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what_heather_loves's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
"I had hope for five days of peace while we sailed to New York but disaster had boarded with me in Southampton. Disaster, and a murderer. But who?... I'd thought it would be safe across an ocean; it hadn't occurred to me that whatever malevolent influence had upended our lives in London would follow me into the Queen Mary."
In 1936, from Soho, London, twenty-six year old nightclub singer, Lena Aldridge finds herself on board the recently launched Queen Mary ocean liner, bound for New York and Broadway. She leaves behind a complicated life, including the murder of her boss, who was also her best friend's husband and the death of her beloved father, Archie. Lena (who passes as white, Archie was black) has never known her mother and she dreams of the stardom and financial security, promised her by a friend of her late father. There she meets the wealthy, privileged and dysfunctional Abernathy family, whose support Lena is told she needs, for Broadway. When the elderly head of the Abernathy family is poisoned at dinner and dies in front of them, Lena worries about who she has got herself caught up with. This is all the more disturbing because her boss was poisoned in the same way, just a week before. Trapped on this luxurious ship for five days with people Lena barely knows, a lot can happen.
The glamorous and luxurious setting of the transatlantic Queen Mary between the world wars is atmospheric and escapist with a little romance. Lena is a wonderfully real protagonist, trying to make her way in this racist and classist society, with her dignity. The narrative switches between Soho, the week leading up to her boss's death, now on the Queen Mary and a mysterious person, who is only identified at the end. I struggled a little with the motivation of the killer, but enjoyed this glamorous historic mystery.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism, Murder, and Classism
Minor: Alcoholism and Sexual assault
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