Harlem After Midnight - Louise Hare

As a book blogger receiving book mail from publishers and other outlets never ceases to thrill me to the very core. After all these years I never take it for granted and I still feel very privileged that a handful of publishers are still willing to send me books in spite of my despite of e- reading and my poor standing on social media. But every so often a book comes along that goes beyond that thrill and renders me almost speechless with delight. And so it was with Louise Hare’s Harlem After Midnight. After I opened the package I just kept holding the book and smiling, I couldn’t do anything else! 

I read and enjoyed the author’s first two novels immensely and when I started this third one I was ecstatic to find that it featured Miss Lena Aldridge again. She was the main character in Ms. Hare’s second book, Miss Aldridge Regrets. It was a murder mystery set on board a cruise ship, and I often wondered what became of Lena and Will Goodman when the ship reached New York. Now I know!

But, fear not, you do not have to have read Miss Aldridge Regrets to thoroughly enjoy this book. It works perfectly well as a standalone. This time all on dry land in Harlem. If you’ve ever been to New York, you know that Harlem is a neighbourhood at the north end of Central Park on Manhattan. It’s inhabitants are predominantly African-Americans. It was an area that enjoyed a kind of cultural renaissance in the 1920s and 1930s so the novel works beneath the backdrop of musicians and singers during that time.

The novel opens with a horrifying incident, where a woman falls from a second story window in the dead of night and in her hand she holds a passport in the name of Lena Aldridge. I was shocked by this opening. I had barely started the book and my heroine seemed in peril.

The narrative gives us the voices of several characters including Lena in the first person, her father in the third person, and others, that I won’t divulge for fear of spoilers. Having found a place to stay with the help of Will,  Lena wants to try and find out what happened earlier in the century to make her father flee to London. Lena also wants to know where she stands in her relationship with Will. And that’s as much of the plot as I’m prepared to discuss! It’s something of a dual narrative with a couple of mysteries going on.

As much as it is a mystery, it’s also a character driven book. with some strong women in the characters of Lena, Will’s sister, Bel and Will’s friend, Claud. And some determined men in the form of Will and his friend, Louis. There are moral issues at play here and considerations of race and colour are never far from the surface. A 1930s New York is palpably described from the elevated subway to the Empire State Building. The chapter headings, too, offer a flavour of jazz and be bop - 'It Ain't Necessarily So', 'Stompin' at the Savoy' (in Broadway font!)

There are secrets aplenty to unravel and the narrative dances along as we lindy hop with it from New York to London as the truth and the mysteries start to unfold. Does Lena get her answers? I'm not saying! 

 

It's a delight to read a story like this. I can't help hoping that there's more of Lena's story to come in the future but I guess I'll just have to wait.

My thnaks to HQ Stories for my gifted copy.