Which makes her interesting, although I'm not sure enough was really done with this. Glamour and grit combine in this smartly plotted, wonderfully atmospheric historical murder mystery, with a heroine I won't forget. I loved it' Frances Quinn, The Smallest Man In addition to the problems that Lena is having on the ship, yet another murder occurs. Considering that this book is written in first person narrative, as well as by means of a diary, we just are given privy to Lena‘s thoughts and concerns while she is on this trip. Is Lena guilty of these murders or is her situation one that makes her a likely suspect? She’s definitely not an innocent woman because she had been sleeping with a married man. Does this mean that she is a woman that does not have a good character or does this mean that she is a woman who dealt with living a double life and took whatever she could to get by? The dynamics in this book take on quite a few different directions, which include morality, alcohol and drugs, racism, class distinction, the unfairness that some women face and much more.