Usually this is something that I would say about fantasy novels, but with this one I struggled with the worldbuilding. I battled to immerse myself in the story and 'see' what the author wanted me to see. Such an interesting premise though!

This is my second murder mystery set on a boat that I've read this year and I enjoyed it! I loved the glamour of traveling by boat and this book did a wonderful job setting the stage. I felt like I was on the boat with Lena. I also liked how the book tackled a lot including race and class dynamics in the 30s. The pacing was a little slower than I was expecting, probably because it was an ebook. If I saw this physical copy of this chunky book, I would've had a better understanding that I was about to get into a cozy but glamourous mystery.

I love me some twisty stories! Add in the music and intrigue. This has all the genres in one great book!

This is an entertaining read that shows promise for a sequel. The book is set primarily on the Queen Mary. Elements of racism and class differences are evident. Lena Aldridge, the main character is a naive young woman eager to believe a thinly veiled offer as it would take her out of her dead end life. She accepts the offer of a starring role in a Broadway musical (did I say gullible ?) and the story unfolds.

While I haven't actually read an Agatha Christie novel, I've read enough stories about her and her writing style to understand how Miss Aldridge Regrets is being compared to a Christie novel. I felt like it could easily have been a modern-day Agatha Christie story.

The main character Lena Aldridge finds herself on a voyage from England to New York with the promise of becoming a star in a Broadway play. Once on board, she finds herself in with a very wealthy family with many secrets of their own. When suddenly, people start dying. The story jumps between Queen Mary and a week prior to her boarding back in England.

I liked the story as a whole and enjoyed Lena's character. I also liked that it seemed with each passing chapter a new and interesting detail or twist would emerge, leading to the main twist. It has a great ending too.

Whether you're a fan of Agatha Christie or not, this is a good whodunnit!
3.75/5 stars

Thank you Berkley Publishing and NetGalley for the eARC!

An enjoyable, suspenseful mystery set aboard the Queen Mary. Having visited the ship, I enjoyed picturing the events of the novel on board, and kept turning the pages to find out what happened.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me a copy of this book to review! I enjoyed it; there were a couple twists I didn’t see coming and a couple that I predicted. It was engaging, I just felt it was a little long. There were side plots that could have been cut to potentially speed things up/avoid meandering but overall it was a good story!

This was such an enjoyable read in the Golden Age, Agatha Christie style. The drawing room setting is on the elegant Queen Mary ocean liner. The ruse for Lena is a part in a Broadway show, But it seems she is being set up for the ensuing murders. Lots of twists and turns with a surprising ending. .

Really fun murder mystery with interesting characters and lots of twists and turns. We’ll structured with two story lines told simultaneously and interesting ruminations on friendship, family, class and race in between.

Her mother left, her father died, and now she has to make it on her own. At least she can sing and that gets her a job.
Berkley and Edelweiss let me read this book for review (thank you). It has been published and you can get a copy now.

Lena is biracial and passes for white. She gets tangled up with the Abernathy family which is unfortunate.

She's on the Queen Mary and she sees husbands having affairs, murders, and snotty women. As she tries to stay out of trouble, she just gets more drawn in.

The cops ask questions about the murders. Lena wonders who is killing them.

There's lots of drama, another death, and the killer was a real surprise to me.

Another surprise was that Lena finds her mother on board...

Miss Aldridge Regrets is a historical novel set in 1936. Lena Aldridge decides to leave England, where she is a nightclub singer, for New York, after her best friend's husband (who owned the club where Lena sang) was murdered. She travels on the Queen Mary and becomes entangled in a complex series of mysteries on board - with some possible romance as well.

I wanted to read this novel because I love historical fiction and I was intrigued by the storyline - nightclub singer, mystery, travel on a glamorous 1930's ship.

This was an interesting read. Lena is a biracial character passing as white, and I found the nuances of her personal story particularly strong. I liked Lena and the ship's band leader, Will, very much. On the ship, Lena becomes involved with a very unpleasant wealthy family who seem to be followed by murder and mayhem. There were also a number of flashbacks to the club where Lena sang in London and the murder that occurred there. I think I would have enjoyed more focus on Lena and her personal story, with fewer flashbacks.

Readers who enjoy historical mysteries, especially stories with social implications, will find this book of interest. The details of ship travel in the 1930's were fascinating, and I think that will appeal as well.

How does a murder mystery play out when there's no good guy to solve the puzzle? Miss Aldridge Regrets is an fun take on the classic Golden Age mystery novel, with a confined setting, a suspicious cast of characters, and a heroine who's just as morally compromised as any of them. It stumbles in spots but stays engaging and is a great way to pass a quiet evening.

Running from a recent, murderous mess in London, cabaret singer Lena Aldridge jumps on an offer to headline a Broadway musical — supposedly a favor from an old friend of her late father. But once on the ocean crossing, Lena realizes she may not have left her troubles behind, as she's drawn into the complicated web of the wealthy Abernathy family. When the patriarch is murdered in an all too familiar manner, Lena must work to deflect suspicion from herself. As more secrets are revealed, she discovers she's in deeper than she'd thought — and someone is pulling the strings.

The story structure is awkward at times, with a parallel narrative of the events that pushed Lena to flee from London that, while well-told, doesn't add much to the main narrative that we couldn't have learned without it. Similarly, there are occasional interjections from the unknown murderer's journal, which comes off a bit too cheesy and melodramatic for this slick tale — but then, this device rarely works for me. The main story, however, is everything an Agatha Christie fan could want, with a multitude of likely suspects, dramatic backstories and secrets, and a leisurely (but never boring) pace. Pure drawing room mystery (on an ocean liner). But one does wish a Hercule Poirot or Peter Whimsey would appear to lend some urgency to the case instead of just waiting around for someone else to die.

I was so excited to receive an ARC of Miss Aldridge Regrets, and though it isn't perfect, I at least have no regrets about reading it! In some ways, it's imperfections make it more appealing, and I expect I'll be mulling over the construction choices for a while.

Trigger warning for attempted sexual assault. While the incident is brief and not graphic, I found it quite upsetting. Hare handles it well but doesn't pull any punches about the horror of the situation, which is only added to by surrounding events and tensions.

My thanks to NetGalley and Berkley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Miss Aldridge Regrets was a truly enjoyable read for me. One of my favorite author’s had commented that this story would make Agatha Christie proud. Well, Agatha Christie is the reason I read as much as I do. I started reading her in high school and haven’t looked back since, so, I absolutely had to read this story, I will tell you, Louise Hare did not disappoint.

An enjoyable, fast and easy read. If you enjoy mystery, historical mystery, or even cozy mysteries, you will definitely enjoy this book.

Thank you to #netgalley and #berkleypublishing for allowing me to read the eARC of this book. All opinions expressed above are my own.

#missaldridgeregrets #louisehare

Reminiscent of Golden Age mysteries, this locked room style mystery is an utter delight! Miss Aldridge Regrets by Louise Hare sees Lena Aldridge on her way from London to star in a Broadway musical as members of a wealthy American family are murdered aboard the Queen Mary.

As Lena becomes involved with the Abernathy family and meets an intriguing man who sees that she is passing for white, the events that led to her embarking on the Queen Mary are revealed - as Lena was singing on stage, the owner of The Canary, a seedy London night club, breathed his last in front of her...and a witness to her look of guilt is on the Queen Mary.

In Lena Aldridge, Louise Hare gives us a heroine who is smart, rather sharp, but tends to jump in to situations before her good sense can kick in. Running from her past with an unsure future, and with diary entries of a killer interspersed with Lena’s narration, secrets come to light as the plot unfolds and circumstances are manipulated to point to Lena as the guilty party.

A riveting mystery as well as an exploration of race, class, morality and family in the 1930’s, this is a not-to-be-missed U.S. debut. Highly recommended.

Miss Aldridge Regrets is a general market mystery with mature content, including intimacy and attempted forced intimacy on the page.
This review refers to a temporary digital galley I voluntarily read via NetGalley, courtesy of the publisher. A positive review was not required and all opinions expressed are my own.

Discussed on All the Books, transcript below:

Another mystery out today is Miss Aldridge Regrets by Louise Hare.
Lena Aldridge is at a low point in her life.
She’s a mixed-race person passing as white in 1930s London, dreaming of becoming a star.
In the meantime, though, she’s a singer in a seedy nightclub.
And to make matters worse, her lover just left her -- which isn’t totally unexpected, since he is married.
Then she gets the opportunity of a lifetime.
A stranger offers her a starring role on Broadway, and a first-class ticket on the Queen Mary to get her there.
What could go wrong?
This happens just as the right time, too, since the nightclub’s awful owner just died in front of her,
and she’d rather avoid the investigation, since she’s the most obvious suspect.
But she’s not able to escape from the spectre of death so easily.
A member of a wealthy family on the Queen Mary is killed in a way very similar to the nightclub murder.
Unexpectedly, the family pulls Lena into their mourning,
And now there’s high stakes to keeping them from finding out there’s a connection between her and the murderer.
Which is made more difficult by how increasingly strange this family is behaving.
This is told in two timelines: the present, aboard the Queen Mary, and the weeks leading up to the nightclub murder.
Of course, this is just as much a historical novel as it is a murder mystery, with the rise of Nazism playing out in the background.
It’s also a family drama, with the strange cast of characters that is this wealthy family, and the relationships they have with each other.
Lena seems like a compelling character, fighting to survive in a setting hostile to her on several levels.
Also, I can’t help but be intrigued by any murder-on-an-ocean-liner story. The killer is on the boat with you! It’s a locked liner mystery!
And that title is ​​Miss Aldridge Regrets by Louise Hare

One of the best Historical Mysteries I’ve read this year. Nay, one of the best books, period, that I’ve read this year.

Miss Aldridge Regrets is an exceptional tale that takes place largely on an ocean liner (hooray for outstanding use of setting!) and centers on the wonderfully complex and likable Lena Aldridge as she sets sail for America to seek out work on Broadway.

But why was she really offered the opportunity? That’s what we’re trying to find out in this terrifically plotted mystery, where it becomes apparent after a murder on the ship (to both Lena and the reader) that something is terribly amiss.

In Lena, Louise Hare has written an outstandingly complex character who is far from saintly but who we root enthusiastically and unapologetically for regardless. The supporting cast is well fleshed out also, as are their backstories, which have a lot of interesting repercussions for the action unfolding on the transatlantic crossing.

Hare used the ship setting incredibly well, and gives us a complex and satisfyingly solved mystery while also exploring heavier themes like racism and classism.

This book completely sold me on Louise Hare. I’ll read anything she writes.

Lena Aldridge has been living hand-to-mouth in London while she tries to make a living as an actress and singer. So, when she is offered a chance to appear in a show on New York City’s Broadway, it doesn’t take her very long to accept the job. She’ll spend five days on the Queen Mary I while crossing the Atlantic and she looks forward to five days of relaxation and rest. But, instead, she becomes involved in a mysterious death along with a variety of characters who all seem to have secrets of their own.

What I enjoyed:
The time period (1936) and the setting are splendid, with descriptions of the lives of the wealthy during that time. The historical aspects, including racism and class differences, are interesting as well. I would have loved to have seen even more.
I liked the variety of characters. Their personalities added so much to the plot.

What I didn’t enjoy:
There isn’t a lot of real investigating in this book. For the most part, the characters just wait for something to happen.
While I could understand the rational for some of their behavior, it didn’t make it very easy to like some of the characters and my sympathy for them greatly diminished as the story progressed.
The ending was a mish-mash and the logic escaped me. Not only was the conclusion rushed, it also didn’t make a whole lot of sense.

I enjoyed Miss Aldridge Regrets. But I was hoping for a bit more.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a copy of this book for review.

Lena Aldridge recently lost her father. Then her married lover jilts her; her landlord kicks her out; and that same night, Lena is fired from her job at the nightclub where she sings. Shortly afterwards, the man who fired her is murdered.

Suddenly a mysterious stranger shows up and offers Lena a leading role in a new production on Broadway in New York City. (Is this too good to be true?) Lena accepts the job and soon she is traveling in first class on the Queen Mary! She is seated at the dinner table with a wealthy family and she becomes friends with some of them. Then one of the family is murdered and his death looks suspiciously like the unusual one that recently occurred at the nightclub where Lena once worked. As the body count rises, suspicion is cast on Lena! Meanwhile, it seems everyone has a secret and Lena keeps stumbling upon them!

The story has an Agatha Christie vibe - the reader is kept in the dark, clues and red herrings are planted throughout, and the conclusion contains a surprise!

I loved the time period and the setting! The story is told in two viewpoints, that of Lena and the murderer. It also alternates between two timelines: the present, and the past events surrounding the murder at the nightclub. I enjoyed this one from start to finish, though some of it did seem improbable! The reader is kept in the dark as to whether or not Lena is the murderer for most of the book! I had to keep reading to find out! The conclusion is exciting, and though I did guess part of it, the other part took me by surprise! All in all this was a good read for lovers of historical fiction and mysteries!


My sincere thanks to @letstalkbookspromo, @berkleypub, and @netgalley for my gifted eARC. My thoughts are my own.

Miss Aldridge Regrets is a well written standalone historical mystery by Louise Hare. Released 5th July 2022 by Penguin Random House on their Berkley imprint, it's 368 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

Told in first person PoV as well as through parallel diary entries from another PoV, this is a subtle and engaging mystery set in the 1930s. The author is especially adept at setting and the primary scenes onboard the Queen Mary on a crossing of the Atlantic readily call forth the golden age of mystery. Readers of Marsh, Christie, Blake, and Crispin will find much to enjoy here.

The writing is more than competent and the mystery, clues, and plotting are well engineered and intricate. The protagonist is out of the ordinary, a multi-ethnic singer/actress who is passing for white; which itself lends a frisson of danger to the story. There are several distinct plot threads and the isolation aspect of a ship at sea mirrors a lot of the greatest classic mysteries.

Four stars. This is an engaging and beautifully written mystery with a denouement which would've done E.C.R. Lorac proud.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Major #AgathaChristie vibes with this one! murder, wealth and a first class ticket on the Queen Mary. This historical fiction jumps to life and I would love to see it on the big screen!

Huge thank you to @Berkleypub @Berittalksbooks @ThePHdivabooks @dg_reads and @NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.