"So you think you can dance? It's going to take more than a perfect pirouette to make it in Lori Robbins' brutally realistic ballet company, where one misstep can end in murder. Ballerinas are notoriously strong physically, mentally, and emotionally, but in Robbins' Murder in Third Position, the usual blood, sweat and tears hidden behind the curtains are ratcheted up to a life-and-death crescendo...A backstage pass to the fascinating world of dance that few of us ever have the opportunity to infiltrate and even fewer would survive. 5 enthusiastic stars." - Gabrielle St George, author of the Ex-Whisperer Files Mystery series, How to Murder a Marriage and How to Kill a Kingpin
"Murder in Third Position is a sparkling jewel of a mystery that's guaranteed to keep you turning pages until its satisfying, unexpected conclusion...With an insider's take on the competitive world of professional dance, author Lori Robbins brings her story and the streets of New York to life with the heart, tongue-in-cheek humor, and quirky characters that characterize each of her On Pointe mysteries. I was smitten long before the end of Chapter One and can't wait for the next entry in this delightful series." - Mally Becker, Agatha-nominated author of The Counterfeit Wife
"In Murder in Third Position, ballerina Leah Siderova dances her most daring investigation yet. When an acclaimed set designer is killed days before The Nutcracker's opening night, Leah Siderova fears the crime will be pinned on her dance partner and leaps into action to clear his name. Robbins choreographs a heart-pounding whodunit that will have readers furiously flipping pages to discover the culprit." - Sarah E. Burr, author of #FollowMe for Murder and the Glenmyre Whim Mysteries
"Lori Robbins' third book in her On Pointe mystery series begins with principal ballerina Leah atop a precarious set trying to quell her fear of heights. Later when the set collapses, the mystery and intrigue begin. Murder in the Third Position puts us in the backstage heart of a ballet company's production of The Nutcracker. While Leah and her "Choreographers of Crime" friends try to solve the murder, mayhem occurs. This is a thriller, a whodunit with humor, and an eye-opening look into the workings of a ballet production. All combine to create a page turner that has the reader wanting more from Leah and her plucky crime solving crew." - Linda Norlander, author of the Cabin by the Lake Mystery Series
"Lori Robbins gives a master class in murder with her latest On Pointe Mystery, Murder In Third Position. When over ambitions set designer, Maurice Kaminsky is found dead, and ballerina Leah Siderova is almost crushed by his unstable set, she takes a grand jeté into the mystery to catch the killer before he strikes again. With wit and humor, the world of dance comes to thrilling life." - Cathi Stoler, award-winning author of The Murder On The Rocks Mysteries
"Lori Robbins has written another skillfully plotted mystery set in the competitive and uncompromising world of professional ballet, drawing the New York dance world in full color." - Elizabeth Mannion, author of Dreaming in Irish and Traces of Irish
★ 2023-02-22
A prima ballerina investigates a homicide by dangerous stage prop in this rollicking mystery.
Robbins’ third On Pointe yarn finds Leah Siderova, the aging, sore-kneed ballerina of New York City’s American Ballet Company, enmeshed in yet another murder at the world’s deadliest dance troupe. The victim this time is artist and set designer Maurice Kaminsky, who built a rickety escalator for Leah to ascend when she dances the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker. Maurice turns up mangled to death in the contraption’s gears. Suspects include Maurice’s husband, Brett, the company’s domineering choreographer; Tex, Leah’s dance partner, who may have been sleeping with the victim; a filmmaker who was shooting a documentary about the designer; Maurice’s art dealer, who stands to gain from the inflation of his paintings’ prices; and Victor Roth, a wolfishly charming lawyer. Assisting Leah is her posse of amateur detectives, including her crime writer mother, Barbara; her Aunt Rachel; the dancer’s cagey Russian ballet coach, Madame Maksimova; and Olga Shevchenko, Madame’s friend, who may be in the Russian mob. Along the way, Leah juggles relationships with hunky emergency room doctor Zach Mitchell and Jonah Sobol, the sexy but poker-faced police detective assigned to the case. When another body plummets from the sky, Leah fears that she might be the killer’s next target. Robbins, a former ballerina, steeps the novel in the glamorous grunge of the dance world as Leah nurses her aching body, obsessively counts the calories in every spinach leaf, dodges a too-familiar donor, and fences with her (metaphorically) back-stabbing rival, Kerry Blair. The author stocks the story with sharply etched characters and deploys vast schools of red herring to keep readers guessing as Leah and her pals ponder every possible perpetrator. Robbins renders this well-observed zoo in lively prose that weaves between catty humor—“When I dance Juliet’s death scene, there won’t be a dry eye in the house. If you get top billing, there won’t be a dry eye at the box office”—and bloody mayhem. (“His head lay at an odd angle, and he had four severe cuts, one on his face and three across his chest. Glitter from the set was mixed in with the blood.”) The result is a suspenseful romp with loads of atmosphere.
A highly entertaining whodunit with a twisty plot and plenty of biting ballet intrigue.
