Spotlight & Giveaway: HARLEM AFTER MIDNIGHT by Louise Hare

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Louise Hare to HJ!

Hi Louise and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, HARLEM AFTER MIDNIGHT!

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

Lena Aldridge has landed in New York after her escapades in Miss Aldridge Regrets. Her future feels both uncertain and full of promise. Plus, she’s got her new beau Will Goodman to show her the sights until she returns to London. Everything is looking up… until it turns out that she’s not the only one with secrets and more tragedy is not far away.
 

Please share your favorite line(s) or quote from this book:

There was history all around me here, and none of it good. I think this line sums up the book in one sentence!

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

The title of the novel comes from a 1934 film by Oscar Micheaux – it was a silent movie with an all-Black cast. The plot of the movie doesn’t relate to my novel but several scenes were shot in Harlem nightclubs and there are plenty of clubs featured in the book!
The fall from the window of the Harlem brownstone that starts the novel is of course influenced by Nella Larsen’s Passing. I love that novel and I’m also fascinated by Larsen as a real-life woman who, even by today’s standards, was totally independent and original.
 

What first attracts your Hero to the Heroine and vice versa?

When Lena and Will met in Miss Aldridge Regrets, she falls for him because she’s tired of pretending to be someone she’s not. He lets her be herself. In Harlem After Midnight, it’s revealed that Will has his own secrets. For him, Lena is an opportunity for a new start.
 

Did any scene have you blushing, crying or laughing while writing it? And Why?

On terms of feeling emotions when I’m writing, I always feel Lena’s stage fright! There’s a scene where she and Will perform in the Apollo Theater’s Amateur Night when I totally feel that fear:

They were almost on top of me, this packed house. The closest boxes practically hung over the stage, their occupants watching me, their faces full of curiosity. They would have been able to hear the pounding in my chest, I was sure. Where were Claud and Louis? Up in the balcony, Will had said, that was their usual spot. Too far back, seated in darkness. I found the outline of a woman in the front row above my head and made her Claud. I heard murmuring and foot shuffling, and then Will began to play the opening bars. ‘Dream a Little Dream of Me.’

Readers should read this book….

Whether they loved Miss Aldridge Regrets, or if they come to this book fresh. Harlem After Midnight works as a standalone novel but there are plenty of nods to the first book for those who know it. I wanted to capture 1930s Harlem so for anyone with an interest in that period, I hope you enjoy it!
 

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have in the works?

I’m currently writing a novel set in 1760s London. There’s a mystery, lots of interesting characters and a look at what life was like for Black people in England at that time.
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway:  A print copy of HARLEM AFTER MIDNIGHT by Louise Hare  

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: As Harlem After Midnight is the second in the Canary Club mysteries series, do you prefer to read series and really get to know the characters, or do you prefer standalone novels where you get something fresh and different each time?

 
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Book Info:

A body falls from a town house window in Harlem, and it looks just like the newest singer at the Apollo…in this evocative, twisting new novel from the authorof Miss Aldridge Regrets.

Harlem, 1936: Lena Aldridge grew up in a cramped corner of London, hearing stories of the bright lights of Broadway. She always imagined that when she finally went to New York City, she’d be there with her father. But now he’s dead, and she’s newly arrived and alone, chasing a dream that has quickly dried up. When Will Goodman—the handsome musician she met on the crossing from England—offers for her to stay with his friends in Harlem, she agrees. She has nowhere else to go, and this will give her a chance to get to know Will better and see if she can find any trace of the family she might have remaining.

Will’s friends welcome her with open arms, but just as Lena discovers the stories her father once told her were missing giant pieces of information, she also starts to realize the man she’s falling too fast and too hard for has secrets of his own. And they might just place a target on her back. Especially when she is drawn to the brightest stage in town.
 
 

Meet the Author:

Louise Hare is a London-based writer and has an MA in Creative Writing from Birkbeck, University of London. Originally from Warrington, the capital is the inspiration for much of her work, including This Lovely City, which began life after a trip into the deep level shelter below Clapham Common. This Lovely City was featured on the inaugural BBC TWO TV book club show, Between the Covers, and has received multiple accolades, securing Louise’s place as an author to watch.