Review: Miss Aldridge Regrets by Louise Hare

I received an advanced review copy of this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley. This did not affect my opinion of the book in any way.

Series: Canary Club Mystery #1
Publisher: HQ
Published: April 2022
Pages: 429

Synopsis

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 dumped 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 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. But when a fellow passenger is killed in a strikingly familiar way, Lena realizes that her greatest performance won’t be for an audience, but for her life.

My Thoughts…

I love a good murder mystery, and even better if it’s a historical one. Sadly, Miss Aldridge Regrets didn’t quite hit the mark for me. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a bad book, but it just felt very bland, repetitive and generally quite boring.

I did like the historical context, which felt very well done and detailed, and I particularly appreciated the introduction of the racial aspect and reflections on Lena’s passing as white, as well as discussions around class differences. I also enjoyed some of the relationships that developed between different characters, which added something of interest to what would have otherwise been a fairly bland read.

Most of the story takes place on board the Queen Mary on the journey towards the USA, with occasional flashbacks to Lena’s life in London and excerpts from the killer’s diary. That being said, the characters mostly just go about their business, occasionally interrupted by a murder. They seemed to be just drifting along, with no sleuthing of any kind, and Lena felt especially passive, letting things just sort of happen to her, even despite being a murder suspect at one point.

By the time I got to the ending, I just didn’t care about any of it anymore, and the final reveal did nothing to improve my feelings towards this. So, this one just didn’t quite work for me, leaving me unsatisfied and bored, and I don’t think I’ll pick up the next books in the series.