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The events on the liner present us with a ‘locked liner mystery’ and parts of this are very good and feel very Christie-esque which fits nicely with the 1930s timeline. This is one of my most anticipated books of the year, mainly based on how much I loved her debut This Lovely City, but also because I loved the sound of this mix of historical fiction and murder mystery. She covers up a murder, she uses cocaine, she lies, she drinks heavily, and she’s kind of a crappy friend.
The Abernathy’s were quite an interesting, obscenely wealthy family, and although none of them were very likable, they were very interesting. The story is told in the present aboard Queen Mary and backtracks to the previous seven days from the events at the Canary club.
From past experience, I wasn't sure that I liked olives very much, but Charlie already thought me naive on several counts, a state of affairs that I wasn't keen on. The text can also be freely manipulated to allow readers to change every element such as text size, font, colour, line height and margins as suits their accessibility needs.
The rise of the Nazis is also on the minds of the cast, a major news story that is already affecting many communities though war is not yet upon them. I will concede that much of the 'mystery' I guessed fairly early on bur like most cozy mysteries the novel doesn't hang on the cleverness of the crime. I'll take one of those," he said to the waiter as he delivered my drink, the sparkling glass adorned with olives on a stick, just like in the movies. As Lena navigates the Abernathy's increasingly bizarre family dynamic, she realizes that her greatest performance won't be for an audience, but for her life.While this is helpful in understanding the times, these could have been more concise and would not have slowed the pace as much. The opulence of the setting, the fashion and Lena’s new wardrobe are dazzling and so perfectly in tune with the time period. Readers become familiar with the main secondary characters overs time through conversations and actions. I did not find the story gripping enough to hold my attention and felt that I was wading through the book somewhat.
She also becomes the confidant of everyone associated with the Abernathys purely because she is both of the family (she sits at their table every night, along with Charlie Walker, who urges her to charm them) and not of their family. It did fall apart a bit towards the end and I did find it a little too long but I enjoyed it overall and the author certainly captured the atmosphere of the era and presented some fairly well rounded characters. Lena has an interesting background, being a mixed-race woman who passes as white – something she is informed will be important to hide in the more colour conscious United States. I can honestly say I didn’t have a clue what was coming for Lena’s private life, or who was next in the murderer’s firing line.
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. Sometime she acted like a 12 year old, both entitled, not terribly likeable and so not paying attention to anything and anyone but herself. Glamour and grit combine in this smartly plotted, wonderfully atmospheric historical murder mystery, with a heroine I won't forget. I received an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review via Netgalley; this does not affect my rating nor my opinions in any way.
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